Kolja Lessing

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Kolja Lessing (born October 15, 1961 in Karlsruhe ) is a German violinist , pianist , composer and university professor.

Life

Lessing was born in Karlsruhe. His mother provided him with basic musical training. From 1978 he attended Hansheinz Schneeberger's master class for violin in Basel . From 1979 he studied piano with Peter Efler in Basel. He passed his concert exams in 1982 and 1983. He also received formative impulses from his collaboration with Berthold Goldschmidt , Ignace Strasfogel and Zoltán Székely . As a professor for violin he taught from 1989 to 1993 at the University of Music Würzburg , from 1993 at the University of Music and Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig and in 2000 accepted a call to the University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart . From 1998 to 2015 he was a regular visiting professor at the Banff Center . In 2009 he was artist in residence at Villa Esche in Chemnitz. Since 2011 he has been working with the Israeli writer Elazar Benyoetz .

Lessing gives concerts worldwide as a violinist and pianist, he also gives musicological lectures and leads master classes at European and Canadian universities.

Lessing devotes himself to a stylistically wide-ranging repertoire, in particular to the work of the artists persecuted during the Nazi era , including Franz Schreker and his group of students. Compositions for solo violin by Haim Alexander , Tzvi Avni , Abel Ehrlich , Jacqueline Fontyn , Berthold Goldschmidt , David Paul Graham , Ursula Mamlok , Klaus Hinrich Stahmer , Hans Vogt and others take his style of playing into account, which are stylistically different and premiered by Lessing as the dedicatee . Numerous violin and piano concertos were also premiered by Lessing, such as the piano concertos Rivages solitaires by Jacqueline Fontyn, Suite by Rudolf Hindemith and A Child's Day by Ignace Strasfogel , the violin concertos by Haim Alexander, Sidney Corbett (Yael), Abel Ehrlich and Stefan Hippe , Zoltán Székely (Allegro), Dimitri Terzakis (A une Madone) and Grete von Zieritz (Le Violon de la Mort).

His extensive violinistic and pianistic discography includes numerous first and complete recordings, including:

Compositions

  • Sonata for solo clarinet 1978
  • The unsettling muses (after G. de Chirico) for solo violin 1978/79
  • Metaphysical muse in a street lit by the evening sun for solo violin 1979
  • Two duos for clarinet and violin: The journey into the unknown 1979, the beauty of a dream 1980
  • Frozen time for two clarinets and violin in 1980
  • Meditation for solo violin 1982
  • Gliding figures for flute and viola 1998
  • Sinking Nebel for flute and alto flute 1998
  • Ravelesken for two violins 2006/07

Cadenzas to all violin concertos by Ernst von Gemmingen and to Mozart's violin concertos KV 218 and KV 219.

Arrangement: Claude Debussy : La sérénade interrompue (Préludes I) for violin and guitar.

Awards

literature

  • Alain Pâris: Classical Music in the 20th Century. 2nd Edition. DTV, Munich 1997.
  • Hans-Klaus Jungheinrich: Our music century. Residenz Verlag, Salzburg 1999.
  • Christoph Kammertöns , Siegfried Mauser (ed.): Lexicon of the piano. Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2006.
  • Ingo Harden, Gregor Willmes: Pianist Profiles. Bärenreiter, Kassel 2008.
  • Ulrike Kienzle: The Robert Schumann Society Frankfurt am Main (1956–2016). Frankfurter Bürgerstiftung publishing house, Frankfurt am Main 2016.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kolja Lessing - artist in residence 2009 in the Villa Esche ( Memento from May 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Musician Kolja Lessing receives Otto Hirsch award
personal data
SURNAME Lessing, Kolja
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German classical musician, composer and university lecturer
DATE OF BIRTH October 15, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Karlsruhe