Silke-Thora Matthies

Silke-Thora Matthies (* 1960 in Gütersloh ) is a German pianist and university rector.

Life

Silke-Thora Matthies was born in Gütersloh, where she grew up and attended the Evangelisch Stiftische Gymnasium (ESG) from 1969 to 1978 . She was the first student at the ESG to attend school from sixth to high school in the reformed high school. She received her first music lessons at the Gütersloh Music School and at the Gütersloh Singing School under Hermann Kreutz . In 1969 she won a first prize at Jugend musiziert for her piano playing . At the age of eleven she was admitted to the Detmold University of Music as a young student .

She studied piano in Detmold with Renate Kretschmar-Fischer and at the Juilliard School of Music in New York with Joseph Kalichstein , with Monique Haas in Salzburg and with Andor Foldes and Pál Kadosa in Hungary . She was supported by a scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation , the DAAD and the Jürgen Ponto Foundation . She won first prize at the Gina Bachauer Competition in New York and was also a prizewinner of the Liszt / Bartók Competition in Budapest, the Jeunes Musicales in Bordeaux and the Robert Casadesus Competition in Cleveland (Ohio, USA). She made numerous recordings for radio and television.

Since 1988 she has given international concerts with great success as a piano duo with Christian Köhn , with whom she has already recorded 22 CDs. In 1989 the duo won a prize at the German Music Competition in Bonn, and in 1990 at the cultural group competition of the Federal Association of German Industry. In 1992 it won 3rd prize at the 41st ARD International Music Competition in Munich.

Since October 1992 she has been a full-time piano professor at the University of Music Würzburg and since 1994 the university ’s women's representative . In October 2003 she was elected rector of the university.

Awards

• 2008: Federal Cross of Merit (on ribbon)

Web links

• Piano duo Silke-Thora Matthies / Christian Köhn