©Felix Broede
Christoph Heesch
Violoncello
Christoph Heesch is one of the most promising cellists on today’s music scene. He impresses with his abilities both as a soloist and chamber musician and celebrates great success nationally and internationally. A central focus of his artistic work is the exploration of music from a stylistically critical perspective, taking into account the technical skills of instrumental performance and combining them with a captivating interaction with the audience.
Born in Berlin in 1995, the artist began playing the violoncello at the age of six. His musical training included institutions such as the Julius Stern Institute, several years of study with Jens Peter Maintz and Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, as well as additional masterclasses with artists such as David Geringas, Wolfgang Boettcher, and László Fenyö. Today, Christoph Heesch studies at the Berlin University of the Arts with Jens Peter Maintz. Since May 2023, Heesch has been the principal cellist of the SWR Symphony Orchestra.
The artist places special emphasis on classical concerts that he aims to open up to a broader audience. The innovative concert and music outreach formats of the TONALi project therefore provide an ideal home for both his musical and conceptual ideas.
Christoph Heesch is a prize winner of numerous national and international competitions. Among other awards, he received the 2nd Prize and the Audience Prize at the Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann in 2022. He is also the first prize winner of the XII Domenico Gabrielli Competition and recipient of the Mieczysław Weinberg Prize as well as the Special Prize for Best Music Outreach at the TONALi Music Competition. He was a semifinalist at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2017. In 2021, he was awarded the Carl Flesch Prize at the Carl Flesch Academy.
He is a scholarship holder of the Music Academy Liechtenstein. Since 2022, he has been playing a violoncello by Giovanni B. Grancino (Milan, around 1700) from the German Musical Instrument Fund of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.