Tag Archives: Academy

PIANO – Prof. Heribert Koch (Münster University of Music)

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

Teacher:

© Marc Jones

Heribert Koch initially received his training at the Universities of Music in Cologne and Karlsruhe and attended master classes with renowned musicians, among others with Tatjana Nikolajewa and Mieczyslaw Horszowski. Finally, the encounter with Peter Feuchtwanger, with whom he continued his studies in London, became particularly formative and Heribert Koch subsequently assisted him on his master classes.

The international Piano Journal, which recently published an extensive portrait of him, describes him as „one of the most inspiring and creative pianist-teachers working in Europe today“.

Beyond concert programmes with major works from the standard repertoire, he frequently performs unfamiliar compositions, often presenting them in the form of lecture recitals. In this context he also acts as an editor. He received particular recognition for his profound research about César Franck, whose early piano works he made accessible to musicologists and performing musicians in well-respected first editions (publisher Dohr, Cologne).

Heribert Koch is a member of the Presidium of the EPTA Germany (European Piano Teachers Association) and served as European President of the Association in the seasons 2012/13 and 2019/20. He regularly acts as a juror of renowned competitions, gives master classes and is a sought-after speaker at international conferences.

Internationally successful pianists emerged from his piano class at the Münster University of Music, who were able to achieve numerous awards and can be heard in some of the most renowned concert venues worldwide.

Dates: 

Arrival: Thursday, March 26, 2026, until 2 pm
Closing concert: Sunday, March 29, 2026, 5 pm 
Departure: Monday, March 30, 2026, until 2 pm

Course Description:

Preparation for auditions, exams, concerts and competitions

Repertoire:

Piano solo works from all periods

Languages:

German, English, French

Special:

In addition to working individually with the participants, Heribert Koch will also offer joint group lessons in which he will introduce special piano exercises for a flexible, refined technique.

Accommodation:

Students are hosted on a shared room basis in a beautiful villa on the bank of the Rhine river.

Meals:

A kitchen is available for cooking; groceries can be bought in a nearby supermarket. Group shopping is advised. A different team can do the cooking daily, which can be organize in situ.

Rooms:

Committed to the spirit of romanticism, all masterclasses offered by the Sankt Goar International Music Festival and Academy unite everything under one roof: living, learning, eating and sleeping. That is why participants will be hosted on a shared room basis.

Audition information and registration:

In order to be accepted, you must meet one of the following criteria:

(a) be recommended by Prof. Koch, or
(b) submit an unedited video audition (YouTube link) for review.

In addition, you must complete and submit our application form and pay a €40,- application fee.

Registration Deadline: February 26, 2026

Tuition:

Course fee (incl. accommodation): €470,-

PIANO – Prof. Klaus Sticken (Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna)

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

Teacher:

© Martin Teschner

Klaus Sticken is a versatile and distinctive pianist with over 25 years of concert experience. He performs in such venues as the Tonhalle Zurich, the Great Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire in Moscow, the Philharmonie in Kiev, the Megaron in Athens, the Konzerthaus in Berlin and the Musikhalle in Hamburg. His successes in the Concours Clara Haskil in Vevey, the Grand Prix Maria Callas in Athens and the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan led, amongst other engagements, to concerts with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre de Chambre Lausanne, the Ukraine State Orchestra and the Berlin Symphonic and Moscow Symphonic Orchestras. He undertakes concert tours throughout Europe and in the Far East.

His creative engagement with piano music is well displayed in the theme-based recitals for various radio stations, the Deutschlandradio, Radio Suisse Romande and Westdeutsche, Mitteldeutsche and Hessische Rundfunk and others. Sticken also works with experimentally minded partners such as the Kuss Quartet or the author and pianist Cord Garben and tries out new methods of presenting music and text with the poet Oskar Ansull. Recordings for the CD label Thorofon and many radio productions of seldom heard masterpieces by Clementi, Reubke, Strauss, Martin, Honegger, Korngold and Rota provide evidence of the wide-ranging nature of his repertoire.

Through his teachers Vladimir Krainev, Vitaly Margulis, Gyorgy Sebok and Alfred Brendel Klaus Sticken has become familiar with very varied approaches to music. Besides his concert activity serves as a professor of piano at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna.

Dates: 

Arrival: Thursday, Oktober 26, 2023, until 2 pm
Closing concert: Sunday, October 29, 2023, 5 pm
Departure: Monday, October 30, 2023, until 12 am

Course Description:

Piano-works from all periods: from Baroque over Classic and Romantic to Modern Music; preparation for exams, concerts and competitions

Repertoire:

Piano solo or for four hands          

Accommodation:

Students are hosted on a shared room basis in a beautiful villa on the bank of the Rhine river.

Meals:

A kitchen is available for cooking; groceries can be bought in a nearby supermarket. Group shopping is advised. A different team can do the cooking daily, which can be organize in situ.

Rooms:

Committed to the spirit of romanticism, all masterclasses offered by the Sankt Goar International Music Festival and Academy unite everything under one roof: living, learning, eating and sleeping. That is why participants will be hosted on a shared room basis.

Audition information and registration:

In order to be accepted, you must meet one of the following criteria:

(a) be recommended by Prof. Sticken, or
(b) submit an unedited video audition (YouTube link) for review.

In addition, you must complete and submit our application form and pay a €40,- application fee.

Registration Deadline: October 22nd, 2023

Tuition:

Course fee (incl. accommodation): €500,-

PIANO – Prof. Andreas Weber (University Mozarteum Salzburg)

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

Teacher:

Andreas Weber began his pianistic education at the Music University of Cologne with Prof. Karin Merle and continued with Prof. Hans Leygraf at the University of Music in Salzburg.

His gives concerts as a soloist and as chamber musician in Europe and Asia, i.a. with the Trio Cartellieri and with the Violinist Albert Fischer.

Television recordings in Austria, Korea and China.

He holds many Masterclasses in Korea, China, Germany and Belgium and is member of jury in national and international piano competitions in Germany, Austria, China and Korea.

He made CD recordings with the Cellist Hanna Spielbüchler (Brahms, Schubert and Franck) as well with the Violinist Albert Fischer (Mozart, Brahms, Schubert) and with the Trio Cartellieri (Turina, Takacs, Piazzolla).

Since 2002 Andreas Weber is professor for piano at the University Mozarteum and since 2005 he is the head of the Leopold-Mozart-Institut for highly talented young students and is promoting young talents at national and international level.

Since 2009 he is professor at the International Summer Academy of Mozarteum.

Many of his students are prize winners of international piano competitions.

Dates: 

Arrival: Thursday, May 16, 2024, until 2 pm 
Closing concert: Sunday, May 23, 2024, 5 pm 
Departure: Monday, May 24, 2024, after 12 pm

Course Description:

The masterclass is primarily aimed at young, motivated pianists who want to prepare for an entrance examination at a music university or for a competition.

The vigilant and creative examination of the score, as well as the individual encounter and motivation of the participant are the focus of this course.

An inspired musical idea and its technical realization should be experienced and formed as an inseparable unit.

The final concert provides a valuable experience for the further musical development of the participants.

Repertoire:

Piano solo or for four hands

© Falko Hönisch
© Falko Hönisch
© Falko Hönisch

Accommodation:

Students are hosted on a shared room basis in a beautiful villa on the bank of the Rhine river.

Meals: 

A kitchen is available for cooking; groceries can be bought in a nearby supermarket. Group shopping is advised. A different team can do the cooking daily, which can be organize in situ.

Rooms:

Committed to the spirit of romanticism, all masterclasses offered by the Sankt Goar International Music Festival and Academy unite everything under one roof: living, learning, eating and sleeping. That is why participants will be hosted on a shared room basis.

Audition information and registration:

In order to be accepted, you must meet one of the following criteria:

(a) be recommended by Prof. Weber, or 
(b) submit an unedited video audition (YouTube link) for review.

In addition, you must complete and submit our application form and pay a €40,- application fee.

Registration Deadline: April 16, 2024

Tuition:

Course fee (incl. accommodation): €470,-

 

PIANO – Prof. Konrad Engel (Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin)

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

Teacher:

© Irène Zandel

Born in the region of Frankfurt/Main, Konrad Maria Engel grew up in a mainly scientifically oriented family. However it came clear already during his early childhood that music would be his vocation some day. More than a dozen scholarships, awards and many prizes at international competitions reinforced that impression over the years, most importantly to mention the German National Music Competition, Bach-Competition Leipzig and a first prize at the international Chopin-Competition Hanover.

His concert career – now almost 40 years of stage experience – took him all over the northern hemisphere, across Europe, Asia and the US. As a soloist he performed with numerous renowned orchestras and at several international festivals. His repertoire did never exclude any style or period and included all kinds of keyboards from cembalo to fortepiano and various historic grand pianos.

Since his younger days Konrad Engel is also very much dedicated to chamber music and Kunstlied. Just to mention a few long term highlights, there was the applauded „Trio Corrado” together with Konradin Seitzer (Violin) and Konrad Haesler (Cello) as well as various performances together with Leonid Gorokhov, Markus Becker, Mareike Morr, Sharon Kam and many other renowned partners. Beyond that he was member of bigger ensembles as well as conducting two chamber orchestras for several years.

Over the last two decades he discovered his great passion for teaching and rather focused his career on education since several years. After getting first experiences in teaching at the municipal music school Hanover, a lectureship at the University for Arts Bremen in 2011 was an important leap.

From 2012 to 2018 he held a substitutional professorship at Hanover Music University, where he first got in touch with the education of highly talented young students. In 2017 he got a full professorship at the University „Hanns Eisler“ Berlin and the honour to become head of piano department at the „Musikgymnasium C.P.E. Bach“ in addition.

By now amongst his students are many prizewinners at international competitions such as Sendai/Japan, Aarhus/Denmark, Mendelssohn/Berlin, Schumann/Zwickau, Liszt/Weimar etc.

He started his own academic studies in music education at Hannover Music University and

finished his third Diploma with the „Konzertexamen“ in 2006 after being a student of Karl-Heinz Kämmerling for many years. His education was also enriched by important impulses from John O’Conor (Wilhelm-Kempff-Academy Positano), Bernhard Wetz and Gerhard Schroth (Frankfurt) as well as chamber music lessons by Vassilia Efstathiadou, Antje Weithaas, Grainne Dunne.

In his sparse free time Konrad Engel is interested in many other subjects, such as astronomy and technology but also visual arts, history and philosophy – never to forget about classic cars.

His motto actually couldn’t be described better than in Eisler’s words: „Who seeks to understand music only, won’t understand music at all.“

Dates: 

Arrival: Wednesday, May 28, 2025, until 2 pm
Closing concert: June 1st, 2025, 5 pm
Departure: June 2nd, 2025, after 2 pm

Course Description:

Piano-works from all periods: from Baroque over Classic and Romantic to Modern Music; preparation for exams, concerts and competitions

Repertoire:

Piano solo or for four hands          

Accommodation:

Students are hosted on a shared room basis in a beautiful villa on the bank of the Rhine river.

Meals:

A kitchen is available for cooking; groceries can be bought in a nearby supermarket. Group shopping is advised. A different team can do the cooking daily, which can be organize in situ.

Rooms:

Committed to the spirit of romanticism, all masterclasses offered by the Sankt Goar International Music Festival and Academy unite everything under one roof: living, learning, eating and sleeping. That is why participants will be hosted on a shared room basis.

Audition information and registration:

In order to be accepted, you must meet one of the following criteria:

(a) be recommended by Prof. Engel, or
(b) submit an unedited video audition (YouTube link) for review.

In addition, you must complete and submit our application form and pay a €40,- application fee.

Registration Deadline: April 28, 2025

Tuition:

Course fee (incl. accommodation): €540,-

PIANO – Prof. Jacob Leuschner (Hochschule für Musik Detmold)

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

Teacher:

© Sudi, Detmold

Jacob Leuschner, 
born in Freiburg in 1974, studied in Freiburg and Lübeck. His most important teachers were Helmut Barth, Michel Béroff, Konrad Elser and Leonard Hokanson.

Since 1989, he has performed as a soloist and sought-after chamber musician in many European countries, Japan, South Korea, China and the USA, and has been invited to numerous international festivals. He has been a regular participant in the funding project Bundesauswahl Konzerte Junger Künstler (Federal Selection Concerts Young Artists) held by Deutscher Musikrat.

The awards he has won at major piano competitions testify to his artistic stature: Viotti (Vercelli), Beethoven (Vienna), Schubert (Dortmund), Mozart (Salzburg), Leeds, Rina Sala Gallo (Monza), Deutscher Musikwettbewerb, Deutscher Hochschulwettbewerb – to name just the most important ones.

He is also the recipient of the Possehl Music Prize, the Kai-Uwe von Hassel Prize and the
Wiesbaden Mozart Prize.


Jacob Leuschner taught at the University of Music Lübeck, and was a Visiting Professor at the University of Music Franz Liszt in Weimar. From 2008 to 2014, he held a professorship at the University of Music in Cologne, and then followed a call to join the University of Music in Detmold. He regularly gives masterclasses in many European countries, Japan, China and Korea.

His repertoire ranges from the Virginalists to the present; one focus is the masters of Viennese classical music. He has performed the complete cycles of Mozart’s, Beethoven’s and Schubert’s piano sonatas at several occasions.
He also works as a juror at international piano competitions and as a publisher, and has dealt intensively with historical keyboard instruments. He is the founder and artistic director of the Brahms Piano Competition in
Detmold.

His discography includes not only numerous chamber music pieces, such as the complete works for cello and piano by Reger with Guido Schiefen (Oehms Classics), but also the late Beethoven sonatas and Liszt transcriptions. In addition to two solo CDs, he released a complete recording of Mozart’s sonatas for piano and violin in 2017 with violinist Keiko Urushihara (Nippon Acoustic Records), which was met with enthusiasm by the Japanese trade press and awarded the "Excellence Award" by the Japanese State Office for Culture.

In 2019, his recording of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations was published by the label „Perfect noise“.

Today, Jacob Leuschner is one of the most distinguished and versatile German pianists of his generation.

Dates: 

Arrival: Thursday, September 10, 2026, until 2 pm
Closing concert: Sunday, September 13, 2026, 5 pm
Departure: Monday, September 14, 2026, after 2 pm

Course Description:

Piano-works from all periods: from Baroque over Classic and Romantic to Modern Music; preparation for exams, concerts and competitions

Repertoire:

Piano solo or for four hands          

Accommodation:

Students are hosted on a shared room basis in a beautiful villa on the bank of the Rhine river.

Meals:

A kitchen is available for cooking; groceries can be bought in a nearby supermarket. Group shopping is advised. A different team can do the cooking daily, which can be organize in situ.

Rooms:

Committed to the spirit of romanticism, all masterclasses offered by the Sankt Goar International Music Festival and Academy unite everything under one roof: living, learning, eating and sleeping. That is why participants will be hosted on a shared room basis.

Audition information and registration:

In order to be accepted, you must meet one of the following criteria:

(a) be recommended by Prof. Leuschner, or
(b) submit an unedited video audition (YouTube link) for review.

In addition, you must complete and submit our application form and pay a €40,- application fee.

Registration Deadline: August 10, 2026

Tuition:

Course fee (incl. accommodation): €490,-

VIOLIN – Prof. Marianne Boettcher (Berlin University of the Arts)/Kensei Yamaguchi

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

Teacher: 

Marianne Boettcher, violinist from the famous Berlin musician family, studied in Berlin under Professor Willy Kirch and Professor Michael Schwalbé, rounding off her studies in Geneva under Professor Henryk Szeryng. She teaches at the University of the Arts Berlin. She has gotten great recognition for playing classic and romantic music and has also become known as an interpreter of new music. She has given the first performances of many works written for her by contemporary composers.

She has won many prizes and has made a number of recordings for radio, television and the records industry in Germany and abroad. Extended concert tours have taken her repeatedly to the USA, Japan, Russia and almost every other country in Europe (for example in Rheinsberg, Prague, Vienna and Tallinn). She has also been a frequent guest performer at the Berlin Festival, the International Heinrich Schütz Festival in Sweden, the German Bach Festival in Berlin and the Vienna Festival.

The german president Johannes Rau awarded her 2003 the The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Kensei Yamaguchi started playing piano at age five. At twelve, he won the All Japan Student Music Competition, which allowed him to join the Toho-Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, the most prestigious music school in Japan, under the direction of Professor Hiroko Edo. Upon graduation he received a German National Scholarship to further pursue his studies at the Universität der Künste in Berlin, under Professors Erich Andreas and Pascal Devoyon.

Mr.Yamaguchi has participated in numerous international piano competitions. He is the winner of Third Prize in Porto International Piano Competition, Portugal (1998), First Prize at Senigallia International Piano Competition, Italy (1999), and of the prestigious First Prize at Monte Carlo Piano Masters, Monaco (2000).

His numerous concert activities include solo performances with Das Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Filarmonica Marchigiana, Italy, Monte Carlo Orchestre Philharmonique, Orquestra Nacional do Porto, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. In addition he has appeared in solo recitals and chamber music concerts in most European countries, Japan, and the USA.

Dates: 

Arrival: Thursday, April 27, 2023, until 12 pm
Closing concert: Sunday, April 31st, 2023, 5 pm
Departure: Monday, May 1st, 2023, until 12 pm

Course Description:

preparation for exams, concerts and competitions

Repertoire:

works for violin from all periods: from Baroque over Classic and Romantic to Modern Music

Accommodation:

Students are hosted on a shared room basis in a beautiful villa on the bank of the Rhine river.

Meals:

A kitchen is available for cooking; groceries can be bought in a nearby supermarket. Group shopping is advised. A different team can do the cooking daily, which can be organize in situ.

Rooms:

Committed to the spirit of romanticism, all masterclasses offered by the Sankt Goar International Music Festival and Academy unite everything under one roof: living, learning, eating and sleeping. That is why participants will be hosted on a shared room basis.

Audition information and registration:

In order to be accepted, you must meet one of the following criteria:

(a) be recommended by Prof. Boettcher, or
(b) submit an unedited video audition (YouTube link) for review.

NB: The total number of participants is limited to eight musicians.

In addition, you must complete and submit our application form and pay a €40,- application fee.

Registration Deadline: March 27, 2023

Tuition:

Course fee: €200,-
Accommodation/Facility Fee (obligatory): €200,-

PIANO – Tomoko Ogasawara (University of Music Freiburg)

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

After studying at the State University of the Arts in Tokyo where she was born, the pianist Tomoko Ogasawara continued her studies in Germany at the University of the Arts in Berlin and the University of Music in Freiburg im Breisgau, where she received the solo diploma with honors and went on to win 1st Prize in the German Hochschulwettbewerb.

Among her teachers were Georg Sava, Tibor Hazay and Georgy Sebok who influenced her artistic development and led her to early success, for example as finalist in the international competitions “Maria Canals” / Barcelona and “ Clara Haskil” / Montreux.

Since then concert engagements have taken Tomoko Ogasawara to the concert halls of the international music world (such as Berlin, Montreux, London, Paris, Tokyo, Jerusalem, Bangkok, Shanghai). She has played concerts together with Albrecht Mayer, Jörg Widmann and Tabea Zimmermann and regularly plays with the principals and leading musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Bavarian Symphony Orchestra and the SWR Orchestra also in the context of chamber music formations, such as the piano trio “Franconia”, the ensemble “Abraxas” and at international festivals such as “Affinis” in Japan.

As soloist Tomoko Ogasawara has played, among others, with the Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Bad Reichenhall Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Bamberg. She is featured in numerous radio broadcasts as well as CD recordings. In the season 2006/2007 Ogasawara performed the complete cycle of piano sonatas by W. A. Mozart.

Currently Tomoko Ogasawara passes on her musical experience through the teaching position she holds at the University of Music in Freiburg im Breisgau as well as regular master classes in Tokyo and Yokohama. Students of hers have won prizes in both national and international competitions.

Dates:

Arrival: Sunday, Juli 31st, 2023 from until 2 pm
Closing Concert: Saturday, August 5, 2023 at 6 pm
Departure: Sunday, August 6, 2023 until 12 pm

Piano-works from all periods: from Baroque over Classic and Romantic to Modern Music; preparation for exams, concerts and competitions

Repertoire:

Piano solo or for four hands          

Accommodation:

Students are hosted on a shared room basis in a beautiful villa on the bank of the Rhine river.

Meals:

A kitchen is available for cooking; groceries can be bought in a nearby supermarket. Group shopping is advised. A different team can do the cooking daily, which can be organize in situ.

Rooms:

Committed to the spirit of romanticism, all masterclasses offered by the Sankt Goar International Music Festival and Academy unite everything under one roof: living, learning, eating and sleeping. That is why participants will be hosted on a shared room basis.

For further impression, please visit our venue site.

Audition information and registration:

In order to be accepted, you must meet one of the following criteria:

(a) be recommended by Ms Ogasawara, or
(b) submit an unedited video audition (YouTube link) for review.

In addition, you must complete and submit our application form and pay a €40,- application fee.

Registration Deadline: Jun 31st, 2023

Tuition:

Course fee (incl. accommodation): €590,-

PIANO – Prof. Hardy Rittner (University of Music Freiburg)

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

Teacher: 

Hardy Rittner is a pioneer in the field of historically informed performance of nineteenth century keyboard music. At the same time he is a member of a new generation of pianists who are at home both on period instruments and on the modern concert grand piano, interpreting a repertoire extending to contemporary music.

Hardy focuses on researching Chopin and making his insights tangible in concert performances. Hardy’s book “Die vergessene Cantilene. Frédéric Chopin’s misunderstood virtuosity” (dissertation for Dr. phil., publication in September 2022) brings new insights into the performance of Chopin’s music. Its key finding is that Chopin pursued a ‘vocal ideal’ influenced by bel canto (amongst others) even in his virtuoso passages. The book propagates a fundamentally different Chopin playing and leads to the conclusion that previous reference interpretations do not correspond to Chopin’s intentions. Hardy’s expertise shaped the new Chopin editions by Bärenreiter, where Hardy introduces notes on performance practice and fingerings based on historical models.

Hardy has performed in most European countries at such distinguished venues as Philharmonie Berlin, Konzerthaus Berlin, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Kurhaus Wiesbaden, Historische Stadthalle Wuppertal, Rudolf-Oetker-Halle Bielefeld, and Tonhalle Düsseldorf. Concert engagements have also led Hardy to the United States, Canada, China, South Korea, and Taiwan.

For the Detmold label MDG, the two-time Echo Klassik laureate has recorded the first complete rendition – on period instruments – of Johannes Brahms’s solo piano music; his discography includes a live recording of Brahms’s first piano concerto with the historically informed l’arte del mondo orchestra (conductor: Werner Ehrhardt), Chopin’s complete études, and Arnold Schönberg’s piano oeuvre.

Hardy received fellowships from Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes and Herbert-von-Karajan-Centrum Vienna. From 2009−2012, he was supported by Bayer Kultur as a stART-Künstler.

After studying piano and fortepiano with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and Siegbert Rampe at Mozarteum Salzburg, Hardy continued his education at Universität der Künste Berlin, where he studied piano with Klaus Hellwig (“Konzertexamen”) and music theory (“Diplom”) with Hartmut Fladt. Christian Zacharias, Krystian Zimerman, Ivo Pogorelich, Maria J. Pires, and Sylvain Cambreling were also among those who contributed to his education as a performing artist.

Hardy is a professor for piano and artistic research at Musikhochschule Freiburg and gives masterclasses in Germany and abroad.

Dates: 

Arrival: Thursday, January 4, 2024, until 2 pm
Closing concert: Sunday, January 7, 2024, 5 pm
Departure: Monday, January 8, 2024, after 2 pm

Course Description:

Piano-works from all periods: from Baroque over Classic and Romantic to Modern Music; preparation for exams, concerts and competitions

Repertoire:

Piano solo or for four hands          

Accommodation:

 

Students are hosted on a shared room basis in a beautiful villa on the bank of the Rhine river.

Meals:

A kitchen is available for cooking; groceries can be bought in a nearby supermarket. Group shopping is advised. A different team can do the cooking daily, which can be organize in situ.

Rooms:

Committed to the spirit of romanticism, all masterclasses offered by the Sankt Goar International Music Festival and Academy unite everything under one roof: living, learning, eating and sleeping. That is why participants will be hosted on a shared room basis.

Audition information and registration:

In order to be accepted, you must meet one of the following criteria:

(a) be recommended by Prof. Rittner, or
(b) submit an unedited video audition (YouTube link) for review.

In addition, you must complete and submit our application form and pay a €40,- application fee.

Registration Deadline: December 4, 2023

Tuition:

Course fee (incl. accommodation): €520,-

Steinway Grand Piano – Period Instrument vs. Modern Instrument: A comparison with Prof. Hardy Rittner: 

VOICE — Wolfgang Klose (University of Music Rostock)

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

Teachers: 

© Anne-Marie von Sarosdy

Stylistic versatility, authentic sound, and the synthesis of word and music form the fundamental pillars of singing for the tenor Wolfgang Klose. He received decisive artistic impulses from Thomas Heyer, Mario Hoff, and Konrad Jarnot, as well as in masterclasses with Francisco Araiza, Julie Kaufmann, and Kurt Widmer.

On the opera stage he has appeared in several lyric roles, including Tamino (The Magic Flute), Symon (The Beggar Student), and Pylades (Iphigenia in Tauris). In addition to independent productions, engagements have taken him, among others, to the Handel Festival in Halle, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and the stages of the City of Cologne.

His particular passion, however, is concert singing. His broad repertoire ranges from Monteverdi to contemporary modern works, with a focus on the cantatas and oratorios of the Baroque and Classical periods. As a guest at numerous festivals and concert venues in Germany and abroad (Gewandhaus Leipzig, Cologne Philharmonie, Essen Philharmonie, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Beethovenhalle Bonn, Wrocław Philharmonic, and many others), he performs equally with symphony orchestras and period-instrument ensembles, collaborating with renowned conductors.

In 2013, the Association of German Concert Choirs awarded him first prize at the Podium of Young Vocal Soloists. Radio and CD recordings document his artistic work, including releases with WDR, rbb, SWR, as well as Carus Verlag, Virgin Classics (formerly EMI France), and cpo.

A graduate of the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf, he has been teaching successfully in courses since 2008 and at university level since 2010. After teaching assignments at various universities, he has led a voice class at the hmt Rostock since 2015. His students have achieved success in competitions and already appear as soloists on concert and opera stages.

In addition, he serves as a competition juror.

© Susanne Diesner

Christian von Gehren completed his studies in conducting and piano with distinction at the music universities in Karlsruhe and Copenhagen. His work as a conductor has taken him to major European orchestras such as the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, and the Munich Radio Orchestra, as well as to opera houses in Paris, Marseille, Nice, Copenhagen, Wiesbaden, and Leipzig.

He has also conducted at festivals in Bregenz, Birmingham, and Bergen. In 2016 he made his conducting debut in Shanghai with Orff’s Carmina Burana. From 2017 to 2020, Christian von Gehren was chief conductor of the Jönköping Symphony Orchestra in Sweden, with which he performed a wide symphonic repertoire from Mozart and Beethoven to Richard Strauss, Claude Debussy, and Gustav Mahler. In the operatic field, he most recently conducted Bernstein’s On the Town and Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia there.

He also has a strong interest in the oratorio repertoire: most recently he conducted Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in Jönköping and the St John Passion in Essen. Work with young orchestral musicians is equally important to him: from 2009 to 2015 he was Musical Director of the Orff Academy of the Munich Radio Orchestra, an international orchestral academy that accompanied a production each summer at the Carl Orff Festival in Andechs. As chief conductor in Jönköping, he supported collaborations with the music universities in Gothenburg and Malmö in the fields of orchestral work and contemporary music. He is also active as a song accompanist and regularly gives masterclasses in the fields of Lied, opera, and oratorio, for example at the music universities in Oslo and Odense.

As a pianist, he has accompanied masterclasses by Christa Ludwig, Renata Scotto, and Ulf Bästlein.

From 2000 to 2003 he directed France’s largest state opera studio, the Centre National d’Insertion Professionnelle d’Artistes Lyriques. Since 2016, Christian von Gehren has taught orchestral conducting at the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf. Since 2022 he has also been affiliated with the HfMDK Frankfurt through teaching in the field of music theatre. In 2025, the Robert Schumann Hochschule appointed him professor.

Dates: 

Arrival: Monday, July 27, 2026, until 12 pm
Closing concert: Friday, July 31st, 2026, 6:30 pm
Departure: Saturday, August 1st, 2026, until 12 pm

Course Description:

The voice is the instrument most closely connected to the human body and therefore capable of transporting emotions unfiltered and most directly to the audience. Etymologically, there is a direct translation to  personare (latin for through sounding); in Hebrew there is even the same word for soul and throat.

For five days we will be working on throat skills which will help to make these connections hearable. Additionally to working on stylistic differences of the epochs, diction and interpretation impulses the fun of making music is of great importance as well!

Our master class is intended for all who are searching for new impulses in singing and interpreting – e.g. as a preparation for attending universities or for a check-up for (midterm) exams – we will work individually in three units each day and actually strengthen the instrument “voice”.

The interpretation of the repertoire will increase in authenticity by working out and improving individual qualities.

The masterclass will be accompanied by Prof. Christian von Gehren.

Repertoire:

Concert and opera arias, as well as art songs from the baroque era to contemporary music

Accommodation:

Students are hosted on a shared room basis in a beautiful villa on the bank of the Rhine river.

Meals:

A kitchen is available for cooking; groceries can be bought in a nearby supermarket. Group shopping is advised. A different team can do the cooking daily, which can be organize in situ.

Rooms:

Committed to the spirit of romanticism, all masterclasses offered by the Sankt Goar International Music Festival and Academy unite everything under one roof: living, learning, eating and sleeping. That is why participants will be hosted on a shared room basis.

For further impression, please visit our venue site.

Audition information and registration:

In order to be accepted, you must meet one of the following criteria:

(a) be recommended by Mr. Klose, or
(b) submit an unedited video audition (YouTube link) for review.

In addition, you must complete and submit our application form and pay a €40,- application fee.

Registration Deadline: June 27, 2026

Tuition:

Course fee (incl. accommodation): €590,-