Violoncello
2022
Dirk Wietheger was born in Münster in 1972. He studied at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold with Gotthard Popp and Karine Georgian, then at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover with Klaus Heitz. He then attended Xenia Jankovic’s masterclass at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg, which he completed in 2002 with a Masters in Music. He completed his training in numerous masterclasses, including with Maria Kliegel, Arto Noras, David Geringas and Heinrich Schiff. As early as 1991 he was invited to play a work for solo cello by the Japanese composer Seiichi Inagaki at the Festival Aktive Musik Ruhrgebiet. Since then he has performed regularly as a soloist and chamber musician in German-speaking countries, focusing on works from the 20th and 21st centuries. For example, he appeared at the Biennale Neue Musik Hannover or at the Bielefeld Concert Days, where the local press described him as a “gifted person of the first order”. He has been a permanent member of Ensemble Musikfabrik since 2001. With this high-ranking and international ensemble, he is represented at all important festivals for new music worldwide. Regular CD, radio and television recordings are just as much a part of this as collaboration with such important composers as Mauricio Kagel, Nicolaus A. Huber, Helmut Lachenmann, Hans Zender, Wolfgang Rihm, Péter Eötvös and Kaija Saariaho. In 2004, a critically acclaimed solo CD with works by Gubajdulina, Janáček and Grieg was released by TACET/EigenArt. Dirk Wietheger teaches around the world in master classes and workshops. From 2009 to 2011 he held a teaching position at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold.
He plays a Testore cello from Milan, early 18th-century.