BIOGRAPHIE

Thorsten Johanns // Klarinette

In October 2014 Thorsten Johanns was appointed professor for clarinet at the 'Musikhochschule Franz Liszt' in Weimar, Germany.

Before he started as principal clarinet with the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne (Germany) at the age of 25, he has been substitute principal at the Philharmonic Orchestra of Essen, Germany.

From 2010-2014 Thorsten Johanns has been a professor for clarinet at the Academy of Music in Maastricht, Netherlands.

Thorsten Johanns works continuously as a soloist and has performed with conductors as Sir Neville Marriner, Semyon Bychkov, Eivind Aadland, Yutaka Sado, Howard Griffiths, Jonathan Stockhammer and Dan Ettinger.

As the first and only German clarinet player so far, Thorsten Johanns was repeatedly invited by chief conductor Alan Gilbert to perform as principal clarinet with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. For the same position he has been invited several times by the Super World Orchestra in Tokyo/Japan.

Among his chamber music fellows are besides world famous oboe player and conductor Heinz Holliger also the renowned 'Auryn-Quartett', 'Quartetto di Cremona', 'Minetti-Quartett' from Vienna, 'Aris- Quartett' and Ensemble Raro.

Conductor Christoph von Dohnanyi invited him as a principal for many projects with the NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg.

Thorsten Johanns has played as a principal in a number of important orchestras like the Berlin Philharmonic, the Munich Philharmonic, the German Radio Orchestra Berlin and the Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt.

In season 12/13 Thorsten Johanns was invited to play principal with the New York Philharmonic, perform solo concerts (Aaron Copland) with WDR Symphony Cologne, and to play chamber music with András Schiff and Heinz Holliger at 'Ittinger Pfingstkonzerte' in Switzerland.

Season 13/14 started with an expanded concert tour and masterclasses to Australia (Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra, Brisbane, Sydney Opera House) and went on with festivals in Finland and Sweden, followed by re-invitations to 'Ittinger Pfingstkonzerte', 'Hambacher Musikfest'(Mandelring-Quartett), and solo concerts with the State Orchestra of Brandenburg, conducted by Howard Griffiths. Composer Moritz Eggert dedicated a solo concert ('AURA') to Thorsten Johanns which had its first performance in July 2014, in a concert beside solo works by Richard Strauss, performed with the 'Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie Augsburg'.

The 14/15 season starts with invitations to various festivals, such as 'Summerwinds', the Austrian Festival of Lafnitz and the international SoNoRo-Festival in Bucharest.

It is continued by a large tour with Aris-quartet, solo concerts by Richard Strauss with WDR Symphony Cologne and Dan Ettinger. Thorsten Johanns is performing at the ADEvantgarde Festival/Munich 2015 in company with composer and pianist Moritz Eggert, followed by concerts of new founded Trio with Paul and Benjamin Rivinius.

Thorsten Johanns is performing at numerous festivals worldwide (Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lucerne Festival, Musik-Triennale Cologne, Tirol Festival, SoNoRo Bucharest) and has been part of different successful recordings (ECHO Classic Award for the best chamber music recording 2008 of Mozart’s Don Giovanno with „opera senza“).

Thorsten Johanns, born and grown up in Krefeld, Germany, started to play the clarinet at the age of 8 and later on also the saxophone with his first teacher Laszlo Dömötör. He has won numerous first prizes at the youth competition „Jugend musiziert“ with both instruments, and started to study 1996 at the Hochschule für Musik Cologne with professor Ralph Manno. During his studies he was scholarship- holder of the „Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes“.

Thorsten Johanns has been giving masterclasses in the USA (New England Conservatory Boston), China (Shenyang, Beijing, Shanghai) and Australia (Melbourne/ANAM, Brisbane, Sydney).