Claudia Janet Birkholz

Musician. Composer.
Visionary.

The early years

The Bremen-born studied music at the local College of Arts. At this time her former professor, pianist and chamber musician Kurt Seibert, evolved to an early and trend-setting patron of the young piano player. Very soon this was followed by radio productions in cooperation with the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie under the artistic direction of Klaus Bernbacher as well as performances in concert series like Pro Musica Nova Bremen. A life long and inspiring cooperation and friendship was developed with the former musical director and composer Hans Otte.

Claudia Janet Birkholz finished her studies in 1991 with the top grade in her leaving examination..

Encounters:
Inspirations & Cooperations

She collaborated with high profile piano players such as Elisabeth Leonskaja and Vitaly Margulis. In Paris she experiences a personal inspiration of Claude Helffer, being the future foundation for her love to contemporary music. In this vibrant time she studies the perfect playing but she realizes that she was missing something: She would like to create more, risk the unconventional, break the mould and exceed the limits.

In 1993 – after achieving a wealth of experience, awards and numerous venturous ideas – she begins to pass on

The life of a piano player means: Being at home globally.

As a piano player of the „Quart“-ensemble and „ensemble Intégrales“ for New Music, she saw concerts in the context of the Messiaen-Fest in Dusseldorf, the “Tage der Neuen Musik in Hannover” and several productions for Radio Bremen. More stage expertise she acquired at the “Bodenseefestspiele”, the “Schleswig-Holstein-Musikfestival”, “Wien Modern”, the “Gaudeamus Music-Week” in the Netherlands, in the association with the theatre director Johann Kresnik or in projects with the “Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen”. In the end Claudia Janet Birkholz was inspired by her journeys, which took her not only through Europe but also through the United States, through Japan, Iran or Mongolia.

New Trails & New Music

Claudia Janet Birkholz is always on the lookout for new input for the creation of new worlds of sounds and she understands herself as ambassador to a music, irritating at times but is also surprising. In extraordinary conversation concerts, just like the ones implemented in 2015 „Let’s talk music“, she collaborates with neuroscientists, psychologists, mathematicians or researchers. Here she puts her second passion for artificial intelligence into focus for which she already gives expert presentations herself.

Since 2019 she is artistic director of the „realtime – international festival for new music bremen“.

The media about Claudia Janet Birkholz

Hans Otte

"Claudia Janet Birkholz played (…) „ the German premiere of my composition „face á face“ for piano and tape and implemented this musical piece with a profound sense of sound and with a convincing creative capacity„

Der neue Tag

„(...) A piano night with Claudia Janet Birkholz. An indescribable concert and sound adventure.“

Hamburger Abendblatt

„The technical brilliance was not the only thing to be prioritised. Especially in Messiaen´s piano cyclus the poethic thought (..) impressed the room.“

Oberpfälzer Nachrichten

„Expressive, diverse and in brilliant colours, as well as in combination with an extraordinary perfection Claudia Janet Birkholz lets her audience dive into the land of the exotic and the meditation.“

Kreiszeitung

„Highly interesting and certainly (...) the highlight of the concert night is the absolutely confidently interpreted 5 piano pieces of Henry Cowell. Cowell is unfortunately heard far too rarely, at this high level you almost don't hear him at all."

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