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The German violinist, Niklas Liepe, studied at the Hannover Music University with Professor Krzysztof Wegrzyn, at the Cologne Music University with Professor Zakhar Bron and with Professor Ana Chumachenco and Professor Mihaela Martin as part of the program "Master of Music in International Violin Solo Performance" at the Kronsberg Academy. He has also taken part in master classes throughout Europe and the US, with esteemed artists such as Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet and András Schiff, who can attest to a shining future for the young violinist.
Niklas Liepe has won many prizes in national and international com petitions: he was awarded a "Next Generation" prize from the North German Radio (Norddeutsches Rundfunk), and was also a prize-winner at the "Braunschweig Classix Festival", Gdansk Festival Week, Kocian Violin Competition in the Czech Republic, International Da-Ponte Chamber Music Competition, twice the International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in Poland, the 2014 International New Talent Competition Bratislava of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), and the 2017 German Music Competition. He is also a scholarship recipient of the Oscar and Vera Ritte Foundation Hamburg, the Jürgen-Ponto Foundation Frankfurt am Main and the Ann-Kathrin Linsenhoff Foundation.
Niklas Liepe is regularly invited to festivals such as the Dresdner Musikfest- spiele, Schwetzinger Sommer, Festival "les vacances de Monsieur Haydn" in France, the Verbier Festival and the Sochi Winter International Arts Festival in Russia. From a very young age, he has also performed as a chamber musician and as a soloist with varying orchestras, including the Braunschweig State Orchestra, Kaohsiung City Symphony Orchestra, Voigtland Philharmonic, Brandenburg City State Orchestra Frankfurt/Oder, State Orchestra of Rhineland Palatinate, Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, Bratislava Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra and Pisendel Orchestra as part of the Dresden Music Festival, with such conductors as Heribert Beisel, Gregor Bühl, Christoph Eschenbach. Hartmut Haenchen, John Holloway, Nicolas Pasquet, and Garry Walker. He has performed in prestigious venues like the Philharmonie Cologne, Philharmonie Essen, Alte Oper Frankfurt and Beethovenhouse in Bonn.
As a chamber musician Niklas Liepe performed with such artists as Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, Fazil Say, Christoph Eschenbach, András Schiff, Antoine Tamestit, John Holloway, Jérôme Pernoo, Mischa Maisky, Paul Meyer, Markus Becker and Nils Mönkemeyer.
Niklas Liepe is one of those highly talented young soloists who goes his own way, regardless. One of those artists constantly coming up with new ideas, launching projects that take real courage, because both the concept and the artistic standards boarder on the brazen. With his Paganini Project, he attracted international attention and sparkling reviews during the past year. He commissioned some 20 composers and arrangers to rearrange Niccolò Paganini’s mind-bogglingly difficultcaprices for solo violin to be played with orchestral accompaniment – each of the pieces in its own unique style. Foxtrot and tango, jazz and reverberant romanticism go hand in hand in these amusing, irreverent new versions, all of which leave the original violin solo part unaltered. In 2017 Niklas Liepe and his brother Nils Liepe founded the "Liepe & Co. Festival" at a steel warehouse near Hannover's South Train Station. Here, too, he tests the limits of classical music anew.
During the 2019-2020 season, Niklas Liepe will be appearing in Europe and Asia with the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover
and the Polish Radio Orchestra, performing works by Felix Mendelssohn, Paganini, Fazil Say and Camille Saint-Saëns. Debut performances will take him to the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, the TauberPhilharmonie in Weikersheim, the Glocke in Bremen, the HitzackerSummer Music Festival and the Lower Saxony Music Festival. In addition, he will be appearing at the Berlin Philharmonic and will be teaching at the Villa Musica in Rheinland-Pfalz.
Numerous radio segments with Niklas Liepe and television documentaries about internationally prominent violin talents (2007 broadcast on WDR, ARTE, BR television) have been produced. In April 2014, a CD with the works of Albeniz, Turina and Alberto Ginastera was published in collaboration with SWR at the Hänssler-Classic. His second CD project, #GoldbergReflections, together with conductor Jamie Phillips and the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, was releases in the fall of 2020. |
