Born: April 12, 1968 - Hennef, near Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany |
The German cellist, Guido Schiefen, was born in Hennef, near Bonn, and grew up in Eitorf. Htudied in Cologne with Professor Alwin Bauer and had lalso essons with Professor Siegfried Palm. Since his childhood he performed on stage as a soloist and as chamber musician in Germany and other European countries. In 1980 he reached the 1st place at the Bundeswettbewerb Jugend musiziert (National Competition Young Musicians), and in1982 received prize at the International Radio Competition Concertino Praga. This was followed by master-classes with Maurice Gendron in Paris and Jan Polasek in Munich. In 1988 he won scholarship of the Deutschen Volkes und vom Kölner Verlags- und Musikhaus Tonger with 1st Prize for Chamber Music. His international carreer started in 1990 after becoming a prize winner (5th place) at the 9th International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. In 1992 he was awarded the Prize of North Rhine-Westphalia for music.
Guido Schiefen has been invited to play in important concerts and prestigous festivals in Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Ireland, Japan. Furthermore he travelled throughout South America and the Middle East, he debuted successfully in cities like London, Paris, St. Petersburg , Tokyo, Munich, Santiago de Chile, Frankfurt, Bern etc.
As cellist of the Ensemble Incanto he is very much involved into all kinds of chamber music projects. During the recent years several composers dedicated their works to Guido Schiefen.
Besides his concert activities, Guido Schiefen recorded for numerous radio-and TV corporations as well as for CD-companies like ebs, Capriccio, Sony Switzerland, Arte Nova/BMG, cpo, Contempora, Oehms Classics. On more than 20 CD’s he recorded essential works of the cello repertoire like the complete Suites for solo cello by J.S. Bach (BWV 1007-1012) and Max Reger, L.v. Beethoven's Cello Sonatas with pianist Alfredo Perl, the complete works for cello and piano by Franz Liszt with pianist Eric Le Van, the Dvorak concerto and others. These recordings have been enthusiastically reviewed by leading magazins like Fono Forum/ Germany ("Star of the month" for L.v. Beethoven’s Cello Sonatas) or The Strad about Reger-Suites :(Oehms Classics)"Few artists have succeeded in producing such consistent beauty and richness of tone as Guido Schiefen in this musically and technically demanding repertory(...)".
Guido Schiefen is regulary teaching in master-classes in Germany and abroad. Since 2000 he is Artistic Director of the Rhein-Sieg-Chamber Music Festival in Germany. In 2008, he was appointed at the Since autumn 2008, he teaches after his appointment as a professor in Switzerland at the Hochschule Luzern – Musik. |