Eva-Christina Schönweiß & Kirsten Ecke
Biography Eva-Christina Schönweiß & Kirsten Ecke
Eva-Christina Schönweiss
lives in Berlin and is principal second violin of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester (DSO). Her work as an honorary professor teaching a performance class of violin students at the Hanns Eisler School of Music is of great importance to her. In addition to many chamber concerts in a wide variety of formations, she is also the first violinist of the Niccolo Quartet, which is known for its lecture recital series.
She fondly remembers her early years playing the violin, first at the music school of the Hof Symphony Orchestra and then with Bruno Bauer (a teacher at the high school in Münchberg). She still maintains contact with him. His enthusiasm for music and the violin kindled a fire in her that has never stopped burning.
She completed her studies with Gerhart Hetzel at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and pursued further studies with Dorothy DeLay and Kurt Saßmannshaus in the US. She also received decisive impetus through many courses with Igor Ozim, Walter Forchert and from working on chamber music with the LaSalle and the Tokyo Quartet. In addition, she thoroughly enjoys the inspiring work with many outstanding colleagues and conductors at the DSO.
From 1994 to 2000 she was closely involved with the Aspen Music Festival as a teacher, soloist and concertmaster. Encouraging the next generation of musicians is very important to her. Among other projects, she is a co-founder of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Academy as well as the DSO chamber music outreach project in schools in Berlin.
She firmly believes that “the desire to bring music closer to the listener in all its vitality, allowing one soul to touch another, lies at the core of all music making.”
Kirsten Ecke
lives with her family in Dreisamtal and teaches the harp performance class at the Freiburg Conservatory of Music as an honorary professor. In 2008 she was a visiting professor at the Munich Hochschule für Musik und Theater.
She felt drawn to the harp from the first time she encountered the instrument as a child. To this day, she is fascinated by the closeness to its sound, its timbres and expressive possibilities. Her mission is to show her listeners that the harp can do more than its cliché of being a gentle instrument of angels and a decorative salon accessory might suggest. The harp can be wild, serious,
gentle, loud, tender, spirited, and much more, but it is, first and foremost, an instrument that should truly be taken seriously.
After studying with Helga Storck at the University of Music in Munich, she was initially principal harpist with the South Thuringian State Theater in Meiningen, then with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra.
Kirsten Ecke is an avid performer of chamber music. She co-founded and serves as artistic advisor of the "Valser Musiksommer" Chamber Music Festival in Vals, Graubünden, Switzerland and the concert series "LUMIK – Literature and Music in Kirchzarten" in Germany.
In addition to her passion for music, she is also a state-licensed alternative practitioner of psychotherapy, and a coach and trainer with a focus on hypnotherapy and PEP © (process and embodiment-focused psychology). She also coaches and gives seminars and courses on performance, stress management and resilience promotion.
Her motto: "Mobilize potential, release energy and enable yourself to access joy and harmony. That is my passion as a musician and teacher."
