Friedrich Höricke (born 1963) is a German pianist and composer.

Life

Born in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

, Höricke played his first piano recital in Cologne at the age of eleven. At the age of thirteen he was already accepted as the youngest student in the master class of

Günter Ludwig Günter Ludwig (28 August 1930 – 11 January 2022) was a German pianist. Life and career Born in Großkrotzenburg, Ludwig attended the Musisches Gymnasium Frankfurt. He then studied piano with August Leopolder and Marguerite Long and condu ...

at the

Hochschule für Musik Köln ' (, plural: ') is the generic term in German for institutions of higher education, corresponding to ''universities'' and ''colleges'' in English. The term ''Universität'' (plural: ''Universitäten'') is reserved for institutions with the right t ...

. At the same time he attended the Cologne . At the age of 18 he won first prize at the Tomassoni Competition of the Cologne Academy of Music, as well as a prize at the

Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition The Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition is a music competition for young pianists that takes place in Bolzano, Italy. It was founded in 1949 by Cesare Nordio in memory of the pianist and composer Ferruccio Busoni. History The firs ...

. Further training followed at the

Curtis Institute of Music The Curtis Institute of Music is a private conservatory in Philadelphia. It offers a performance diploma, a Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in opera, and a Professional Studies Certificate in opera. All students attend on a full scholarshi ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, where he was taught by

Jorge Bolet Jorge Bolet (November 15, 1914October 16, 1990) was a Cuban-born American concert pianist, conductor and teacher. Among his teachers were Leopold Godowsky, and Moriz Rosenthal – the latter a renowned pupil of Franz Liszt. Life Bolet was born ...

Gary Graffman Gary Graffman (born October 14, 1928) is an American classical pianist, teacher and administrator. Early life Graffman was born in New York City to Russian-Jewish parents. Having started piano at age 3, Graffman entered the Curtis Institute of ...

Mieczysław Horszowski Mieczysław Horszowski (June 23, 1892May 22, 1993) was a Polish and American pianist who had one of the longest careers in the history of the performing arts. Life Early life Horszowski was born in Lwów (Lemberg), Kingdom of Galicia and Lodome ...

and

Seymour Lipkin Seymour Lipkin (May 14, 1927 – November 16, 2015) was an American concert pianist, conductor, and educator. Early life and piano career Lipkin was born in Detroit. At age 11, he entered the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied with Davi ...

. First prize at the Philadelphia Young Artists Competition followed, as well as concert engagements in America, Asia, Western, Central and Eastern Europe. He subsequently released CDs, increasingly with his own compositions for piano, or for piano and orchestra. In 1985, Höricke married the

sexologist Sexology is the scientific study of human sexuality, including human sexual interests, behaviors, and functions. The term ''sexology'' does not generally refer to the non-scientific study of sexuality, such as social criticism. Sexologists app ...

Shere Hite Shere Hite ( ; November 2, 1942 – September 9, 2020) was an American-born German sex educator and feminist. Her sexological work focused primarily on female sexuality. Hite built upon biological studies of sex by Masters and Johnson and by A ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, where they lived together in a flat on

5th Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue runs south from 143rd Street (Manhattan), West 143rd Street in Harlem to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The se ...

. Later Höricke and Hite moved to Germany, where they took a flat in Cologne. In 1999 the couple divorced. Höricke is currently married to Astrid von Platen-Höricke and has lived in in

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

since 2004. From June 1, 2010 until November 2012 he was managing director of .

Style

As a composer and pianist, Höricke feels obliged to the tradition of the great composing piano

virtuoso A virtuoso (from Italian ''virtuoso'', or ; Late Latin ''virtuosus''; Latin ''virtus''; 'virtue', 'excellence' or 'skill') is an individual who possesses outstanding talent and technical ability in a particular art or field such as fine arts, ...

s. He tries to take up their lines of tradition and integrates his own piano works as well as his own

transcription Transcription refers to the process of converting sounds (voice, music etc.) into letters or musical notes, or producing a copy of something in another medium, including: Genetics * Transcription (biology), the copying of DNA into RNA, often th ...

s of foreign works into his concert programmes. Thus his concert suite from the ''Stone Flower'',

Sergei Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''. , group=n ( – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor who l ...

's last ballet, can sometimes be heard. In 2004, his piano concerto was premiered at the

Saint Petersburg Philharmonic The Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra (, ''Symphonic Orchestra of the Saint Petersburg Philharmonia'') is a symphony orchestra based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Their home venue is the Saint Petersburg Philharmonia. History The roots of th ...

. Among other things, he is dedicated to the rediscovery of

Ignaz Friedman Ignaz Friedman (born Salomon Izaak Freudmann; ; ; February 13, 1882January 26, 1948) was a Polish pianist and composer. Critics (e.g. Harold Schonberg) and colleagues (e.g. Sergei Rachmaninoff) alike placed him among the supreme piano virtuosi ...

Recordings

* ''

Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor ''Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor'', or ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'', is an 1849 opera in three acts by Otto Nicolai to a German libretto by Salomon Hermann Mosenthal based on Shakespeare's play. Published as a comical-fantastical work in thre ...

'' – and others pieces by

Otto Nicolai Carl Otto Ehrenfried Nicolai (9 June 1810 – 11 May 1849) was a German composer, conductor, and one of the founders of the Vienna Philharmonic. Nicolai is best known for his operatic version of Shakespeare's comedy ''The Merry Wives of Wi ...

. Together with the and the Kölner Rundfunkorchester, conductor

Michail Jurowski Michail Vladimirovich Jurowski (; 25 December 1945 – 19 March 2022) was a Russian conductor who worked internationally, based in Germany for most of his career. He was particularly interested in the works of Dmitri Shostakovich, in concerts an ...

. Delta Music, Frechen 1998. (Capriccio 10592) * ''Love & Passion'' ''– Leidenschaftliche Klavierwerke mit Gedanken von Shere Hite''. Kompositionen unter anderem von

Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic period. With a diverse body of work spanning more than six decades, he is considered to be one of the most pro ...

Rachmaninoff Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of ...

, Gershwin, and

Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...

. EastWest Records, Hamburg 1998. (Red Moon 3984-25 187-2) * ''Friedrich Höricke spielt Beethoven'' – '' Sonata No. 28 A major'' and '' Sonata No. 30 E major'' and ''Variations and Fugue'' op. 35. Bella Musica, Bühl 1995. (Antes Edition BMCD 31.9038) * ''Serge Rachmaninoff'' – Sonata Nr. 2, op. 36. Dabringhaus und Grimm, Detmold 1994. (MDG 611 0547-2)

References

External links

*
Informationen zu Friedrich Höricke
unter anderem Biographie, Interview, Diskographie und Presse. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Horicke, Friedrich German classical pianists 20th-century German composers 21st-century German composers 1963 births Living people Musicians from Cologne