MATTHIAS KIRSCHNEREIT
55 videos • 2,735 views • by Berlin Classics If you look at Matthias Kirschnereit's life and career to date from the outside, you discover many turning points, rough edges and a constant urge to express himself through music. The first turning point was certainly the fact that in 1971, at the age of nine, he moved with his parents from northern Germany to Namibia in Africa. His father was a pastor and got a job there. Of course, young Matthias already played the piano, but while his peers in Europe were already taking part in piano competitions, he played on an electronic piano that had to be connected to a car battery. The Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun" was played on the radio and the Liberation Group's song "Namibia" provided the fitting soundtrack for the independence movement. Matthias Kirschnereit listened to the Bach interpretations of Dinu Lipatti on his parents' record player and actually wanted to found the "Namibia Trio" together with two friends. But the next turning point followed shortly afterwards. At the age of 14, he went back to Germany alone, without parents, to enrol as a young student at the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold. "It was a shock to see and hear what my peers could already play," he recalls. But the step did him good. His musical horizon expanded abruptly, he discovered Debussy and Clara Schumann, Handel and also the jazz pianist Bill Evans. Kirschnereit put all his eggs in one basket, wanted to become a pianist at all costs and left the Gymnasium without taking his Abitur. He still remembers the final conversation with his former headmaster with a shudder, but also with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. He indignantly predicted that the most he would ever become was a piano teacher... And he was not entirely wrong. However, he probably did not have in mind that Matthias Kirschnereit would teach for more than 25 years as a professor at the Rostock University of Music and Theatre - and that he is still a sought-after career promoter for young talents there today. Discover our Berlin Classics releases: https://bio.to/BerlinClassicsID