Moritz Ernst
Biography Moritz Ernst
Moritz Ernst
was born in1986 in Ostwestfalen, Germany and began playing the piano already at the age of five, taking lessons in Detmold. After graduating from high school at the early age of 16, he continued his piano studies in 2002 at the Detmolder Musikhochschule where he also studied musicology. During that time he was also awarded several prizes.
In 2003 he became a private student of the well known professor for piano, Peter Feuchtwanger. Shortly thereafter his concert activities were launched with regular performances in Europe and abroad.
Some years later Moritz Ernst continued his piano studies with Prof Jean-Jacques Dünki and harpsichord with Prof Jörg-Andreas Bötticher at the Schola Cantorum in Basel, Switzerland, thereafter his career also as harpsichordist began. During these years of study, he attended master classes and workshops held by Günter Reinhold, Paul Badura-Skoda, Ferderick Rzewski and the Auryn Quartet.
Moritz Ernst is presently concertising as pianist, harpsichordist and chamber musician performing a wide range of repertoire from baroque to contemporary music. Concerts include appearences in Germany, at the Piano Festival Feuchtwangen, the Lake Constance Festival, the Beethoven Festival Bonn; in England, France, Italy, Austria, Sweden, Romania, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Russia. (St. Petersburg Sound Ways Festival) He has also held master classes at the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart, Germany and at The Royal Music Academy in Malmö, Sweden.
Music of the 20th and 21st century is especially dear to his heart. Ernst has premiered several works as well as collaborating closely with composers such as Eötvös, Pelzel, Winkler, Bhagwati, Wohlhauser, Olofsson, Maros and others, some of whom have dedicated works to him. In addition, he advocates the forgotten and less played composers; for example by performing Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s Sonata op. 106, Feruccio Busonni‘s Fantasia contrappuntistica and the music of Samuel Scheidt, as well as music for the 16th- tone - piano. (Micro - tonality)
The international press has highly acclaimed Moritz Ernst for his superb recordings. “The Classical Music Magazine” granted him their highest rating. “Gramophone” praised his sparkling and stimulating rendition, Diapason and Fono Forum both awarded highest marks (5/5) for his Lourié and Ullmann recordings.In addition, he has performed for international radio stations such as DRS2 (Zurich), Radio Luxembourg, SR (Radio of the Saarland), DeutschlandRadio Kultur, Deutschlandfunk and BBC London.
Extensive plans for future recording projects include: the harpsichord works of Kent Olofsson, as well as the complete Sonatas by Joseph Haydn, Music of Crossings by Sandeep Bhagwati and complete piano works by Hans Erich Apostel.
He already recorded the complete piano works of Viktor Ullmann and the sonatas by Norbert von Hannenheim in connection with Deutschlandradio and the CD label EDA Records on two CDs
In 2014 the Piano Concerto by Victor Ullmann was recorded together with the Dortmund Philharmonic under Gabriel Feltz.
In June 2013 Moritz Ernst gave his debut performance with the Symphony Orchestra of Bern (Switzerland) under the baton Mario Venzago with a performance of the 2nd Piano Concerto by Edward Staempfli.
In 2014, his highly acclaimed Asian debut took place.There he also held mastercalsses and lectures at the University of Malaysia and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.
In 2015 several other extensive tours, most notably to Teheran and Canada (Montréal, Toronto) took place.In 2016 a 3-CD-Box with the complete piano works by Arthur Lourié was published by Capriccio, as well as other recordings, including the Viktor Ullmann piano concerto (again Capriccio) and Vol.1 of the complete Haydn piano sonatas.
In 2017 his commitment for ostrasized music led him to an appearance at Deutscher Bundestag.
Since 2018 his concert appearances have led him to perform on a worldwide scale, commuting between his native Europe, North America, Asia and Australia.
His knowledge as musicologist has led to a cooperation with the Schott Verlag.
