Margarita Höhenrieder


Margarita Höhenrieder is a German classical pianist and a professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München. She has performed internationally and recorded, with a focus on chamber music. She premiered compositions which Harald Genzmer dedicated to her.

Career

Born in Munich, Höhenrieder studied piano with Anna Stadler and in Munich, and with Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, US.
Höhenrieder has played as a soloist with conductors Kirill Petrenko, Claudio Abbado, Lorin Maazel, James Levine, Riccardo Chailly, and Fabio Luisi, among others, and with orchestras such as Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Münchner Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, Gewandhausorchester, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, and Mahler Chamber Orchestra.
She was a friend of composer Harald Genzmer, who dedicated his Konzert für Klavier, Trompete und Streicher to her. She premiered the work with trumpeter Guy Touvron and the Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn. Genzmer composed his last major work for her, Wie ein Traum am Rande der Unendlichkeit for piano and flute, which she premiered in Rome in 2009 with Emmanuel Pahud. On the occasion of the bicentenary of Friedrichshafen in July 2011, Höhenrieder and the WKH performed a concert at the Dornier Museum among the aircraft.
She has performed and recorded chamber music also with Kit Armstrong, cellist Julius Berger, pianist Alfred Brendel, clarinetist Eduard Brunner, the Gewandhaus Quartet, clarinetist Sabine Meyer, percussionist, and Reiner Wehle, among others.
In 1984, Höhenrieder was appointed professor of piano at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg, and succeeded Ludwig Hoffmann in that position at the Musikhochschule München in 1991. Her students include Milana Chernyavska.

Awards

In 1981, Höhenrieder won first prize at the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition in Bolzano. She received the Staatlicher Förderungspreis für junge Künstler des Freistaates Bayern in 1984.

Recordings

Höhenrieder has recorded CDs and DVD. A reviewer of her recording of chamber music with soloist from the Staatskapelle Dresden, which included Poulenc's Sextet and a sextet by Ludwig Thuille noted her "approach with an engaging freshness and warmth that feels spontaneous".

CDs