Maurice Steger
A | EE
Born
Winterthur, Switzerland
Studies
in Zurich (recorder and chambermusic with Kees Boeke), Bologna (recorder & medieval music with Pedro Memelsdorff), Basel (performance practice) & Stuttgart (conducting with Marcus Creed)
Highlights
"Baroque Music Director" of Zurich Chamber Orchestra "Tino Flautino" music fairytale by Rudophe Schacher Trio concerts with Hille Perl and Lee Santana Corelli Project, - Musikverein Wien, Philharmonie Berlin, Wigmore Hall London, Corelli Projekt, Tours The English Concert & Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Baroque Director Zürcher Kammerorchester, Musikmärchen für Kinder Tino Flautino
Prizes
Karajan Preis, Diapason d'or, Choc Le Monde de la Musique, Amadeus, Stern Fono Forum, Friedrich Hegar, Migros Genossenschaftsbund
Recordings
Deutsche Grammophon, Harmonia Mundi, Claves, Virgin
Short bio
According to The Independent, Maurice Steger is «the world’s leading recorder virtuoso». And indeed, with his tours all across the globe and his numerous CDs, some of which received the most prestigious awards, the artist has established himself as today’s most renowned virtuoso playing the recorder. With his dynamic style and his brilliant, yet spontaneous and personal technique, he has also contributed to a resurgence of interest in the recorder as an instrument.
With a repertoire focused on Early Music, Maurice Steger is a sought-after soloist with the leading Early Music period instrument ensembles: Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, The English Concert, Musica Antiqua Köln, Europa Galante or I Barocchisti. In addition, he also appears regularly with modern orchestras, like the Berliner Barock Solisten, Les Violons du Roy and the State Orchestra of Brandenburg. He continues to perform with the most renowned artists, including Hilary Hahn, Rainer Kussmaul, Igor Oistrakh, Fabio Biondi, Sandrine Piau, Andrew Manze, Diego Fasolis, Sol Gabetta and Thomas Quasthoff.

A major portion of Steger’s artistic activities is devoted to recitals accompanied by just a harpsichord or with small chamber orchestras. Here, his regular contributors are the two harpsichordists Naoki Kitaya and Sergio Ciomei. During the season 2009/10, Maurice Steger visited Japan on a recital tour, repeatedly played with Les Violons du Roy under Bernard Labadie in Canada and toured extensively through India. He is equally successful in reappraising seldom played music from the 17th and 18th centuries with Hille Perl (viola da gamba) and Lee Santana (chitarrone). The trio has already played in places like Strasbourg, Munich’s Herkulessaal, the Tonhalle in Zurich, as well as in Braunschweig and Vienna.

But Maurice Steger is also no stranger to contemporary music: He premiered two solo concerts for recorder and orchestra and has performed Rodolphe Schacher’s musical fairytale «Tino Flautino» over 50 times.

Among his many CD releases, the Telemann flute quartets (Deutsche Grammophon/Archiv), sonatas by Sammartini and Telemann’s suites and concerto for recorder (harmonia mundi) as well as Vivaldi’s concertos for recorder are particularly notable. Several recordings, among them the album «Venezia 1625» (harmonia mundi) received important international awards. His latest release is devoted to Corelli’s collection opus 5 in English adaptations. Based on handwritten sheet music only recently uncovered by Maurice Steger himself, the project brings back to life a historically authentic, but almost forgotten style of musical performance («Mr. Corelli in London» – Steger & The English Concert – harmonia mundi USA 2010).

2011/2012
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