Winbeck – Lütge – Schneid: Chamber Music

Biographies

Heinz Winbeck, born in Landshut in 1946, comes from a farming and working-class background in Lower Bavaria and came to music through playing the organ and a piano that was purchased with compensation money received when he was injured in an accident as a child. He studied piano with Magda Rusy and conducting with Kurt Eichhorn at the Richard-Strauss-Konservatorium in Munich, and then composition with Günter Bialas at the Munich University of Music. His music was first performed at the Stuttgarter Musikfest, in Munich at musica viva and in Hitzacker, and later at the Donaueschinger Musiktage, in Saarbrücken, and in Berlin. He received the Munich Culture Prize, a Paris scholarship and other awards.

After four years of writing incidental music at the Ingolstadt Theatre, Heinz Winbeck sought his own expression of free-tonal composition between tradition and modernism, marking a certain distance from the experimental avant-garde through his concentration on symphony and chamber music. In his search for an expression of the times (which he perceived as apocalyptic) and his own existence, his inner connection to Gustav Mahler, Anton Bruckner and Franz Schubert was not a burden, but rather a source of support, a legacy, and a mission.

In 1988, after teaching aural training at the Munich University of Music, Heinz Winbeck became professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg. The Jurahof in the Altmühltal valley (Winbeck’s home until his death), which had been saved from decay, thus became a hotspot for young composers such as Ines Lütge, Tobias PM Schneid, Bernhard Weidner and many others.

Heinz Winbeck composed five major symphonies, most of which were performed by Dennis Rus-sell Davies – in California (Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music 1987), Munich (musica viva), Cologne / Bonn, Vienna, Berlin and, posthumously, in Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie and Leipzig’s Gewandhaus. Also posthumously, the musicians of the Leopold Mozart Quartett proved to be ex-cellent, knowledgeable and highly committed interpreters of his chamber music (including a CD with the complete recording of all his string quartets).

Heinz Winbeck died unexpectedly in March 2019. His last work was Lebensstürme (Storms of Life), a Schubert music for dance theatre (2010), after which he stopped composing, saying, ‘I have said everything.’ The OPUS KLASSIK was also awarded posthumously in 2021 to the composer, who is still considered an ‘insider tip’ due to his reclusiveness.

Ines Lütge completed her composition studies at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg under Prof. Heinz Winbeck. During this time, she was a scholarship holder at the Cité internationale des Arts in Paris. She has received composition commissions from the Young Euro Classic Festival in Berlin, the Rundfunk Orchester und Chöre gGmbH Berlin (ROC), and the Kasseler Musiktage, among others. In 1999, she was awarded first prize in the competition held on the occasion of the Glass Festival in the Bavarian Forest for her ensemble piece Prisma. In 2002, her orchestral piece Die Tage fallen was premiered as part of the Saarbrücken Composers’ Workshop. In 2018, she was awarded first prize in the “Florence String Quartet calls for Scores” competition, and in 2022 she received the Bavarian Composition Prize for the competition “A New Song – via-nova” and first prize in the Siegburg Composition Competition for Drei Lieder nach Gedichten von Heinrich Heine.

Tobias PM Schneid Tobias PM Schneid (born in 1963 in Rehau / Hof) received numerous international prizes and awards for his compositions while still studying composition in Würzburg (under Bertold Hummel and, in particular, Heinz Winbeck).

His oeuvre encompasses works in almost all musical genres: from large-scale orchestral symphonies, solo concertos, and an extensive catalogue of works for ensemble and chamber music to a full-length ballet (The Picture of Dorian Gray) and a new composition of music for Walter Ruttmann’s groundbreaking 1927 film Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis.

His work to date has been documented on five portrait CDs and in collaboration with internationally renowned artists and orchestras (including the BBC Symphony Orchestra London, the symphony orchestras of BR, SWR, WDR and SR, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Bundesjugendorchester, and the Münchener Kammerorchester, under the baton of Andris Nelsons, Kent Nagano, Dennis Russel Davies, John Storgards, and others). Solo works have been composed for Jörg Widmann, Maximilian Hornung, Alban Gerhardt, Carin Levine and Stefan Schilli, among others. Numerous international competitions – including the 2011 International Clarinet Competition in Freiburg and the ARD International Music Competition in Munich (2007 and 2014) – have commissioned Schneid to write mandatory pieces for the finalist round.

His works were the official German contributions to the respective World Music Days in 1989, 1991, and 2006. In cooperation with the Goethe-Institut, he has toured Europe and Asia giving concerts and lectures. Schneid was nominated for the GEMA Music Authors’ Prize in 2009 and 2015. He has been a full member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts since 2015 and a full member of the GEMA Works Committee since 2021. Schneid has been teaching music theory and composition at the Konservatorium, later Hochschule für Musik Würzburg since 1997.

Leopold Mozart Quartett

Mariko Umae received her first violin lessons at the age of four. She graduated with honours from the Aichi University of the Arts, Japan, where she studied under Prof. Yoshiko Okayama. In 2004, she continued her studies under Prof. Daniel Gaede at the Nuremberg University of Music. In Japan, she attracted attention at a young age by participating in numerous competitions. In Germany, too, her outstanding performances earned her second place in the Lions Music Prize in 2005. The following year, she won first prize in the duo category and a special prize in the piano trio category at the chamber music competition of the Mozart Association Nuremberg. She has performed with numerous opera and symphony orchestras and worked as a substitute at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe and the Nationaltheater Mannheim, among others. Following her work at the Saarländisches Staatstheater in Saarbrücken, she was engaged by the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern. In 2014, she moved to the Augsburg Philharmonic Orchestra as principal first violinist. She is the passionate first violinist of the Leopold Mozart Quartet, with whom she has already made several CD recordings.

Aleksandra Manic began her musical training at the school for musically gifted children in Ćuprija, Serbia. She has been living in Germany since 2008 and studied at the Karlsruhe University of Music with Prof. Ulf Hoelscher, Prof. Elina Vähälä, and Prof. Anna-Liisa Bezrodny. She received important artistic inspiration in masterclasses with Prof. Ana Chumachenco, among others. After several years with the Badische Staatskapelle Karlsruhe, she has been a permanent member of the Augsburg Philharmonic Orchestra since 2021 and a member of the Leopold Mozart Quartett since 2022.

Christian Döring, born in a family of musicians began to play the Violin at the age of five. When he was eleven years of age he won one first prize at the Bach Competition Leipzig. While studying at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin with Eberhard Feltz, he devoted himself intensively to string quartet playing as a member of the Chagall-Quartett among others. He studied chamber music with Friedemann Weigle (Petersen-Quartett) and Eberhard Feltz and attended numerous chamber music courses (Oberstdorfer Musiksommer, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, among others). From 2004 to 2014, he was a violinist with the Augsburg Philharmonic Orchestra, and since 2015 he is its principal violist.

After studying as a guest student at the Leopold Mozart Conservatory in Augsburg, cellist Johannes Gutfleisch studied at the Cologne University of Music and the FRANZ LISZT University of Music in Weimar, taking courses with Harvey Shapiro, the Amadeus Quartett and the Petersen-Quartett, among others. He has been principal cellist with the Augsburg Philharmonic Orchestra since 2001. In 2009, he initiated the concert series ‘Zukunftsmusik’ (Music of the Future), which now has a permanent place in the programme of the Augsburg State Theatre.

Luise von Garnier has been an ensemble member at the Staatstheater Augsburg since the 2022 / 23 season. Prior to that, she was engaged at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe for five years. After initially singing numerous opera roles as a mezzo-soprano (including Composer in Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos, Siegrune in Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre and 2. Dame in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte), she is now increasingly moving towards the dramatic soprano repertoire. In the 2025 / 26 season, she makes her debut in Otto Nicolai’s Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor as Frau Fluth. In addition to the classical opera repertoire, she also captivates audiences with her interpretations of modern pieces: in the European premiere of <emAngel’s Bone (Du Yun) and the world premieres of The Last Night of the World (Agusti Charles) and Exportschlager (Simon Mack), in Die letzte Verschwörung (Moritz Eggert), as well as in the role of Third Secretary in the acclaimed production of John Adams’ Nixon in China at the Staatsoper Stuttgart.

She studied at the Berlin University of the Arts with Gabriele Schnaut and with Ingrid Haubold at the Karlsruhe University of Music, was a member of the opera studio at the Badisches Staatstheater and made guest appearances at the Schlossfestspiele Wernigerode, the Theater Aachen, the Staatstheater Meiningen and the Anhaltisches Theater Dessau. She was a finalist in the Bundeswettbewerb Gesang (German National Singing Competition) and won first prize at the International Carl Orff Singing Competition in Munich. She has a particular passion for lieder singing.

Cellist Susanne Gutfleisch studied with Brunhard Böhme after attending the Musikgymnasium Schloss Belvedere in Weimar. Intensive studies with Eberhard Feltz, Norbert Brainin, the Vogler Quartett, and others shaped her as a chamber musician. She has many years of professional experience in concert performance and teaching. Her work focuses on individual interaction with students and challenging chamber music projects.

Andreas Kirpal was born in Dresden. He studied with Arkadi Zenzipér, chamber music specialist Vassily Lobanov and Gerhard Oppitz. He also counts London piano teacher Peter Feuchtwanger among his mentors. He made his debut in 1997 with Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 at the Semperoper Dresden. His love of chamber music is documented in numerous radio recordings and CDs. The recording of violin sonatas by Mieczysław Weinberg with his brother Stefan Kirpal (cpo) received the coveted Diapason d’Or in January 2010. Andreas Kirpal teaches at the University of Music and Theatre Munich, the Pestalozzi Gymnasium Munich and the music school in his hometown of Gräfelfing.