Andreas Staier (born 13 September 1955 in

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

) is a German

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, j ...

and

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a ...

ist.

Life

Staier studied piano and harpsichord in the Hochschule für Musik in Hanover and Amsterdam. He studied piano with Kurt Bauer and Erika Haase, and harpsichord with Lajos Rovatkay. From 1983 to 1986 he was the harpsichord soloist for the ensemble Musica Antiqua Köln, touring frequently. At the same time he continued his studies in interpretation of classical and post-classical music on the

fortepiano A fortepiano , sometimes referred to as a pianoforte, is an early piano. In principle, the word "fortepiano" can designate any piano dating from the invention of the instrument by Bartolomeo Cristofori in 1698 up to the early 19th century. M ...

. He resigned from the ensemble in 1986 to embark on his solo career on both

and

. He became a touring

soloist, an

accompanist Accompaniment is the musical part which provides the rhythmic and/or harmonic support for the melody or main themes of a song or instrumental piece. There are many different styles and types of accompaniment in different genres and styles o ...

for

lieder In Western classical music tradition, (, plural ; , plural , ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music to create a piece of polyphonic music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German, but among English and French ...

, and a piano soloist for the ensemble Les Adieux. Between 1987 and 1996 he was

Dozent The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de co ...

for Cembalo at the

Schola Cantorum Basiliensis The Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (SCB) is a music academy and research institution located in Basel, Switzerland, that focuses on early music and historically informed performance. Faculty at the school have organized performing ensembles that hav ...

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS) ...

. Staier has gained a reputation as a distinguished

harpsichordist A harpsichordist is a person who plays the harpsichord. Harpsichordists may play as soloists, as accompanists, as chamber musicians, or as members of an orchestra, or some combination of these roles. Solo harpsichordists may play unaccompanied son ...

soloist, and

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small num ...

performer. His repertoire includes the music of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. As soloist he has performed with Concerto Köln, the

Freiburg Barockorchester Freiburger Barockorchester (Freiburg Baroque Orchestra) is a German Baroque orchestra founded in 1987, with the mission statement: "to enliven the world of Baroque music with new sounds". History The orchestra is based in Freiburg im Breisgau. ...

, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, and the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées Paris. In the field of chamber music he has had a partnerships with such artists as

Christoph Prégardien Christoph Prégardien (born 18 January 1956) is a German lyric tenor whose career is closely associated with the roles in Mozart operas, as well as performances of Lieder, oratorio roles, and Baroque music. He is well known for his performances an ...

Anne Sofie von Otter Anne Sofie von Otter (born 9 May 1955) is a Swedish mezzo-soprano. Her repertoire encompasses lieder, operas, oratorios and also rock and pop songs. Early life Von Otter was born in Stockholm, Sweden. Her father was Göran von Otter, a Swe ...

Pedro Memelsdorff Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for '' Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter. The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meani ...

Alexei Lubimov Alexei Lubimov (born 1944 as Алексе́й Бори́сович Люби́мов, Alexey Borisovich Lyubimov) is a Russian pianist, fortepianist and harpsichordist. Lubimov studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Heinrich Neuhaus and Lev Na ...

and Christine Schornsheim. Staier has made a number of recordings, primarily of music from the Baroque through early

Romantic Romantic may refer to: Genres and eras * The Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries ** Romantic music, of that era ** Romantic poetry, of that era ** Romanticism in science, of that e ...

eras, and he has performed often on the BBC. He was awarded the ''

Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik The Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik ("German Record Critics' Award") was established in Germany in 1963 by publisher Richard Kaselowsky with the aim of setting the "most rigorous standards for supreme achievement and quality" in the field ...

'' (2002 and 2011) and the ''Prätorius Musikpreis'' (2008). His Mozart recording 'am Stein Vis-à-vis' was awarded a

Diapason d'Or The Diapason d'Or (French for "Golden Tuning Fork") is a recommendation of outstanding (mostly) classical music recordings given by reviewers of '' Diapason'' magazine in France, broadly equivalent to "Editor's Choice", "Disc of the Month" in the ...

of the year 2007.

References

Andreas Staier's website

German classical pianists Male classical pianists German harpsichordists Fortepianists German performers of early music Schola Cantorum Basiliensis faculty 1955 births Living people 21st-century classical pianists 21st-century male musicians {{classical-pianist-stub