Marie-Elisabeth Hecker (born 5 March 1987 in

Zwickau Zwickau (; ) is the fourth-largest city of Saxony, Germany, after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz, with around 88,000 inhabitants,. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ''Zwickauer Mulde''; progression: ), ...

) is a German cellist. In 2005 she was one of the youngest participants to win first prize at the

Concours de violoncelle Rostropovitch The Concours de violoncelle Rostropovitch, (Cello Competition Mstislav Rostropovich Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich (27 March 192727 April 2007) was a Russian Cello, cellist and conducting, conductor. In addition to his interpretations and t ...

, the most important cello competition held every four years in Paris.

Career

Hecker is the fifth of eight children of a pastor's family from Kirchberg near Zwickau. Already at the age of five her passion for cello developed. In 1992 she began to study this instrument with Wieland Pörner at the . In 1999 she won several competitions of ''

Jugend musiziert ''Jugend musiziert'' is a music competition for children and adolescents in Germany on regional, federal and national level. ''Jugend musiziert'' in Germany In Germany, the nationwide competition refers to young adults up to 20 years and for t ...

''; in 2001 the first prize and special prize at the international J. J. F. Dotzauer competition in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

. From 2001 to 2005 she was taught by Professor

Peter Bruns Peter Bruns (born 1963) is a German cellist and university professor. Biography Bruns was born in Berlin. At the age of nine he began to play cello. After his studies at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" with Peter Vogler Bruns b ...

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

and

piano trio A piano trio is a group of piano and two other instruments, usually a violin and a cello, or a piece of music written for such a group. It is one of the most common forms found in European classical music, classical chamber music. The term can also ...

as an external pupil of the and since 2005 as a student of the

University of Music and Theatre Leipzig The University of Music and Theatre "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig () is a public university in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1843 by Felix Mendelssohn as the Conservatorium der Musik (Conservatory of Music), it is the oldest univ ...

. She participated several times in

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

courses and

master class ''Master Class'' is a 1995 play by American playwright Terrence McNally, presented as a fictional master class by opera singer Maria Callas near the end of her life, in the 1970s. The play features incidental vocal music by Giuseppe Verdi, Giac ...

es. Hecker is one of the 23 young instrumentalists who were invited by the

Kronberg Academy The Kronberg Academy is a Private university, private music school for string instrumentalists based in Kronberg im Taunus, Germany. Founded in 1993 by Raimund Trenkler, the academy trains a select group of young musicians who have the potential ...

(Kronberg, Taunus) to work with the masters of their subjects at the Chamber Music Days for two weeks. From the 2009/10 to 2011/12 season, Hecker was an artist in the "Junge Wilde" series at the

Theater Dortmund Theater Dortmund is a theatrical organization that produces operas, Musical theatre, musicals, ballets, plays, and concerts in Dortmund, Germany. It was founded as the Stadttheater Dortmund in 1904. Supported by the German Government, the organiz ...

. On 8 June 2010 she played Schumann's

Cello Concerto A cello concerto (sometimes called a violoncello concerto) is a concerto for solo cello with orchestra or, very occasionally, smaller groups of instruments. These pieces have been written since the Baroque era if not earlier. However, unlike instru ...

, Op. 129, accompanied by the

Staatskapelle Berlin The Staatskapelle Berlin () is a German orchestra and the resident orchestra of the Berlin State Opera, Unter den Linden. The orchestra is one of the oldest in the world. Until the fall of the German Empire in 1918 the orchestra's name was , i.e ...

under the baton of

Daniel Barenboim Daniel Moses Barenboim (; born 15 November 1942) is an Argentines, Argentine-Israeli classical pianist and conductor based in Berlin, who also has Spain, Spanish and State of Palestine, Palestinian citizenship. From 1992 until January 2023, Bare ...

, in the context of a much acclaimed gala concert in the Zwickauer Konzertsaal ''Neue Welt'' on the occasion of

Robert Schumann Robert Schumann (; ; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and music critic of the early Romantic music, Romantic era. He composed in all the main musical genres of the time, writing for solo piano, voice and piano, chamber ...

's 200th birthday. Hecker is married to the pianist

Martin Helmchen Martin Helmchen (born 1982) is a German pianist. He has played with international orchestras and has recorded discs of many classical composers. Life Helmchen was born in Berlin. He began his piano studies at the age of six, and graduated from ...

, and mother of three daughters.NW Neue Westfälische, Bielefeld, Artikel vom 17 January 2019 von Thomas Klingebiel: Herkules-Aufgabe für Top-Pianist Martin Helmchen; geprüft am 18. 01. 2019

References

External links

David Abrams: ''Gespräch mit Marie-Elisabeth Hecker'' vom 6. August 2006

Homepage von Marie-Elisabeth Hecker

Generalmanagement von Marie-Elisabeth Hecker

(NDR) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hecker, Marieelisabeth 1987 births Living people People from Zwickau German classical cellists 21st-century German musicians German women classical cellists 21st-century German women musicians 21st-century cellists