Claudius von Wrochem
Claudius von Wrochem (born 24 April 1965) is a German cellist. Life. Born in Berlin, Wrochem studied cello with Peter Mann in Berlin from 1978 to 1984 and with in Boston from 1987 to 1990. He attended masterclasses with George Neikrug, and Werner Thomas. From 2000 to 2009, he took singing lessons with Juliane Gabriel in Berlin. He is particularly interested in chamber music and contemporary music. He played in the "Duo von Wrochem" with his father, the pianist , from 1983 to 2006. He devoted himself to Neue Musik as a member of the ensembles "work in  progress - Berlin" (1991-1998) and "UnitedBerlin" (1995-1998), since 2016 in the Ensemble Xenon. Together with his wife, the musicologist and violist Simone Heilgendorff, he founded the Kairos Quartet in 1996, specialising in music after 1950.) Since 1993, he has been engaged in the performance practice of baroque and classical music, mostly in changing instrumentations; he uses a cello by J. G. Thumhart, 1780, for this purpose. As improviser he works both freely and in terms of concept improvisations, often in the context of silent films, readings, exhibitions or in educational contexts. In the function of artistic director, he led  the start-up phase of the IZZM (International Centre of Contemporary Music) in Carinthia/Austria in 2009/10. Repertoire. In addition to the standard repertoire for cello and piano and some recent duo works such as Morton Feldman's "Untitled Composition/Patterns in a Chromatic Field", Wrochem played the Bach Suites I-V, a Reger suite and solo works by Bloch, Hindemith, Ligeti and many other contemporary composers. His extensive repertoire of string quartets can be found on the homepage of the Kairos Quartet. Of the more than 120 premieres in which he has been involved, more than half are with  the Kairos Quartet, the others with Neue Musik ensembles, duos and solo works. Teaching activity. Since 2013 instrumental teaching in collaboration with Berlin schools using the ColorStrings methods and the principles of Demetrius Constantine Dounis and George Neikrug. In 2010-12, Wrochem was a lecturer in Neue Musik and its mediation in ensemble practice and conceptual improvisation at the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt. He gave workshops and masterclasses at various universities in Austria and abroad (including Poland, USA, Mexico, Switzerland, Austria, Germany), at the Mozarteum Salzburg and at the conservatories of Shanghai and Guangzhou on notation issues and string quartet  composition. Since 2010 he has been conducting NM mediation workshops at secondary schools, often in Carinthia and sponsored by KulturKontakt Austria. He also participates to various jury such as the "Jugend musiziert" (1996), John Cage Prize for the Interpretation of New Music, Zeitklang 2011 - Intern. Kompositionswettbewerb f. SQ. From 1992 to 2008, he was activ as cello teacher at Berlin music schools, also in study preparation (StuVo).