Christoph Eschenbach receives an honorary doctorate from the HfMDK Frankfurt

On Fe­bru­a­ry 4, 2024, the Frank­furt Uni­ver­si­ty of Mu­sic and Per­forming Arts (HfMDK) awar­ded Chris­toph Eschen­bach the aca­de­mic de­gree of ho­no­ra­ry doc­to­ra­te du­ring a ce­re­mo­ni­al con­cert. In par­ti­cu­lar, Eschen­bach's ex­tra­or­di­na­ry com­mit­ment to young ar­tists, the de­ve­lop­ment of ta­lent and the va­rious pe­dago­gi­cal and di­dac­tic forms of mu­sic edu­ca­ti­on were the rea­son for the uni­ver­si­ty to ho­nor him. As the high­light of the mu­si­cal pro­gram, stu­dents from the HfMDK and Kron­berg Aca­de­my, un­der the di­rec­tion of Chris­toph Eschen­bach, joint­ly pre­sen­ted Paul Hin­de­mit­h's Cham­ber Mu­sic No. 1.

Chris­toph Eschen­bach was very touched by the award and the mu­si­cal col­la­bo­ra­ti­on with the young mu­si­ci­ans:

The evening be­gan with the String Quar­tet op. 12 in E flat ma­jor by Fe­lix Men­dels­sohn Bar­thol­dy, pre­sen­ted by the Rarón Quar­tet. This was fol­lo­wed by in­spi­ring con­ver­sa­ti­ons with per­so­nal in­sights into the work of Chris­toph Eschen­bach. He spo­ke about his life and his ar­tis­tic po­si­ti­ons with Ta­bea Zim­mer­mann (Pro­fes­sor of Vio­la and Cham­ber Mu­sic), Eli­sa­beth Tz­schent­ke (Con­duc­ting stu­dent), Flo­ri­an Höl­scher (Pro­fes­sor of Pia­no) and Kon­rad Am­rhein (Di­rec­ting stu­dent). Wolf­gang Rih­m's "Frem­de Sze­ne III für Kla­vier­trio", per­for­med by Trio Han­na­ri, was play­ed bet­ween the talks.

In their wel­co­m­ing ad­dres­ses, HfMDK Pre­si­dent Prof. El­mar Ful­da and Rai­mund Trenk­ler, foun­der and chair­man of Kron­berg Aca­de­my, prai­sed Chris­toph Eschen­bach as an out­stan­ding ar­tist of our time. He has put his bio­gra­phi­cal ex­pe­ri­en­ces, the ef­fec­ts and pos­si­bi­li­ties of mu­sic in dia­log with each other and ac­tively com­mu­ni­ca­tes them to peop­le and the youn­ger ge­nera­ti­on of ar­tists. His ar­tis­tic achie­ve­ment is al­ways an ob­li­ga­ti­on to so­cie­ty, a re­spon­si­bi­li­ty for de­aling with the mu­si­cal he­ri­ta­ge and the new things that mu­sic of­fers to dis­co­ver.

Chris­toph Eschen­bach is clo­se­ly as­so­cia­ted with the Ba­che­lor's and Mas­ter's de­gree pro­grams run joint­ly by Kron­berg Aca­de­my and the HfMDK. In ad­di­ti­on to his work as an ar­tis­tic ad­vi­sor and lec­tu­rer at Kron­berg Aca­de­my, he is a re­gu­lar guest of the Frank­furt Ra­dio Sym­pho­ny Or­ches­tra and has been the Paul Hin­de­mith Pri­ze win­ner of the city of Ha­nau sin­ce 2016.

On July 10, 2023, the Se­na­te of the HfMDK Frank­furt de­ci­ded to award Chris­toph Eschen­bach, the mu­si­ci­an, con­duc­tor, pia­nist, mu­sic re­se­ar­cher, men­tor of young mu­si­ci­ans and pro­mo­ter of mu­si­cal de­ve­lop­ment, the aca­de­mic de­gree of an ho­no­ra­ry doc­to­ra­te.

Chris­toph Eschen­bach (born Fe­bru­a­ry 20, 1940 in Wro­cław) grew up as a war or­phan with his mo­ther's cou­sin, the pia­nist Wal­ly­do­re Eschen­bach, in Schles­wig-Hol­stein and Aa­chen. His les­sons with her laid the foun­da­ti­ons for a bril­li­ant mu­si­cal ca­re­er. Af­ter stu­dy­ing with Eli­za Han­sen (pia­no) and Wil­helm Brück­ner-Rüg­ge­berg (con­duc­ting), his first pri­zes as a pia­nist at the ARD Com­pe­ti­ti­on in 1962 and the Con­cours Cla­ra Has­kil in 1965 pa­ved the way for his in­ter­na­tio­nal ca­re­er.

Chris­toph Eschen­bach be­gan his mu­si­cal ca­re­er as a sen­si­ti­ve con­cert pia­nist and at the same time de­ve­lo­ped into an out­stan­ding con­duc­tor with an enor­mous ar­tis­tic ran­ge. Con­cer­to, ope­ra, cham­ber mu­sic, world pre­mie­res, lie­der - from J. S. Bach to Ro­man­ti­cism and con­tem­pora­ry mu­sic - Eschen­bach's im­pres­si­ve re­per­toire is re­flec­ted in his out­stan­ding dis­co­gra­phy, which has won nu­me­rous pri­zes.

With gre­at open­ness and cu­rio­si­ty, Chris­toph Eschen­bach has fol­lo­wed a uni­que ar­tis­tic path that - even at over 80 ye­ars of age - con­ti­nues to lead to new turns and en­coun­ters. He was chief con­duc­tor of the Kon­zert­haus­or­ches­ter Ber­lin un­til June 2023. From the 2024/25 sea­son, he will be Ar­tis­tic Di­rec­tor of the Na­tio­nal Mu­sic Fo­rum NFM in his na­ti­ve city of Wro­cław. Chris­toph Eschen­bach is a Knight of the Lé­gi­on d'hon­neur, Com­man­deur des Arts et des Let­tres, re­ci­pi­ent of the Ger­man Fe­deral Cross of Me­rit and win­ner of the Leo­nard Bern­stein Pri­ze. in 2015, he was awar­ded the Ernst von Sie­mens Mu­sic Pri­ze as a pia­nist and con­duc­tor.