Complete Piano Music Vol. 2

"The interpreter is a very important person indeed in Cage's piano music, and a top international expert like Steffen Schleiermacher is a must for a complete recording such as this one: he knows the nuts and bolts and all the fine nuances."

Steffen Schleiermacher, born in Halle in 1960, studied piano (Gerhard Erber), composition (Siegfried Thiele, Friedrich Schenker), and conducting (Günter Blumhagen) at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Academy of Music in Leipzig during 1980-85. He was an assistant in composition, ear training, and new music in Leipzig until 1988 and a master pupil under Friedrich Goldmann (composition) at the Academy of Arts in Berlin during 1986/87 and at the Cologne Academy of Music under Aloys Kontarsky (piano) during 1989/90.
Schleiermacher has been a freelance composer and pianist since 1988. As a pianist he focuses exclusively on music of the twentieth century. He has concertized as a soloist with the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig, German Symphony Orchestra of Berlin, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, and other orchestras under Vladimir Ashkenazy, Friedrich Goldmann, Ingo Metzmacher, Jörg-Peter Weigle, Wladimir Siwa, Vladimir Fedosejev, and Fabio Luisi. Concert tours have taken him throughout numerous European, South American, and Far Eastern countries.
During 1984-88 he directed the Gruppe Junge Musik at the Leipzig Academy, and in 1989 he founded the Ensemble Avantgarde. He has presented the Musica Nova series at the Leipzig Gewandhaus since 1989 and has led the January Festival at the Museum of the Plastic Arts in Leipzig since 1991.
Schleiermacher's numerous prizes and fellowship awards include the Gaudeamus Competition (1985), Kranichstein Music Prize (1986), Hanns Eisler Prize of the East German Radio for his Concerto for Viola and Chamber Ensemble (1989), Christian and Stefan Kaske Foundation Prize, Munich (1991), Mendelssohn Fellowship of the East German Ministry of Culture (1988), German Music Council Fellowship (1989/90), Fellowship of the Kulturfond Foundation (1992-94, 1997), Fellowship of the German Academy at the Villa Massimo in Rome (1992), and Japan Foundation Fellowship (1997) for study for several months in Japan.