Jens Peter Maintz - Cello

Jens Peter Maintz has an outstanding reputation as a versatile soloist, highly sought-after chamber musician, and committed cello teacher.

Originally from Hamburg, he studied with David Geringas and took part in masterclasses with other great cellists such as Heinrich Schiff, Boris Pergamenschikow, Frans Helmerson and Siegfried Palm. He was further influenced by his intense chamber music study with Uwe-Martin Haiberg and Walter Levin.

In 1994 he won the 1st prize in the ARD Iternational Music Competition, which had not been awarded to a cellist for 17 years. He gathered several years of valuable orchestral experience as principal cello of the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester in Berlin and travelled the world as a member of the renowned Trio Fontenay. Since 2006 Jens Peter Maintz has been principal cello of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, on the invitation of Claudio Abbado.

His solo career has brought him into contact with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Herbert Blomstedt, Marek Janowski, Dmitry Kitajenko, Franz Welser-Möst, Reinhard Goebel and Bobby McFerrin. He has appeared as a soloist with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig MDR Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Den Haag Residenzorchester and Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.

Alongside classical repertoire, Jens Peter Maintz has performed numerous works by contemporary composers from Isang Yun to Georg Friedrich Haas.

Since 2004 Jens Peter Maintz has been a professor at Berlin University of the Arts, where he teaches a very successful cello class. Since 2017 he has also been teaching at the renowned Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid. Many of his students are Award winners in important international competitions and some hold leading positions in major orchestras.

Jens Peter Maintz is also a highly sought-after chamber musician. He is a member of the prestigious concert series Spectrum Concerts Berlin, and performs with chamber music partners such as Janine Jansen, Boris Brovtsyn, Torleif Thedéen, Hélène Grimaud, Kolja Blacher, Isabelle Faust, Antoine Tamestit, as well as the the Artemis, Carmina and Amaryllis Quartets.

For his CD with solo works by Bach, Dutilleux and Kodaly, which was released by Sony Classical, Jens Peter Maintz was awarded the ECHO-Klassik. The label Berlin Classics released his highly acclaimed recording of Haydn's cello concertos, accompanied by the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.

Highlights of the 2019/2020 season included performances as a soloist with the Chamber Orchestra Metamorphosen Berlin in Spain and the Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin in the Philharmonie Berlin; followed by the chamber music concert with the violinist Janine Jansen in the Wigmore Hall in London.

In the 2020/21 season, Jens Peter Maintz is going to play with the Czech Philharmonic at the Tongyeong Festival in South Korea and will also perform with the Preußisches Kammerorchester at the Putbus Festival. Furthermore, he is going to devote himself to chamber music projects, including performances with Emmanuel Pahud and Kolja Bacher in Boswil, Volker Jakobsen and the Amaryllis Quartet in the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, as well as with Christoph Pregardien, Franziska Hölscher and Daniel Heide at the Schubertiade Hohenems and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival.

Jens Peter Maintz plays the 'Ex-Servais' cello made by Giovanni Grancino in 1697.