Upcoming concerts with Kirsi Tiihonen in Berlin and Hamburg - and a Prèmiere of a new composition
I’m very happy to announce that I’ll be performing a wonderful Romantic song programme in Berlin and in Hamburg with the fabulous Finnish soprano Kirsi Tiihonen! The programme centres around Robert Schumann’s Frauenliebe und Leben, alongside songs by Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms – beautiful music about love, longing, joy, loss and memory.
I’m especially happy about this collaboration with Kirsi, and of course Brahms is always very close to my heart!
The Hamburg concert will also feature the world premiere of my own song cycle Liebeslieder – nach Gedichten aus Brahms’ Notizbuch von 1853. These songs are based on poems from Brahms’s notebook from 1853.
📅 1 October 2026 at 7 pm 📍 Rufus-Saal, Alt-Lankwitz 15, 12247 Berlin
📅 3 October 2026 at 5 pm 📍 Lichtwarksaal, Neanderstraße 22, 20459 Hamburg
My piano composition The Willows in Turku, Finland
On 2 September 2026 at 7pm, the wonderful pianist Joseph Tong will perform my latest piano composition, The Willows (2024), at the Sibelius Museum in Turku, Finland, as part of the concert Sibbe Live!: Night in the Forest.
🌿 The Willows was inspired by the descriptions of willows in the works of three British writers: J.K. Rowling, Charlotte Brontë and J.R.R. Tolkien. Joseph gave the world premiere of the piece in London last year, and this photo was taken there. I’m delighted that it is now being performed again in Finland!
Prèmiere in Kloster Walderbach (Bavaria) and other concerts in the spring 2026
A particularly special moment for me was the premiere of my own composition Four Ballads for Viola and Piano at Kloster Walderbach in Bavaria. This approximately 20-minute work had been in progress for nearly five years, and I could not have imagined a more ideal performer than Peijun Xu, who navigated its considerable virtuosic challenges with the lightness of a butterfly.
We also performed Ralf Gothóni’s touching work Peregrina, as well as works by Grieg and Bowen. This programme was also presented in concerts at the Abtei Marienmünster and at the Nicolaihaus in Berlin. In Berlin, our performance also featured the renowned actor Stephan Baumecker, who read poems by Mörike as well as texts related to my compositions.
Many thanks as well to the enthusiastic and deeply engaged audiences.
A wonderful review of the Musikalisch-Literarischer Salon in Reutlingen!
"There is still such a thing as solidarity among people — at least when they are Tatort detectives. One of them, Mark Waschke (…) was supposed to give a reading at the Musikalisch-Literarischer Salon in Reutlingen, but had to cancel at short notice. Additional filming, unavoidable, as Ute Kleeberg, who founded the series together with her husband Uwe Stoffel, explained on Thursday evening in the small hall of the Stadthalle. The other, Wolfram Koch, who hunts criminals as Paul Brix in Frankfurt, stepped in without much fuss.
The evening would surely have been an experience with Waschke; it became one with Koch too. Standing before us was a wiry, well-trained 63-year-old man who didn’t put himself in the spotlight in the slightest. Instead, he illuminated the imagery and characters of the texts with admirable sharpness of contour, making situations and personalities uncannily vivid. (…)
The music chosen by Uwe Stoffel brought into the hall the feeling of coffeehouses, salons, and cosy gatherings — but also of loneliness and melancholy. Violinist Nina Karmon and pianist Terhi Dostal played with devotion, made the pieces glow, explored the cheerful moments, and opened up the darker spaces in works by Cécile Chaminade and Gabriel Fauré, Fritz Kreisler, Lera Auerbach, Agnes Tschetschulin, and Benjamin Godard.” (Armin Knauer, Reutlinger General-Anzeiger, 28 Nov 2025)
Piano Lessons
I am a member of the piano faculty of Musikschule Paul Hindemith in Berlin. I also teach in my own studio with two grand pianos in Berlin-Steglitz. Read more...
I have also given some piano master classes recently: At the Mikkeli Music Institute, Finland, in November 2024 and at the Beethoven-Gymnasium in Berlin, Germany, in March 2025.
My publisher
My music is now published by Music Finland. Some of my compositions are already available there:
On 2 September 2026 at 7pm, the wonderful pianist Joseph Tong will perform my latest piano composition, The Willows (2024), at the Sibelius Museum in Turku, Finland, as part of the concert 
