Pianist and Professor for Piano
at Music University Hanns Eisler Berlin

Biography

Born in the region of Frankfurt/Main, Konrad Engel grew up in a mainly scientifically oriented family. However it came clear already during his early childhood that music would be his vocation some day. More than a dozen scholarships, awards and many prizes at international competitions reinforced that impression over the years, most importantly to mention the German National Music Competition, Bach-Competition Leipzig and a first prize at the international Chopin-Competition Hanover.

His concert career – now almost 40 years of stage experience – took him all over the northern hemisphere, across Europe, Asia and the US. As a soloist he performed with numerous renowned orchestras and at several international festivals. His repertoire has never excluded any style or period and included all kinds of keyboards from cembalo to fortepiano and various historic grand pianos.

Since his younger days Konrad Engel is also very much dedicated to chamber music and Kunstlied. Just to mention a few long term highlights, there was the applauded „Trio Corrado” together with Konradin Seitzer (Violin) and Konrad Haesler (Cello) as well as various performances together with Leonid Gorokhov, Markus Becker, Mareike Morr, Sharon Kam and many other renowned partners. Beyond that he was member of bigger ensembles as well as conducting two chamber orchestras for several years.

Over the last two decades he discovered his great passion for teaching and rather focused his career on education since several years. After getting first experiences in teaching at the municipal music school Hanover, a lectureship at the University for Arts Bremen in 2011 was an important leap.

From 2012 to 2018 he held a substitutional professorship at Hanover Music University, where he first got in touch with the education of highly talented young students. In 2017 he got a full professorship at „Hanns Eisler“ University Berlin and the honour to become head of piano department at „Musikgymnasium C.P.E. Bach“, a position he was holding until 2023, before laying focus on his work with students at university and further development of the curriculum in bachelor and master studies.

By now amongst his students are many prizewinners at international competitions such as Sendai/Japan, Aarhus/Denmark, Mendelssohn/Berlin, Schumann/Zwickau, Liszt/Weimar etc. But most importantly some of his first alumni already started being successful teachers themselves, passing on the flame of musical passion to their students. 

Konrad Engel started his own academic studies in music education at Hannover Music University and finished his third Diploma with the „Konzertexamen“ in 2006 after being a student of Karl-Heinz Kämmerling for many years. His education was also enriched by important impulses from John O’Conor (Wilhelm-Kempff-Academy Positano), Bernhard Wetz and Gerhard Schroth (Frankfurt) as well as chamber music lessons by Vassilia Efstathiadou, Antje Weithaas, Grainne Dunne.

In his sparse free time Konrad Engel is interested in many other subjects, such as astronomy and technology but also visual arts, history and philosophy – never to forget about classic cars. His motto actually couldn’t be described better than in Eisler’s words: „Who seeks to understand music only, won’t understand music at all.“