Christoph Sobanski, Ph.D.

Pianist Christoph Sobanski studied at the Leipzig and Freiburg Universities of Music under Professors Gerhard Erber and Amadeus Webersinke. From 1995 to 1998, he completed an advanced artistic program as a master student at the Leipzig University of Music. In addition, he participated in master classes with Jacob Lateiner, Edith Picht-Axenfeld, and Paul Badura-Skoda, among others, and was a scholarship recipient of the European Piano Teachers Association and the Free State of Saxony. He earned his doctorate in music education at the University of Music in Weimar with a dissertation on piano pedagogy.

Concerts as a soloist, accompanist, and chamber musician have taken him to many countries in Europe, Asia, and the United States. Among the highlights of his artistic career are collaborations with conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Heinz Rögner, Andreas Delfs, Horst Neumann, Alun Francis, and Christof Escher (Switzerland), as well as with actors Evelyn Hamann and Dieter Bellmann, and performances at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Semperoper in Dresden, and the German Consulate General in New York. He has performed solo concertos by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Grieg, Hiller, Rachmaninoff, Gershwin, Martinu, Jung, and others, which he has performed with the MDR Symphony Orchestra, the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, the Thuringia Philharmonic, the West Saxon Symphony Orchestra, the South Westphalia Philharmonic Orchestra, the Elbland Philharmonic, and numerous other orchestras. In addition, he is a sought-after chamber music partner of members of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the soloist ensemble of the Semperoper Dresden, the soloist ensemble of the Leipzig Opera, the MDR Choir, the Salzburg Soloists, the Cologne Opera, and the WDR Choir. Concert recordings and radio productions have been made for MDR, BR, NDR, and Deutschlandradio Berlin, among others.

In addition to his work at the Köthen Music School, Christoph Sobanski taught at the “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” University of Music and Theater from 1994 to 2000 and at Martin Luther University Halle from 1997 to 2000. In the summer semester of 2000, he was appointed lecturer in piano and practical piano teaching at the University of Siegen. In addition, he served as a permanent visiting lecturer at the Federal Academy for Musical Youth Education in Trossingen from 1997 to 2004.

His academic interest in the theory and practice of piano pedagogy and its history led to his dissertation on the piano methods of Ignaz Moscheles and François Joseph Fétis. He successfully completed the corresponding doctoral program (major in music education, minors in musicology and psychology) at the “Franz Liszt” University of Music in Weimar. As an active member of the “Saarbrücken Discussion Group”—a working group of instructors in the field of “piano methodology” from all German-speaking conservatories—Christoph Sobanski regularly engages with current issues and trends in piano instruction.

Through his long-standing collaboration with renowned music publishers (including G. Henle-Verlag, Munich, F. Hofmeister-Verlag, Leipzig) as an editor and arranger, Christoph Sobanski has numerous publications to his credit; one of his piano reductions was awarded the “Best Edition” music publishing prize at the 2007 Frankfurt Music Fair. His arrangements—for example, for piano for eight hands—are published by Helm&Baynov Verlag in Kempten, which specializes in music for piano ensembles.

In addition to his own artistic and university teaching activities, working with children and young people remains very important to him—for example, in the training of particularly gifted young people (junior students) and as a juror at various competitions such as the International Bach Competition for Young Pianists in Köthen (regularly since 2011) or “Jugend musiziert.” Among his (former) students are numerous prize winners at the “Jugend musiziert” competition at the regional, state, and national levels, as well as, for example, at the Van Bremen Piano Competition in Dortmund, the nationwide Breitkopf Competition for Piano Improvisation, and the national “Schulpraktisches Klavierspiel” competition in Weimar. As the pianist for the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk Leipzig Children’s Choir, he participated in more than 400 concerts as well as numerous radio, television, and CD productions between 1992 and 2012.