ChristophSietzen
- Percussion
About Christoph
The 2024-25 season sees Christoph as Artist in Residence at Koelner Philharmonie, where he brings various programmes alongside the Ancient Academy of Music and Bogdan Bacanu, MOTUS percussion, and Tabea Zimmermann and Mahan Esfahani in a programme for percussion, harpsichord and viola. Christoph will bring Johannes Maria Staud’s concerto Whereas the Reality Trembles to Cologne, with WDR Symphonieorchester and Brad Lubman, followed by performances with SWR Sinfonieorchester in Stuttgart and Hamburg and the Bruckner Orchester in Linz. These concerts follow Christoph’s world premiere performance of the work last season with the Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Most, and the Austrian premiere with Vienna Symphony and Andris Poga.
Other orchestral highlights include Christoph’s debut with HR Sinfonieorchester, performing Detlev Glanert’s percussion concerto in its German premiere alongside Andre de Ridder. Christoph will also bring the work to the Euskadiko Orchestra with Christoph-Mathias Meuller, with whom he recently performed the piece’s world premiere with the Arctic Philharmonic. Christoph has collaborated with orchestras such as the Bavarian, Austrian and Polish Radio Symphony Orchestras, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg and conductors such as Francois-Xavier Roth, Ilan Volkov, Marin Alsop, Howard Griffiths, Yutaka Sado, Frank Strobel, Alexander Liebreich and Cristian Mandeal.
Upcoming recital highlights include performances at Konzerthaus Berlin in collaboration with Christian Jost, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg with Sao Soulez Lariviere for the ECHO Rising Star concerts and Heidelberger Fruhling Festival with MOTUS Percussion.
Contact
For availability and general enquiries:
Jack Haynes
Edward Pascall
For contracts, logistics and press:
Joy Pidsley
Representation
Season Highlights
Video
- Playing
Christoph Sietzen - Staud Concerto
Watch the full production and interview on Adella.live, the digital home of The Cleveland Orchestra Credit: Adella Live / The Cleveland Orchestra
Maki Ishii, Thirteen Drums
Recorded live at Kloster Isenhagen. Credit: Christoph Sietzen
Bach, Gigue in E minor
Credit: wavequartet
Xenakis, Rebonds B
Recorded live at Weiner Konzerthaus. Credit: Christoph Sietzen
Thomas, Merlin II. Time's Way
Credit: Christoph Sietzen
Selected Repertoire
Glanert
Percussion Concerto
Staud
Whereas Reality Tremebles, Percussion Concerto
Sample Programmes
Percussion & Orchestra
Programme IANNIS XENAKIS: Rebonds A LOUISE FARRENC: Symphony No. 3 Interval IANNIS XENAKIS: Rebonds B ARNOLD SCHOENBERG: Five pieces for Orchestra PETER EÖTVÖS: Speaking Drums, four poems for solo percussions and orchestra
Percussion Quartet
JOSH GROBAN: The Wandering Kind GEORGES/SHCHEDRIN BIZET: Carmen Suite MAKI ISHII: Thirteen Drums Interval GASPARD LE ROUX: Pieces de Clavessin, Suite No.1 in D minor ASTOR PIAZZOLLA: "Aconcagua" Concerto for Accordion SUZANNE VEGA: Gypsy AVNER DORMAN: Udacrep Akrubrad
Percussion & Organ
Sofia Gubaidulina: Detto I Maki Ishii: Thirteen Drums for percussion solo Johann Sebastian Bach: Passacaglia BWV 582 Andrea Tarrodi: Poseidon (commande Philharmonie, KölnMusik, Bamberger Symphoniker et Wiener Konzerthaus) Toshi Ichiyanagi: The Source Arvo Pärt: Annum per annum Camille Saint-Saëns: Danse macabre (Totentanz) (arr. Christian Schmitt, Christoph Sietzen)
News
Press
Staud, Percussion Concerto
SWR SinfonieorchesterFeb 2025Sietzen had a great half hour surrounded by the rough and tumble equipment. From the marimba to flower pots, from cowbells to petrol canisters to extra-large wood blocks – everything was worked on with great enthusiasm for this obstacle course.
- Hamburger Abendblatt
- 09 February 2025
The percussionist Christoph Sietzen, who is not even disturbed by the slipping of a reused oil drum, turns Johannes Maria Staud's "Whereas The Reality Trembles" into a percussion showpiece like an athletic jack-in-the-box with incredibly agile arms.
- Stuttgarter Zeitung
- 11 February 2025
the percussion concerto “Whereas reality trembles” by Johannes Maria Staud with the brilliant whirlwind Christoph Sietzen as soloist is a strong, vital piece: speaking from within, alternating in contrast between the eruptive and the delicately shimmering, cleverly proportioned in terms of time and, with the battery of marimbas, drums, petrol canisters and flowerpots, also a visual spectacle.
- FAZ
- 12 February 2025
Staud, Percussion Concerto (World Premiere)
Severance Hall, ClevelandPassages that start as just great fun morph into moments of reckoning. Kinetic riffs give way to shimmering clouds of sound made with everything from ethereal bells to the mundane clunks of ceramic flowerpots, or the harsh rasp of a steel barrel used as a kick drum. After the work reaches a transfigured calm, it embarks on an entertaining but unsettling closing section, vigorous to the point of threat. ...the central role of the percussionist, combined with Sietzen’s flamboyant enthusiasm, casts him in a shamanic role in this concerto. An amazing performance of a compelling piece.
- Seen and Heard International
- 13 October 2023
Sietzen is a real showman, given to raising his arms high in the air, aggressively hitting his targets, running to and from instruments, even engaging in some audience banter when building the Frank Gehry-like structure that would be his trap set for the evening. His playing was thrilling, not the least for his obvious commitment to this leviathan of a work, which he collaborated in bringing to life. Also amazing was the coordination of his part with the Orchestra’s percussion section.
- Cleveland Classical
- 09 October 2023
Glanert Percussion Concerto (German Premiere)
Forum NSep 2024Above all, Sietzen himself was pleasing. His virtuosity is one side, the other is his sensuality of sound, such as the trembling intensity with which he approaches the vibraphone bars, full of trepidation about hitting them too hard.
- Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
- 15 September 2024
