Ekkehard Beringer & Tomoko Takahashi
Biography Ekkehard Beringer & Tomoko Takahashi
Ekkehard Beringer
took double bass lessons from Karl-Heinz Bethmann and Rudolf Schlegel during his school years, starting at the age of ten in Hanover—unusually early for this instrument. His enthusiasm came from membership in youth orchestras: from the regional Jugendsinfonieorchester Hannover to the European Union Youth Orchestra and the international Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Orchester. He studied orchestral music with Wolfgang Güttler at the state conservatories in Cologne and Karlsruhe and was in the soloist class at the Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimar with Horst-Dieter Wenkel, earning a solo double bass performance degree (Konzertexamen) there in 2002.
At the age of 24, Ekkehard Beringer became a member of the Munich Philharmonic, then associate principal double bass of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and principal double bass with the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. He has been principal double bass in the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester since 2003, and has also performed as a soloist there. Solo and chamber music appearances have taken him to Switzerland, Croatia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic. In addition to his work as a soloist, orchestral and chamber musician, Ekkehard Beringer has increasingly focused on pedagogical work for several years: as a double bass teacher with the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Orchester, the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and the Bundesjugendorchester, as well as by giving master classes in the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Great Britain. Since 2008, in addition to his work with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, he has been a professor at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media. He plays a Matteo Goffriller (1659–1742) double bass.
Tomoko Takahashi
was born in Japan and took earliest lessons on the piano as a four-year-old in her homeland. In 1982 she continued her musical education at the University of the Arts in Tokyo. Starting in 1988, as a scholarship holder of the German Academic Exchange Service, she studied with Klaus Hellwig at the Berlin University of the Arts and earned a solo piano performance degree (Konzertexamen) with highest honors in 1995. Tomoko Takahashi twice won the Artur Schnabel Competition in Berlin as well as other awards.
The Berlin-based artist receives invitations to perform repertoire by Mozart, Schumann or Mendelssohn Bartholdy as a soloist at festivals, orchestras and conductors in many countries around the world, including several appearances at the Philharmonic Berlin. The flexibility and sensitivity of her playing also make Tomoko Takahashi a sought-after chamber music partner. She regularly performs with soloists from the Berliner Philharmoniker, the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and the Bamberger Symphoniker. Her CD with instrumental versions of Robert Schumann’s song cycles (viola and piano) was widely acclaimed by press and major German broadcasters. Tomoko Takahashi shares her musical insight with young musicians, among others within the Orchestra Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker. She is a lecturer at Berlin’s University of the Arts (UdK) and the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin.
