Izmir Festival > Program > The Easy-Riders of Viennese Classic
Thursday, July 12, 2025 ● İzmir Historical Agora ● 21.00
"The Easy-Riders of Viennese Classic"
ENSEMBLE 4.1 PIANO WİNDTET
“The Sonic Explorers”
Thomas Hoppe, piano
Alexander Glücksmann, clarinet
Christoph Knitt, bassoon
Sebastian Posch, horn
Jörg Schneider, oboe
Ensemble 4.1
The only "Piano Windtet" worldwide: Ensemble 4.1
(Opus Klassik 2019 nominee)
FOUR wind soloists and ONE pianist Thomas Hoppe, who are passionate about chamber music, dedicate themselves to this wonderful, yet undiscovered genre of music.
Their extraordinary power of communication and their dazzling on-stage atmosphere, praised by critics, have become the hallmark of the Ensemble 4.1. In addition to original masterpieces by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven for this setting, the Ensemble is dedicated to discovering rarely performed compositions from the early 19th century to the 20th century. After many years, piano windsets by Walter Gieseking, Theodor Verhey, Heinrich von Herzogenberg and Gustav Holst are being re-performed for enthusiastic audiences.
Thomas Hoppe, piano
Thomas Hoppe is widely recognized as one of the finest piano partners of his generation. He has performed with artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Antje Weithaas, Tabea Zimmermann, Alban Gerhardt, Jens Peter Maintz and Frans Helmerson, to name but a few. Born in 1971, the German pianist went to the USA as a student of Lee Luvisi and later completed his studies at the Juilliard School in New York City, where he was a long-time studio pianist for Dorothy DeLay and Itzhak Perlman.
As pianist of the ATOS Trio he performs worldwide and has won many prizes and awards since the group´s inception in 2003. Recently, a complete recording of Ludwig van Beethoven's piano trios was released as a live recording from the Wigmore Hall. Hoppe also regularly tours internationally and records with the ensemble 4.1 piano windtet.
For what has been almost two decades, Hoppe continues his association as piano partner for international competitions, such as the Concours Reine Elisabeth in Brussels, the Joseph Joachim Violin Competition in Hannover, the Indianapolis Violin Competition or the Singapore Violin Competition.
The pianist teaches master classes in piano accompaniment and chamber music throughout Europe, Australia, China, South America and the USA, most recently as a lecturer at the Zhuhai Violin Festival 2020 in China or as a jury member at the Trondheim Chamber Music Competition TICC 2019.
Appearances with string quartets complete his concert schedule - with the Shanghai Quartet, the Modigliani Quartet, the Mandelring Quartet or the Simply Quartet.
Since April 2018 he is professor of piano chamber music at the Folkwang University in Essen. He also works at the Hochschule fur Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin, and, with the Atos Trio, teaches chamber music at the Accademia Perosi in Biella, Italy.
Thomas Hoppe lives with his family and a small dog in Berlin.
Jörg Schneider, Oboe
Jörg Schneider grew up in Berlin and received his first oboe lessons from Carsten Schlottke and Christoph Hartmann. He studied in Berlin and Munich under Professor Ricardo Rodrigues, Professor Burkhard Glaetzner, Mario Kaminski and Francois Leleux.
Jörg Schneider performed with orchestras such as the Ensemble Modern, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra or the German Symphony Orchestra (DSO) Berlin.
In 2006 he was appointed Principal Oboe and Professor of the National Ensemble of Spain for Contemporary Music.
Jörg Schneider is also Principal Oboe for the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra and plays regularly as Principal Oboe with the Ensemble Resonanz or the Camerata Salzburg.
He is a winner of International chamber music competitions in Osaka, Marseille and Schwerin and a scholarship holder of the German Music Competition.
Alexander Glücksmann, clarinet
Alexander Glücksmann began playing the clarinet at the age of nine.
During his studies under Professor Diethelm Kühn at Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin he participated in numerous chamber music and master classes, including under Eduard Brunner, Karl Leister and Karl-Heinz Steffens. His first orchestral experience was as principal clarinet for several youth symphony orchestras in Berlin and Brandenburg, - including the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in 1999, under the direction of Daniel Barenboim.
After completing his studies Alexander Glücksmann won a scholarship to the Herbert von Karajan Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic.
In 2003 he was appointed principal clarinet of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra. Since then Alexander has also been with many German orchestras and also as principal clarinet, including with the Comic Opera Berlin, the State Opera Unter den Linden, the Semper Opera Dresden, the Concert House Orchestra Berlin, the Potsdam Chamber Academy, the Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra and the State Theatre Braunschweig.
However, Alexander’s great love is and always has been chamber music, to which he has devoted himself after completing his studies. He has performed several times at the Opera Barga chamber music festival in Italy with members of the Berlin Philharmonic. He has also accepted invitations to the Kremerata Lockenhaus, the Chamber Music Festival Davos, the Richard Strauss Festival Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the Chamber Music Days in Barth, as well as international festivals in Israel, Spain and Kurdistan. He also frequently works on contemporary music projects with the Chamber Ensemble Quillo.
Christoph Knitt, bassoon
Christoph Knitt was born in Berlin and attended the Hanns Eisler Special School of Music and then studied at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin under Professor Klaus Thunemann. He was a soloist and partner in chamber music ensembles at an early age when he participated in the summer and winter courses in historical and modern interpretation for young instrumentalists at the Kloster Michaelstein Music Institute.
He gained his first experience as an orchestral musician as principal bassoon in the State Youth Orchestra of Saxony-Anhalt. Solo performances as a member of this orchestra also resulted in solo recordings in collaboration with the central German broadcasting company MDR. Broadcast appearances at the Schwetzingen Festival followed. He was principal bassoon in the RIAS Youth Orchestra Berlin and the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie (German Students' Orchestra) conducted by Kurt Masur, Gerd Albrecht and Michael Gielen. In 1999/2000 he was a frequent substitute in the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra and in 2001 he was given a temporary contract as principal bassoon. In the same year he became an intern at the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin (RSB). In 2002 he appeared with the Petersen Quartet at the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg, and from 2002-2003 he had a temporary contract as principal bassoon at the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki. At the beginning of the 2003/2004 season he was given a temporary contract in the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Berlin. Since 2006 he has been principal bassoon at the Potsdam Chamber Academy and a member of the Persius Ensemble. Through regular temporary jobs he is also connected to orchestras such as the State Opera Unter den Linden in Berlin, the Comic Opera Berlin and the German Opera Berlin. In 2010 he accepted an invitation from the Philharmonic Octet of the Berlin Philharmonic to participate in Austrian Radio (ORF) concerts in Kufstein. Since 2009 Christoph Knitt has been working for cultural reconstruction in Iraq together with the Goethe Institute.
Sebastian Posch, horn
Sebastian Posch was born in Berlin and began his musical education at the age of five, initially on the violin. He received his first horn lessons at the age of eleven. He began his studies with Prof. Sebastian Weigle at the Berlin University of the Arts, continued on a scholarship with Prof. Froydis Ree Wekre in Oslo and finally switched to Prof. Christian-Friedrich Dallmann at the Berlin Academy of Music Hanns Eisler.
In 2001 he studied on a scholarship at the Orchestra Academy of the Staatskapelle Berlin, and the following year he was hired as a horn player at the Staatskapelle Berlin, a position he holds until today.
Sebastian Posch was a multiple first prize winner at the national competition "Jugend musiziert" and in 1999 won third prize at the international horn competition in Stams/Austria. He has given concerts as a soloist with the former Frankfurt/Oder State Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Altenburg-Gera Theater, the Young Symphony Berlin, the Berlin Chamber Academy and, in 2018, with the Göttinger Symphoniker. In the Apollo Hall of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden he performed, accompanied by the Ensemble Preussens Hofmusik of the Staatskapelle Berlin, as a soloist with Joseph Haydn's Horn Concerto No. 1 and as a chamber musician with György Ligeti's Horn Trio, among others. In 2014 he accompanied Radovan Vlatkovich in the solo quartet of Robert Schumann's Concert Piece for 4 horns by the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, of which he was also a member from 2008 to 2015.
As a mentor, he has taught several times at the Orchestra Academy of the Staatskapelle Berlin and the MCO Academy. Since 2007 he has been a lecturer at the Berlin University of the Arts.
