Erik Richter

Erik Richter studied at the Cologne University of Music and Dance, the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest and Mannheim University of Music and Performing Arts with the professors Susanne Müller-Hornbach, Ottó Kertész and Michael Flaksman. His training likewise included numerous masterclasses and collaborations with artists including Heinrich Schiff, Siegfried Palm, Mstislav Rostropovich, Professor Gerhard Mantel, Professor György Déri, Professor Leslie Parnas, Professor Ulrich Leyendecker, András Schiff and Helmuth Rilling.

Since his student days, Richter has been in demand as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral cellist, both in Germany and abroad, at events such as Musikfest Stuttgart, Rheingau Musik Festival, the International Beethoven Festival in Bonn and the Athens Festival. He played with the Norddeutsche Kammerphilharmonie until 2001, latterly as the principal cellist. Whilst studying in Hungary he was a member of Budapest’s Dohnányi Symphony Orchestra.

Since 2003, Richter has been teaching cello and chamber music at Kronberg Academy’s Emanuel Feuerman Conservatory, of which he is Co-Artistic Director. He founded the Music Academy Wuppertal in 2013, now the Internationale Musikakademie Ruhr. From 2014 to 2017, he was a visiting lecturer at the Wuppertal site of Cologne University of Music and Dance. Erik Richter is the director of the Kronberg Youth String Orchestra.

Richter acts as an adjudicator for a range of competitions (e.g. Jugend Musiziert). In addition, he gives regular masterclasses and has initiated various musical projects and courses, including with the Internationaler Arbeitskreis für Musik (International Working Group for Musik - IAM), the Akademie der Kulturellen Bildung (Academy for Cultural Education) in Remscheid (Germany), in Girona (Spain), Florence and Castelluccio (Italy), at the “Wuppertaler Musiksommer” and at the Conservatorio di Musica Giovan Battista Martini in Bologna (Italy).

His pupils have won numerous competition prizes (e.g. Jugend Musiziert, Mendelssohn Competition) and include past and present students of German universities of music. They likewise perform with many different orchestras, some of them as soloists.