Wolfram Rieger
piano
© Daniel Pasche
Wolfram Rieger comes from Waldsassen (Oberpfalz/Bayern) and started learning to play the piano at home, and then with Konrad Pfeiffer in Regensburg. He then studied with Erik Werba and Helmut Deutsch at the University for Music in Munich, with whom an increasing love for Lieder developed, graduating with distinction. Masterclasses held by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Hans Hotter and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau gave him further inspiration. Whilst still a student he was engaged by the music university in Munich as an accompanist; and a few years later he was running his own classes in Lieder singing. He became a professor for Lieder at the Hans Eisler University for Music in Berlin in 1998. Wolfram Rieger's busy international concert career now takes him all over the world, where he has accompanied people including Brigitte Fassbaender, Barbara Bonney, Anja Harteros, Christiane Karg, Thomas Hampson, Olaf Bär, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Matthias Goerne, Thomas Quasthoff, Peter Schreier, Michael Schade and he partners the Cherubini, Petersen and Vogler quartets. He is a regular guest at leading international venues and festivals and runs courses in interpretation in Europe and Japan. Many of his recordings, for various labels, have won prizes. He was also honoured by being awarded the Franz Schubert Society in Barcelona's Honorary Medal and the International Hugo Wolf Academy in Stuttgart's Hugo Wolf Medal.