For decades, Tanja Tetzlaff has been one of the most influential musicians of her generation, both as soloist and chamber musician. Her playing is characterised by a uniquely fine yet powerful, and nuanced sound, accompanied by her great musicality. Going beyond the presentation of classical music, incorporating other art forms and engaging with contemporary events is a particular passion of Tanja Tetzlaff. In April 2021, Tanja Tetzlaff became the first scholarship holder to be awarded the highly endowed Glenn Gould Bach Fellowship of the city of Weimar. She now has the opportunity to realise a film project over two years relating Bach’s famous cello suites to nature and issues of climate change.
Tanja Tetzlaff’s trademark is her extraordinarily broad repertoire. In addition to the great concertos of the standard cello repertoire, she has a strong affinity to the cello concertos by Unsuk Chin, John Casken, Witold Lutosławski, Jörg Widmann and Bernd Alois Zimmermann. In September 2022, she will premiere the Double Concerto for Cello & Percussion by Olga Neuwirth with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra and percussionist Hans-Kristian Sörensen. Further performances of the work are planned with the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Wien, Swedish Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestre de chambre de Paris during the 2022/23 season.
In the 2022/23 season, Tanja Tetzlaff will be artist-in-residence with the Mecklenburgische Staatskapelle Schwerin, presenting a variety of orchestral and chamber concerts. Other highlights of the season include concerts with the Kristiansand Symfoniorkester, Staatskapelle Berlin, Philharmonisches Orchester Freiburg, Musikalische Akademie Mannheim, NDR Radiophilharmonie and Essener Philharmoniker. In the field of chamber music, she will be touring the USA in spring 2023 in a trio with her brother Christian Tetzlaff and the pianist Kiveli Dörken. She will also appear with the Tetzlaff Quartett at venues included Konzerthaus Dortmund, the Pierre Boulez Saal and the Liszt Academy Budapest, as well as exciting projects with the Signum Saxophone Quartet and many more.
„She inspired with great tone and enormous expressive dimension – fantastic!“
rbb Kultur
Over the course of her career, Tanja Tetzlaff has performed with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Philharmonia Orchestra in London and Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as well as Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and NHK Symphony Orchestra. She has worked with renowned conductors including Alan Gilbert, Daniel Harding, Philippe Herreweghe, Heinz Holliger, Paavo Järvi, Sir Roger Norrington and Robin Ticciati.
Chamber music is a great passion of Tanja Tetzlaff. She is a founding member of the Tetzlaff Quartett, formed in 1994 together with Christian Tetzlaff, Elisabeth Kufferath and Hanna Weinmeister, and since then the quartet have appeared on stages worldwide. Other regular chamber music partners include violinist Florian Donderer, pianist Lauma Skride, the Signum Saxophone Quartet and a septet led by violinist Franziska Hölscher.
Recordings appear on CAvi, Ars, NEOS and Ondine, including concertos by Wolfgang Rihm and Ernst Toch. A solo recording with Bach suites and works by Thorsten Encke was released in October 2019.
Tanja Tetzlaff studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg with Professor Bernhard Gmelin and at the Mozarteum Salzburg with Professor Heinrich Schiff. Since the winter semester 2021/22, she has held a professorship in the cello department at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. She plays a cello by Giovanni Baptista Guadagnini from 1776.
