Jens Peter Maintz, cello

Jens Peter Maintz enjoys an outstanding reputation as a versatile soloist, sought-after chamber musician and committed cello teacher. Originally from Hamburg, he studied with David Geringas and participated in masterclasses with other great cellists such as Heinrich Schiff, Boris Pergamenschikow, Frans Helmerson and Siegfried Palm. He was also influenced by his intensive chamber music studies with Uwe-Martin Haiberg and Walter Levin.

In 1994 he won the first prize in the ARD International Music Competition, which had not been awarded to a cellist for 17 years.

He has accumulated many years of valuable orchestral experience as principal cellist of the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and has traveled the world as a member of the renowned Fontenay Trio. Since 2006, Jens Peter Maintz has been principal cellist of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra at the invitation of Claudio Abbado.

His solo career has brought him into contact with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Herbert Blomstedt, Marek Janowski, Dmitry Kitajenko, Franz Welser-Möst, Reinhard Goebel and Bobby McFerrin. He has performed as a soloist with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the MDR Symphony Orchestra Leipzig, the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Residenzorchester Den Haag and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. In addition to the classical repertoire, Jens Peter Maintz has performed numerous works by contemporary composers, from Isang Yun to Georg Friedrich Haas.

Since 2004 he has been a professor at the Berlin University of the Arts, where he teaches an exceptionally successful cello class. Many of its students are winners of major international competitions and some hold prominent positions in major orchestras.

Jens Peter Maintz is also in demand as a chamber musician. He is a member of the prestigious concert series “Spectrum Concerts Berlin” and performs with chamber music partners such as Janine Jansen, Boris Brovtsyn, Torleif Thedéen, Hélène Grimaud, Kolja Blacher, Isabelle Faust, Antoine Tamestit, as well as the Artemis, Carmina and Auryn Quartets.

It has been 25 years since he formed the cello duo “Cello Duello” with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt. Together they perform at the world’s most important festivals, such as the Kronberg Festival, the Amsterdam Cello Biennale and the Piatigorsky International Cello Festival.

For his Sony Classical CD of solo works by Bach, Dutilleux and Kodaly, Jens Peter Maintz received an ECHO-Klassik award. His highly acclaimed recording of Haydn’s cello concertos with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen was released on the Berlin Classics label.

Since 2017, he has been a professor at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid.

Jens Peter Maintz plays the “Ex-Servais” cello made by Giovanni Grancino in 1697.