Andreas GROETHUYSEN
Andreas Groethuysen, born in Munich in 1956, after having finished grammar school explored several academic fields (like philosophy and medicine) before he decided on music. He studied the piano with Ludwig Hoffmann at the Music Academy in Munich and, after graduation and master studies, with Peter Feuchtwanger in London.
After his studies he was admitted to the "Bundesauswahl Junger Künstler" which enabled him to play numerous concerts with solo music, chamber music and orchestra in Germany. In the mid-1980s he decided to team up with Yaara Tal as a piano duo, which over the years became the center of his artistic activities.
Since then the duo has performed regularly at such prominent venues as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Philharmonies Berlin, Cologne and Munich, Teatro alla Scala Milano, Musikhalle Hamburg, Hongkong Arts Festival, Lucerne Festival, Frick Collection New York, Forbidden City Concert Hall Peking, Piano-Festival La Roque d´Anthéron, Klavierfestival Ruhr, Salzburger Festspiele, Musikverein Vienna, Tonhalle Zürich - to name only a few.
The exclusive cooperation with the record company SONY CLASSICAL makes up an important part of their international success: The Duo Tal & Groethuysen has released more than 30 recordings of piano music for four hands (largely world première recordings e.g. of pieces by Carl Czerny, Reinhard Febel, Theodore Gouvy, Charles Koechlin, Felix Mendelssohn, Max Reger, Robert Schumann, Richard Wagner) which have brought them great acclaim from critics and the public alike.
Their CD's have won the coveted “Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik” no less than ten times, while the German Phono Academy has awarded its “Echo Klassik” prize to five of their recordings, including the complete recordings of Schubert´s music for four hands and the complete Mozart piano duos. Other awards from outside Germany, such as the “Cannes Classical Award“, “Editor´s Choice“ by Gramophone and the “Supersonic Award“ reflect their high international reputation.
Andreas Groethuysen was repeatedly invited to juries of national and international competitions and chaired the jury at the ARD competition for piano duo several times.
Yaara Tal and Andreas Groethuysen concentrated their pedagogic activities on master classes in several countries for many years. In 1995 the Japanese educational program of NHK produced a series of eight programs with them. In 2004 the duo started to mentor the master studies for piano duo at the Academy for Music and Theater in Munich. And since October 2014 Andreas Groethuysen is teaching a class for solo piano and for piano duo (master studies) at the Mozarteum University Salzburg.
