Matthias Kowalczyk - Schagerl Artist
When did you start playing Schagerl trumpets and how did you get into Schagerl?
When I was about 15 years old, I tested a friend's Schagerl in the regional youth orchestra. I was immediately amazed at how easy it was to play this trumpet. Intonation, response, sound... suddenly I was able to do some things that I had previously struggled with much more easily. Then it was clear: I also needed a Schagerl! A short time later, with the help of my teacher at the time, Tobias Füller, I bought a second-hand instrument, model D2.
Soon afterwards, I got to know Michl Schiller at various instrument exhibitions and with him also new Schagerl models. During my studies, I bought a Bb and C trumpet Hörsdorf Heavy, on which I then also completed my auditions.
Which instruments do you use?
I now play a ‘Berlin Heavy’ Bb trumpet and my ‘Hörsdorf Heavy’ C trumpet, which accompanied me during my studies.
Who has influenced you in your career?
That's very difficult to pin down to individual people. Of course, I owe a lot to my teachers.
Tobias Füller gave me great methodological impulses, Klaus Schuhwerk conscientiously and fatherly guided me to mental strength in order to win an audition and be able to pursue the profession of solo trumpeter. Jürgen Ellensohn showed me how to reach my goal with great ambition and Kurt Nagel helped me to look at trumpet playing from a completely different angle, more naturally, with a clear sense of style.
The longer I think about the question, the more I realise that without my first teacher at the music school in Bochum, Todor Gaytandjiev, I probably wouldn't have discovered the great joy of making music. I remember very well how ‘Teddy’ always entered the music school with two huge suitcases filled to the brim with trumpet literature from all eras, mainly Russian and Slavic Romanticism. He is an excellent pianist, I never played a note on the trumpet during our lessons without him accompanying me on the piano.
Vita
Matthias Kowalczyk, born in Bochum in 1988, received his first trumpet lessons at the age of 6 and was already a junior student at the age of 15, initially at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf, before moving to the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt in the class of Prof Klaus Schuhwerk.
Matthias Kowalczyk has been principal trumpet in the Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra since 2010 and regularly performs with renowned orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bavarian State Orchestra of the Munich State Opera, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra Hamburg, the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin, the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne and the HR Symphony Orchestra Frankfurt.
Since 2019 he has been a member of the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra.
He has performed as a soloist with the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra and the Mainz Philharmonic State Orchestra, where he was also a scholarship holder in the 2009/2010 season.
In addition to his artistic activities, he is dedicated to teaching young musicians at the music academies in Mainz and Basel, as well as the Wiesbaden Music Academy.
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