Background and experience
Pianist, Chamber Music Partner and Musical Director in concert venues, theatres, festivals:
- Chamber Music in diverse ensembles
- Collaborative Piano
- Lieder/Opera/Chanson
- Audition, Competition and Solo Repertoire
Biography
Pianist Cordula Hacke is a successful and sought-after chamber music piano partner with an extremely extensive knowledge of the repertoire. She is also professor of Chamber Music and Collaborative Piano at the University of Agder (Norway), lecturer, jury member of international competitions and musical director of various musical, operetta and theater productions.
Her chamber music partners include principal wind and string players from some of the world’s greatest orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the German Radio Symphony Orchestras (Berlin, Frankfurt, Freiburg, Cologne and Stuttgart), the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Royal Danish Opera Orchestra, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
Her extensive discography ranges from the works of contemporary Japanese and women composers to those of artists such as Pavel Haas, Leo Smit, and Paul Hindemith. Having worked closely with American composer George Crumb for many years, Cordula Hacke has been invited to perform his works in prestigious festivals in Germany, Austria, Denmark, Canada, and the USA. Her recording of Crumb's Vox Balaenae was released by Arte Nova-BMG Classics. As an editor she has published works by Claude Debussy and Raoul Laparra with Musikverlag Zimmermann (Schott Music Company) and Edition Kossack.
She has collaborated with Jeanne Baxtresser, former principal flutist of the New York Philharmonic, in presenting acclaimed masterclasses in centres such as Frankfurt, Oxford, Toronto, New York, Pittsburgh and Amsterdam and she taught annually at the Salzburg Summer Academy as well as at Seoul National University, Sung Shin University and Yonsei University.
Cordula Hacke has served as official piano partner for the ARD International Music Competition (Munich), the Deutsche Musikrat Competition (Berlin), the Aeolus Competition, the Nicolet Competition, and the International Guangzhou Competition (China). From 2000 to 2013 she was a member of the teaching faculty at the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf and served on several juries of international competitions, e.g. the Internationaler Flötenwettbewerb Friedrich Kuhlau, Uelzen.
Acclaimed for her work as musical director in theatre, her productions include My Fair Lady, Acht Frauen, Kleiner Mann, was nun?, La Cage aux Folle, Singin’ in the rain, Evita, Sunset Boulevard, Die Fledermaus – leicht gekürzt (a pocket version of the famous operetta), Heisse Zeiten and the highly successful Frankfurt production of Spatz und Engel (The Angel and the Sparrow).
In 2016, she founded the Trio Art Nouveau, which is entirely dedicated to music for piano trio from the fin de siècle period. With a keen sense of style and timbre, the ensemble performs works from this era, including lesser-known compositions.
Since 2023, Cordula Hacke has been managing director of the Ferdinand W. Neess International Music Competition Foundation, Wiesbaden, as well as chair of the jury of its competition. The new concert series Klang Nouveau in the Museum Wiesbaden was also initiated by her and is supported by the foundation.
Photo Copyright: Monika Werneke
Areas of responsibility
Chamber Music and Collaborative piano
Research
Selected publications
- Claude Debussy, New arrangement of the Sonata for Flute and Piano (org. Violin and Piano), Zimmermann Musikverlag
- Raoul Laparra, New Edition of the Suite for Flute and Piano, Edition Kossack
- La Cage aux Folles, New Arrangement for 4 instruments, Gallissas Theaterverlag Berlin