Jens Peter Maintz

Jens Peter Maintz enjoys an outstanding reputation as a versatile soloist, highly sought-after chamber musician and committed cello teacher. Born in Hamburg, he studied with David Geringas and took part in masterclasses with cellists such as Heinrich Schiff, Boris Pergamenschikow, Frans Helmerson and Siegfried Palm. He was further influenced by his intensive chamber music study with Uwe-Martin Haiberg and Walter Levin. In 1994 he won first prize in the ARD international Music Competition, which had previously not been awarded to a cellist for 17 years.
He gathered several years of valuable orchestral experience as principal cello of the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester in Berlin, and travelled the world as a member of the renowned Trio Fontenay.
Since 2006 Jens Peter Maintz has been principal cello of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, on the invitation of Claudio Abbado.
As a soloist he made music conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Herbert Blomstedt, Marek Janowski, Dmitry Kitajenko, Franz Welser-Möst, Reinhard Goebel and Bobby McFerrin and famous orchestras from Berlin, Leipzig, Stuttgart, Den Haag, Tokyo etc. Jens Peter Maintz has performed numerous works by contemporary composers from Isang Yun to Georg Friedrich Haas.
Since 2004 he has been professor at Berlin University of the Arts, 2017 he has been appointed professor at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid.
Jens Peter Maintz is equally in great demand as a chamber musician. He performs with chamber music partners such as Janine Jansen, Boris Brovtsyn, Torleif Thedéen, Hélène Grimaud, Kolja Blacher, Isabelle Faust, Antoine Tamestit, and also the Artemis, Carmina and Auryn Quartets.
It is now 25 years since he formed the cello duo ‚Cello Duello‘ with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt.
His recordings of solo pieces by Bach, Dutilleux and Kodaly, and Haydn’s cello concertos with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen has received high acclaims.
Jens Peter Maintz plays the ‚Ex-Servais‘ cello made by Giovanni Grancino in 1697.