Born in Darmstadt in 1969, German violinist Christoph Schickedanz began a multifaceted concert career after receiving awards as a soloist and chamber music interpreter at various competitions in Europe and the USA.

The starting point for his many years of teaching experience at university level was his pedagogical work in the USA as Associate Instructor in Violin Teaching at Indiana University, Bloomington in 1995. In 1997, he returned to Germany to take up a teaching position at the Berlin University of the Arts as assistant to his former professor, Uwe-Martin Haiberg. In 2001, he was appointed visiting professor at the same institute and also began teaching a violin class at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. In 2004 he accepted a full-time professorship at the University of Music and Theater in Hamburg, where he continues to teach today. There, he served for several years as head of the string department, vice dean, dean, and is currently vice dean again. Between 2018 and 2022, he also taught regularly at the Music Academy in Brescia, Italy.

Numerous graduates of his violin studio have received international awards, including winners of the Italian violin competitions Rodolfo Lipizer in Gorizia and Valsesia in Vercelli, and have held or currently hold positions in German orchestras (including Aachen, Augsburg, Berlin, Bochum, Bremen, Chemnitz, Cottbus, Darmstadt, Dortmund, Essen, Flensburg, Freiburg, Giessen, Göttingen, Hamburg, Hannover, Heilbronn, Leipzig, Lübeck, Lüneburg, Munich, Münster, Neustrelitz, Oldenburg, Osnabrück, Passau, Recklinghausen, Schwerin and Wiesbaden) or abroad (Bulgaria, China, Denmark, Japan, Luxembourg, Norway, Qatar, South Korea, Spain, USA, etc.) or have already taken up teaching positions of their own, e.g., at the Chinese conservatories in Shanghai, Tianjin, and Wuhan, as well as at Tongji University Shanghai or SunYat-sen University Guangzhou.

Professor Schickedanz regularly gives master classes in Europe and has also received invitations to teach at universities such as the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, the Shanghai Conservatory, Tongji University, California State University Long Beach, Conservatries in Granada und Palma de Mallorca or music institutions in Kiev/Ukraine, Havana/Cuba or Port of Spain/Trinidad.

He initiated the International Violin Summer Academy, which took place for the first time in 2019 under his artistic direction at the Bavarian Music Academy in Hammelburg. With a focus on the violin and its diverse possibilities, he established an innovative, unique, and interactive teaching concept based on collegiality. He is also chairman of the jury of the Hammelburg International Violin Competition.

Since 2022, violin and chamber music masterclasses and a music festival have also been held regularly on the Thai island of Phuket on his initiative and under his artistic direction in collaboration with the local Phuket School of Music.

For health reasons, he had to quit his previously busy concert activity, which included performances in Asia, Europe and North America. However, over 80 works recorded on CD document his work as a performer.

The recording of the 6 solo sonatas and partitas by Johann Sebastian Bach, released by Audite in 2018, was nominated for the International Classical Music Awards 2019. His CD featuring Johannes Brahms’ complete works for violin and piano, recorded in collaboration with Japanese-Canadian pianist Chiharu Iinuma and released by the US label Centaur, received special recognition from the British Gramophone Magazine in 2020. The latest and last releases are two CDs recorded with pianist Ernst Breidenbach featuring duo music for violin and piano by Dutch-German composer Julius Röntgen, and a double CD on the cpo label, co-produced with Deutschlandfunk Cologne, featuring the complete duo music for violin and piano by German Romantic composer Friedrich Gernsheim.

As a passionate chamber musician, Schickedanz played with the Gililov Quartet Berlin (formerly the Berlin Philharmonic Piano Quartet) during the last few years until the ensemble disbanded, and was a founding member of the Johannes Kreisler Piano Trio.

Mr. Schickedanz initially received his professional training at the MHS Freiburg under Jörg Hofmann and completed his soloist diploma, the German „Konzertexamen“, with Uwe-Martin Haiberg at the UdK Berlin. A scholarship granted by the German Academic Exchange Service DAAD enabled him to round off his artistic training at Indiana University Bloomington with Franco Gulli. Further important influences were chamber music studies with György Sebők and Leonard Hokanson.

In recent years, composing has become increasingly appealing to Christoph Schickedanz. Since the release of his first original composition, a piano quartet, in 2018, he has enjoyed growing popularity among his fellow musicians and, increasingly, among music lovers. For example, Hessischer Rundfunk has broadcast his “Quintet” for trumpet, violin, viola, cello and piano, which premiered in 2020, several times. In 2021, his ‚Rondo’ for piano received the highest rating at the “2nd World Championship in Composition” in Vienna, winning second prize its category. “Canto doloroso e danza” for solo cello was awarded third prize at the “2nd International Music Competition” of the “Academia Musica,” also in Vienna, and finally, he was a finalist in the ‘SIMM’ composition competition in Milan with his work “Suite piccola” for harpsichord.

When he again took part in the “Academia Musica” competition in Vienna, all 3 submitted works received 3rd prizes: the piano trio, the Fantasy Movement for septet and the studies for piano-forte – with the latter two receiving the second highest rating in their respective categories. In addition, his arrangement of Schoenberg’s string sextet “Verklärte Nacht” for piano quartet, which was celebrated by the audience and received extremely positive reviews from the press at its premiere in the Chamber Music Hall of the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, was added to the repertoire of the Notos Piano Quartet and has since been performed frequently in several European countries.

In 2024, the Mandelring Quartet commissioned a String Quintet for its 40th anniversary season, which was subsequently performed at the Berlin Philharmonic Chamber Music Hall, among others. In addition, in July 2024 the premiere of the Fantasy Movement for Septet marked the first performance of one of his works in the Czech Republic.

Following the highly successful release of his first CD featuring examples of his chamber music oeuvre on the Dreyer Gaido Records label, recordings of his quartet, quintet, and sextet for strings will follow in 2026.

In his compositions, Schickedanz neither follows current compositional styles or schools, nor does he conform stylistically to expectations, conditions, or even dogmas in order to satisfy an aesthetic dictated by the spirit of the times. Instead, his works simply reflect his many years of experience as a performer in a highly independent and individual musical language.