Violin, Piano

Frank-Michael Erben | Violine

Charlotte Steppes | Klavier

The duo, founded in 2023 with Frank-Michael Eben and Charlotte Steppes, will perform Mendelssohn's Concerto for Violin and Piano alongside the Gewandhaus Orchestra under the direction of Marek Janowski in October 2024.

Frank-Michael Erben comes from a family of musicians in Leipzig and began playing the violin at the age of five. At just seven years old, he was admitted to the University of Music and Theatre 'Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy' in Leipzig, where he completed his violin studies with Klaus Hertel and Gerhard Bosse. As a soloist, Frank-Michael Erben first performed with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Kurt Masur in 1986 and, at the age of twenty-one, was chosen as the orchestra’s concertmaster a year later. Since then, he has regularly appeared as a guest with internationally renowned orchestras and as a soloist under conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Kurt Masur, Herbert Blomstedt, and Riccardo Chailly.

The 24-year-old pianist Charlotte Steppes has earned an excellent reputation within just a few years. Even before her studies with her teacher and mentor Josef Christof, the young virtuoso performed chamber music with musicians of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. In May 2024, she performed with Anne-Sophie Mutter at the Gewandhaus in Lutoslawski’s 'Partita' for Violin and Orchestra, which includes several duo intermezzos for violin and piano. Charlotte Steppes was a member of the Gewandhaus Orchestra Academy from 2021 to 2023 and played both at the Leipzig Opera and in the 'Großes Concert' as the orchestra pianist with renowned conductors such as Andris Nelsons, Cristian Macelaru, and Alan Gilbert. She has performed several times as a soloist with the MDR Symphony Orchestra under Dennis Russell Davies, including in the live broadcast concert celebrating the '100th anniversary of the Radio Orchestra,' where she performed the solo piano part in Charles Ives' 4th Symphony, as well as piano concertos by Edvard Grieg and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. With the Staatskapelle Weimar, Charlotte Steppes recorded Hwiman Ryu's Piano Concerto for a video production. She has also appeared as a soloist with other orchestras and at the Leipzig Chopin Days and the Stuttgart Music Festival.

Contact

Maschmann – Agency for Music and Art
Corsicaskamp 13
49076 Osnabrück
Germany

Mobile +49. (0)178. 7505854
Office +49. (0)541. 40712873
mail@ka-maschmann.de