Carl Steppes

Carl Steppes, born in Leipzig in 2004, has been studying with Prof. Johannes Gmeinder at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Academy of Music and Theater in Leipzig since October 2022. His musical education began at the age of 5 at the “Johann Sebastian Bach” music school in Leipzig, initially with the recorder. He has been taking clarinet lessons since 2013, including with Edgar Heßke. He has won several national prizes in both solo and chamber music competitions at “Jugend Musiziert”, including a 1st national prize in the clarinet solo category. As a long-standing member of the Leipzig Youth Symphony Orchestra, he gained his first orchestral experience, including concert tours to Japan, Greece and Denmark. He gained further concert experience, also as a solo clarinettist, with the LJO Sachsen, the Junge Kammerphilharmonie Sachsen, the Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra Leipzig and the Leipzig Philharmonic Orchestra. Performances have taken him to important concert halls such as the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Vienna Musikverein, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf and the Kulturpalast Dresden. Carl was a scholarship holder at the International Starnberg Music Days 2023. He is also a founding member of the “ariaventus ensemble”, a young woodwind quintet from Leipzig. Carl Steppes has been an academy member of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra since February 2025.