Eckhard Schmidt

Eckhard Schmidt was born in Stuttgart in 1963. While still a student, he became principal trumpet of the Berlin Symphonic Orchestra. In 1989 he graduated from the Stuttgart Music Academy with a teaching and a performance diploma. In 1988 he became principal trumpet of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra. Since 1994 he has also taught trumpet at the Hamburg Academy of Music and Theatre, where he has held a part-time professorship since 2000. He has been invited as a guest musician by the major German and international orchestras (NDR Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Bamberg Symphonic Orchestra, Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Heilbronn Chamber Orchestra, Barcelona Opera Orchestra, Real Filharmonia de Galicia and others), and has benefited from working with conductors such as Christoph von Dohnanyi, Christoph Eschenbach, John Eliot Gardiner, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Herbert von Karajan, Roger Norrington, André Previn, Helmuth Rilling and others. He divides his time between a busy teaching schedule in Germany and abroad, including at the International Bach Academy in Stuttgart, and extensive national and international concert performances as a soloist.