Modern Music Production for Classical Music.
Playing and Composing
I earned my degree in Tonmeister studies at the Erich Thienhaus Institute (University of Music Detmold) and studied composition at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig under Reinhard Pfundt. Since then, my compositions have been performed frequently and have been featured on various labels. When I am not in the studio or a concert hall, I am at the piano practicing or composing.
I may be a Tonmeister by trade, but I am, first and foremost, a musician.
Performing with Carolina Eyck
As a pianist, I have enjoyed a long-standing collaboration with world-renowned thereminist Carolina Eyck. Our duo has performed concerts across Europe, the USA, and Chile, and released two albums – including my Sonatas for Theremin and Piano, which mark the first two sonatas ever written for this instrumentation. The sonatas explore the technical boundaries of the theremin, treating it not as a novelty, but as a serious virtuosic partner to the piano.
As a duo, we have performed this repertoire at renowned festivals such as Caramoor (NY) and Grafenegg (AT).
Additionally, we recorded an album with un-edited improvisations for the US indie label Butterscotch Records at Studio G, Brooklyn, NY.
The performance to the right took place during the “Klassik XL” gala concert, honoring the 2015 ECHO Klassik award winners—among them, Carolina herself. The story behind this appearance reflects the typical duality of my musical life: I spent the day supervising a chamber music production in Berlin, traveling directly from the recording session to the concert hall.
Key Works
(Audio excerpts below not recorded by me)
Sonatas for Theremin and Piano
When Carolina Eyck presented a lecture at the Leipzig University of Music and Theatre in 2011, my knowledge of the theremin was purely theoretical. However, I was immediately struck by the instrument’s untapped potential and Carolina’s extraordinary mastery of it. Shortly thereafter, I began sketching what would become my first theremin sonata.
From the outset, my goal was to look beyond the instrument’s novelty. I wanted to compose music that, while honoring the theremin’s unique physical properties, placed the focus squarely on the musician’s interpretive depth and expressive capability.
Our recording of the two three-movement sonatas, alongside two shorter Intermezzi for Theremin and Piano, was captured in the Mendelssohn-Saal of the Gewandhaus zu Leipzig and released on the label Genuin (the audio excerpt is from the first sonata of this recording).
Piano Trio on Motifs by J.S. Bach (2019)
Commissioned by the Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft for the 80th birthday of Dr. Arend Oetker—entrepreneur and long-standing Chairman of the Board of the Leipzig Bach Archive—this trio is a spirited, mischievous celebration of Bach’s music.
Drawing on motifs from BWV 772, 847, and 850, the work was premiered at the Gewandhaus zu Leipzig (Mendelssohn-Saal) by Friedrich Thiele (violoncello), Milena Wilke (violin), and Marcel Mok (piano).
Piano Concerto “Canticum Canticorum” (2015)
Premiered in the Netherlands in 2015, my piano concerto was written in the wake of my best friend’s suicide at the age of 28.
The piano concerto incorporates a voice (Altus), setting excerpts from the biblical Song of Songs to music. The last movement, a slowly moving fugue, culminates into 28 hits of the same chord in the piano (instead of a cadenza). The world premiere was performed by pianist Hardy Rittner, the Noord Nederlands Orkest under the baton of Peter Kuhn, and Stefan Kahle (Altus). It was broadcast live on Dutch radio. Paradoxically, the day after the premiere, my path as a recording producer led me to supervise a recording of Haydn’s The Creation—a transition from mourning a life cut short to celebrating the dawn of existence that remains one of my most profound emotional experiences as a musician. The project was generously supported by Bayer Arts & Culture.
Piano Sonata on the Chorale “Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern” (2013)
One of my most frequently performed works, this 30-minute sonata explores the tension between the chaotic noise of the modern world and a deep longing for stillness and spiritual truth. The titular chorale, ‘Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern’, appears throughout the piece in various transformations, acting as a recurring beacon of clarity amidst highly virtuosic, tumultuous passages.
The third movement, Meditation, serves as the work’s ultimate focal point. In a process of musical mindfulness, the pianist is instructed to loop two asymmetrical themes—one of them a condensed version of the chorale—until they naturally converge after several minutes, creating a moment of resolution.
Watch a performance of the third movement by pianist Hardy Rittner (Professor of Piano at the University of Music Freiburg).
“Oktober 1944” from “Night Pieces”
Based on Hermann Hesse’s poem of the same name, this work is part of a larger piano cycle centered on anti-war themes. While the poem refers to the aftermath of the Second World War, the composition addresses the tragedy of conflict from a broader perspective. The score includes a fully composed tenor part that remains intentionally silent—an ‘unsung’ lament as a symbol for loss. As a composer of a generation that has not experienced war, I felt that an audible vocal setting would be inappropriate; instead, the piano’s aleatoric tolling of bells fills this silence. A recording of the full piano cycle was released in 2023 by pianist Yeseul Moon on MDG along with music by Hartmann and Mishory. This however is a live recording of me playing the piece in concert.
Albums that contain compositions
by Christopher Tarnow
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Christopher Tarnow – Dipl.-Tonmeister / Recording Producer
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