"This is harmonious, rhythmic, metric, and tonally incredibly rich music ..." Klassik.com
"... emotional depth that touches." Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung
"Exciting areas of tension..." Neue Presse
"Creating an awareness of the phenomena of life is for me a crucial function of art in today's world."
I'm not a moral apostle at all, I don't want to patronize or be patronized, I prefer to work alone and in complete seclusion in my little boathouse by the lake and I know about the beautiful "purposelessness" of art. It's about spiritual things, about messages that seem to lie outside of ourselves, about a higher form of truth. And yet: with our way of life, we humans are destroying our planet, ourselves and the entire diversity of life on earth. No one can avoid this very concrete truth, including us musicians. It is a dimension that has never been seen on this scale. And that's why our role as artists inevitably changes - whether we want it or not: We must face the questions of the time with our art. Business as usual ultimately manifests the mechanisms that have led our planet to the edge of the abyss. Music brings beauty, community and endless good into the world and allows us to glimpse the mystery of life - it also has the power to shake us up. Let's use them! This is more than a purely artistic - humanistic message. It is solidarity for all forms of life. I want to bring people together who walk this path together and have the courage to be uncomfortable. We are musicians - basically we should all also be Greenpeace and Human Rights Watch activists."
When Thorsten Encke won the Concours de Composition du Festival Pablo Casals de Prades in April 2005 with the composition of a string quartet, it was not just his personal clarity and confident craftsmanship that immediately impressed him, but especially his deep roots in music:
“Encke has created an impressive work with his award-winning string quartet... the unity in the composition indicates great maturity.” wrote the press following the competition and attested to the composer’s “compositional density and unconditional will to express himself”.
Born in Göttingen in 1966, Thorsten Encke initially studied cello and conducting in Hanover and Los Angeles, gained experience in all fields of classical music and played as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician. In 1999 he decided on a future as a freelance musician. After winning the competition in Prades in 2005, Thorsten Encke's musical activities shifted to composing and conducting. Since then he has received numerous composition commissions and has been performed in concert halls such as the Théatre des Champs-Élysées Paris, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Konzerthaus Berlin and the Berliner Philharmonie, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf and many other internationally renowned concert halls. Artists such as Paavo Järvi, Tanja and Christian Tetzlaff, Sharon Kam, Isabelle Faust, Edicson Ruiz, Christian Poltéra, the Quartetto di Cremona and the vision string quartet, Stockholm Chamber Brass, orchestras such as the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin and many other international orchestras, conductors and soloists have premiered his works. CD recordings and recordings from Radio France Musique, Deutschlandfunk, Deutschlandradio Kultur, Norddeutscher Rundfunk and Radio Bremen give an idea of the distribution of his music.
As a conductor, Thorsten Encke benefits from the composer's perspective and deep understanding of musical processes.
In 2011 he founded the independent orchestra musica assoluta. With the climate-friendly festival HUMANITY (2021), the multimedia concert series VORTEX (2022) and the music and knowledge project THE OCEAN IS A NOISY PLACE (2023), the ensemble has dedicated itself to the artistic treatment of socio-political and ecological issues. But that's not all: Together with his musicians, Thorsten Encke looks for transparency and a fresh form in music, whether old or new. Dialogue with the audience is just as important to him as exploring the undiscovered potential in all of us. He and his musicians see themselves as an active and constructive part of society, want to bring people together and stimulate feelings and thinking.
“For him, music is life, air to breathe and family language.” – Il giornale della musica, Milano