Christine Schornsheim

Historical keyboardist Christine Schornsheim performs widely on harpsichord and fortepiano, performing as a soloist and in chamber and orchestral music. She is also an important educator. Schornsheim was born in East Berlin in 1959. She is sometimes known by her married name, Christine Engelmayr. From 1969 to 1976, she attended the Musikgymnasium Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, a special music-oriented secondary school, and she then enrolled at the Berlin University of the Arts, studying piano. More and more interested in historical keyboard instruments, she took a job as a répétiteur, or rehearsal pianist and coach, at the Hans Otto Theater in Potsdam, also taking master classes from historical keyboard specialists Gustav Leonhardt, Ton Koopman, and Andreas Staier. She has continued to work with fortepianist Staier, often performing duo piano repertory with him. In the 1980s and '90s, she was a freelance artist, often appearing at such major German festivals as the Europäischen Musikfest in Stuttgart, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, and the Berliner Bach-Tagen. In 1988, Schornsheim became a lecturer in harpsichord and continuo at the Leipzig Hochschule für Musik, advancing to full professor in 1992. The following year, she made her recording debut on the Brilliant label, accompanying oboist Burkhard Glaetzner on a recording of oboe sonatas by François Devienne. In 1994, Schornsheim accompanied tenor Peter Schreier on fortepiano, and she has continued to perform in small ensembles, including two of which she has been a member, Berliner Barock-Compagney and Münchner Cammer-Music. As a recitalist and concerto soloist, she has specialized in music of the late Baroque and the middle 18th century, performing music by J.S. Bach and his sons, Telemann, and such composers as Boccherini and Fasch. In 2002, Schornsheim joined the faculty at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich; she continues to teach there. Increasingly often in the 21st century, she turned to the fortepiano, making a 14-CD set of recordings in 2005 on the Capriccio label covering all of Haydn's keyboard sonatas on appropriate instruments; this release brought Schornsheim critical acclaim and several major prizes. She has continued to record for Capriccio, releasing a recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, there in 2016. In 2022, she backed soprano Bettina Pahn on fortepiano on Pahn's release O, wie beseligend, devoted to songs of Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann. By that time, Schornsheim's recording catalog comprised some 40 releases. ~ James Manheim, Rovi