Curriculum Vitae of Felicitas Eickelberg

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  Felicitas Eickelberg at the piano
  Photo: David Beecroft

  1969 first piano lessons with Grete Wehmeyer.

• 1973 Rhenish Music School Cologne with Jürgen Troester.
• Participation in the competition "Jugend musiziert" (youth plays music) and winning of various prizes of the regional, county, and federal level, especially with Chamber music.
• Member of the Johannes Choir in Cologne under Gerda Schaarwächter.
• Cologne Academy of Music; piano class of Prof. Roswitha Gediga.
• 1984-1989 studied piano (diploma) and piano pedagogy.
• Graduation: piano with distinction and state exam IP 1989 and 1988.
• Won prize at the Cologne Chopin University Competition in 1989.
• While Studying: founding of a piano trio and chamber music with Amadeus Quartet and the Alban Berg Quartet.
• From 1987-1997 piano teacher at the Rhenish Music School Cologne.
• 1989-1994 studied song accompaniment with Hartmut Höll.
• 1989/90 Song courses in Berlin and Stuttgart as a musical companion for courses by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau together with the baritone Klaus Häger and various other singers.

• Composer since 1989
• 1997 Performance of the "drei Lieder nach h.c.artmann" at the Cologne Philharmonic during the "Jugend musiziert" federal prize concerto.
• Started piano improvisation with various Cologne Jazz musicians.
• Work as a répétiteuse at various theaters of Berlin, including Neuköllner Oper.
• Since 1999, recording of various improvisational CDs; lessons with Berlin jazz musicians and composers; concerts with solo improvisations, chamber music, as well as songs in Berlin and the surrounding area.
• Piano teacher at the Leo Kestenberg Music School in Tempelhof-Schöneberg since 2001.
• 2009-2013 study of church music in Berlin at UdK/EKBO and in Herford at the College Of Church Music. Graduation: C exam in organ play, choir and child choir conduction; secondary subject violin, now viola.
• Since 2012 piano teacher at the Jutta Speidel Music School in Fürstenwalde/Spree (LOS).
• 2013-2014 organ guest study in Herford.
• Working as a freelance organist at various churches in Berlin. Improvisational concerts with the organ.
• The first organ CD is produced in 2014.
• Member of various amateur orchestras in Berlin.
• Member of the Tempelhof Symphony Orchestra (viola) since 2016; since 2017 of the SOS (Schöneberg Symphony Orchestra).
• Since 2016 occasional organ play at the Martin Luther Church Neukölln, the 12-Apostle Church in Schöneberg and various other churches in Berlin.
• Chamber music concerts in Berlin since 2016
• October 2017 performance with a singer at the choir association in Bonn.
• Training in conducting with various teachers and in several courses.
• Cooperation with the AKD (Office for Church Services) and the women's church at the EKBO since 2019 (ecumenical women's services on March 8th in the Sophienkirche, work in the Mirjam workshop).
• 2020 Performance in a trio with Nico Lohmann, saxophone, and Agustin Strizzi, drums, in the jazz club "Schlot" in Berlin with free improvisations and own pieces.
• since 2020 collaboration with the singer Rita Anton, soprano
• 2022 release of the CD Organ Improvisations II
• 2023 collaboration with Hans-Beatus Straub, tenor, on a CD with works by Schubert, Schumann and Strauss

Cologne pianist and organist Felicitas Eickelberg began playing the piano at the age of four. In her Hometown, she grew into a vibrant, musical scene in which improvisation, new music, classical music and jazz led a peaceful coexistence. She studied classical piano at the Academy of Music in Cologne before turning to improvisation and taking lessons from a few Cologne jazz musicians. Eickelberg took private lessons in composition with various Cologne and Berlin composers. Her compositions have often been performed in Cologne.

Since 1999, Berlin has been her centre of life, where she performs her improvisations in various locations of the classical, jazz, and church music scene. Important influences from Berlin are Antonis Anissegos, Andreas Eschen and Julia Kadel, who was her piano student at a young age. In 2012, Eickelberg also graduated with a degree in C church music in Berlin, accompanied by various well-known organists and improvisers of the church music scene such as Stefano Barberino and Dirk Elsemann. She is currently working on the musical version of a psalm.

Her improvisations are both tonal and atonal, jazzy to classic, freely associative to dreamy. Eickelberg also accompanied silent film concerts on the organ.

In her CD, "If Spring", her sixth, which came out almost exactly 20 Years after her first CD (Blue Saturday), she proves she has found her style and is comfortable in it.

In February 2020, before the first lockdown, the improvisation CD "Winter" was created on the piano. It was released in winter 2021.

In June 2022 she released the CD Organ Improvisations II.

Felicitas Eickelberg started playing the organ in 2008, when a former student sat her on the organ bench for the first time. From there fate began.

She then studied in the C-Seminar Berlin, first in the Catholic, then, after the conversion in 2009, in the Protestant C-seminar at the EKBO, in the subjects organ playing, choir direction and children's choir direction.

She completed all three subjects with the C exam in 2013.

Felicitas' organ teachers included Ingo Schulz, Helmut Höft, Dirk Elsemann, and Stefano Barberino. Günter Brick and Tobias Brommann trained her in choir direction and children's choir direction.

At the Hochschule für Evangelische Kirchenmusik in Herford she completed two semesters guest study with Christoph Grohmann, organ.

From the beginning, her specialty was improvising on the organ, an heirloom from the late former cathedral organist of Würzburg, Philipp Kunz. That was the grandfather of Felicitas.

Unfortunately, she never got to know him because he fell early in the war. She dedicated her first CD with organ improvisations to him.

Since 2008 she has been playing during church services regularly at the Martin Luther Church in Neukölln, the 12 Apostle Church in Schöneberg, the Nicodemus Church in Neukölln, and many other churches in Berlin.

She has accompanied several silent film concerts, including in the REFO Moabit and the Genezareth Church Neukölln.

As a choir singer she sang, among others, in the Berliner Domkantorei, in the Bach choir of the Gedächtniskirche, and currently again in the Ölberg choir in Kreuzberg, where she also helps as a assistant in rehearsals.

From 2014-2015, she directed the singing school of the Confessional Church in Berlin-Treptow.

Musical services and the accompaniment of women's services by Evas Arche are currently regularly on her program.

In addition, she also accompnies various church events musically, organizes organ tours for children, and holds lectures on church music topics.

The June / July 2019 edition of the Martin Luther parish newspaper is an ode to the church's 60-year-old organ. In this issue, there is an article by and about Felicitas and her connection to organ playing. It starts on page 6: Read PDF (in German) or view on the church page.

In the community newspaper of the Martin Luther Genezareth parish (February / March 2021 issue) she talks about her work as an organist (page 14): view it on the church website or download it directly from there as PDF (2.7 MB, in German).

On the occasion of her move to the Rhine area in August 2023, the Berlin Martin Luther community said goodbye with kind words in the community newspaper June / July 2023, p. 8.

Since then she plays for the Evangelical Church Community of Cologne-Lindenthal.