Margarita Höhenrieder

Margarita Höhenrieder (born 1956) is a German classical pianist and a professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München.

She has performed internationally and recorded, with a focus on chamber music.

She premiered compositions which Harald Genzmer dedicated to her.

Born in Munich, Höhenrieder studied piano with Anna Stadler and Ludwig Hoffmann (pianist) in Munich, and with Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, US.

Höhenrieder has played as a soloist with conductors Kirill Petrenko, Claudio Abbado, Lorin Maazel, James Levine, Riccardo Chailly, and Fabio Luisi, among others, and with orchestras such as Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Münchner Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, Gewandhausorchester, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, and Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

She was a friend of composer Harald Genzmer, who dedicated his Konzert für Klavier, Trompete und Streicher (Concerto for Piano, Trumpet and Strings) to her.

She premiered the work with trumpeter Guy Touvron and the Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn (WKH).

In 1981, Höhenrieder won first prize at the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition in Bolzano.

In 1984, Höhenrieder was appointed professor of piano at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg, and succeeded Ludwig Hoffmann in that position at the Musikhochschule München in 1991.

Her students include Milana Chernyavska.

She received the Staatlicher Förderungspreis für junge Künstler des Freistaates Bayern (State Prize for Young Artists of the Free State of Bavaria) in 1984.

Höhenrieder has recorded CDs and DVD.

A reviewer of her recording of chamber music with soloist from the Staatskapelle Dresden, which included Poulenc's Sextet and a sextet by Ludwig Thuille noted her "approach with an engaging freshness and warmth that feels spontaneous".

Genzmer composed his last major work for her, Wie ein Traum am Rande der Unendlichkeit (Like a dream near infinity) for piano and flute, which she premiered in Rome in 2009 with Emmanuel Pahud.

On the occasion of the bicentenary of Friedrichshafen in July 2011, Höhenrieder and the WKH performed a concert at the Dornier Museum among the aircraft.

She has performed and recorded chamber music also with Kit Armstrong, cellist Julius Berger, pianist Alfred Brendel, clarinetist Eduard Brunner, the Gewandhaus Quartet, clarinetist Sabine Meyer, percussionist Peter Sadlo, and Reiner Wehle, among others.