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About me

The interdependence of music and language - how both require each other, cause each other and are part of each other - is a topic of interest to Martin Knörzer for a long time. This interest has been an integral part of his musical education. The native Mannheimer has now attained both a Diploma and a Master’s degree in violoncello and also a Master’s degree in baroque cello. Such studies include the linguistics of music derived from singing, the music’s grammar, poetry and how this is all applied to the instrument.

Martin Knörzer began music at an early age initially playing the piano before devoting himself to playing cello. As a young cello protege, whilst still at secondary school, he learned with Prof. Matias de Oliveira Pinto at the Universität der Künste Berlin. For Diploma studies, Martin proceeded to Detmold to receive lessons from the native Brasilian and Navarra-student Prof. Marcio Carneiro. After winning his Diploma in 2011 he continued to Weimar where he studied with Prof. Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt for a Masters in violoncello with a focus on chamber music. After that, Martin was studying for his “Konzertexamen”, the highest possible degree for instrumentalists in Germany.

From 2014 to 2017, Martin has been the cellist of the ORBIS Quartett with whom he attended classes from both the Artemis Quartett and the Hagen Quartett. Their intense work was honoured in 2014 with second prize at the international Johannes-Brahms-competition in Pörtschach, Austria and in 2015 with first prize at the international Beethoven competition in Poland.

Since 2019 Martin Knörzer has been a member of Trio Egmont. This piano trio combines historical awareness, radical freedom and a delicate sense of sound with an explosive joy of music making. In summer 2021, Trio Egmont won first prize at the first international competition “Beethoven in his time” for chamber music on historical instruments.

Always seeking new influences and inspiration, Martin participated in many master classes – Wolfgang Boettcher, András Schiff, François Guye, Lluis Claret – with Peter Bruns and Olaf Reimers inspiring him considerably. Furthermore, his passion for literature and learning languages has enriched his character and provided a means to immerse himself into other cultures and draw inspirations from them.