Ekkehard Beringer

Ekkehard Beringer took double bass lessons from Karl-Heinz Bethmann and Rudolf Schlegel during his school years, starting at the age of ten in Hanover—unusually early for this instrument. His enthusiasm came from membership in youth orchestras: from the regional Jugendsinfonieorchester Hannover to the European Union Youth Orchestra and the international Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Orchester. He studied orchestral music with Wolfgang Güttler at the state conservatories in Cologne and Karlsruhe and was in the soloist class at the Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimar with Horst-Dieter Wenkel, earning a solo double bass performance degree (Konzertexamen) there in 2002.

At the age of 24, Ekkehard Beringer became a member of the Munich Philharmonic, then associate principal double bass of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and principal double bass with the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. He has been principal double bass in the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester since 2003, and has also performed as a soloist there. Solo and chamber music appearances have taken him to Switzerland, Croatia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic. In addition to his work as a soloist, orchestral and chamber musician, Ekkehard Beringer has increasingly focused on pedagogical work for several years: as a double bass teacher with the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Orchester, the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and the Bundesjugendorchester, as well as by giving master classes in the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Great Britain. Since 2008, in addition to his work with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, he has been a professor at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media. He plays a Matteo Goffriller (1659–1742) double bass.

Photo: Julia Knop

The artist's homepage:

http://www.beringer-kontrabass.de/