HARTMUT SAUER has performed in recitals, chamber music and as soloist with orchestras throughout Europe, Russia and the United States. He has won prizes and diplomas in many competitions including the "Jugend musiziert Competition" in Germany, the "Anton G. Rubinstein International Piano Competition", and the "Johannes Brahms International Piano Competition" in Austria. He has appeared in festivals such as "Im Agricoli Festival" in Poland, the "Schubertiaden", "Dreiklang Festival" in Germany, the "International Piano Series" in Charleston SC and "Piccolo Spoleto Festival" in the United States.
Mr. Sauer started playing the piano at the age of seven. When he was 20 years old, he entered the "Carl Maria von Weber" University in Dresden, Germany, where he studied pedagogy, improvisation and piano with Arkadi Zenzipér. In 2006 he received a full scholarship to study with Enrique Graf in the Artist Certificate Program at the School of the Arts, College of Charleston. He graduated in 2008 and at the same time he was awarded the "Meisterklasse", the highest degree in music in Germany.
Hartmut Sauer has taught piano and improvisation at the "Carl Maria von Weber" University of Music in Dresden and was a faculty member of the
Charleston Academy of Music. Now he is teaching at the Conservatory in Dresden.
References
Peter Zacher – Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten
"Hartmut Sauer's piano recital bespeaks empathy and great inner maturity. There is no showing off or evasion into cheap dark monumentalism. Sauer really exposes the soul."
Enrique Graf – Pianist
"He is always a consummate professional with natural, convincing musicality and an impressive command of the instrument."
Douglas Ashley, Prof. Dr.
"His solo and chamber music playing won immediate enthusiastic acclaim [...] Furthermore, he was a much appreciated teacher at the Charleston Academy of Music."
Emily Remington – Pianist
"[...] his prodigious technique shows all styles of music. He possesses a beautiful singing tone quality and is able to illuminate all compositions with skill and beauty. [...] He is a very generous and unassuming person [...]."
Post and Courier
"The first concert of the International Piano Series […] opened […] with the clean, agile and expressive playing of the German pianist Hartmut Sauer. […] There's obviously a strong interest […] in pianists of this caliber, as this performance was well attended and well received."
Lindsay Koob – City Paper Charleston SC
"[…] Sauer delivered the mostly tense and hard-driving music with terrific energy and technical assurance. No matter how thick and fast the notes flew, he maintained a smooth, legato flow […]"
"[…] he played with incredible smoothness and quicksilver delicacy. Sauer is a very different sort of artist, compared to many I’ve heard […] There’s no splashy, contrived passion or needless display to his playing. His very personal, introspective style brought certain qualities and musical insights that I’ve never heard before to the Schubert and Chopin selections […] Under his hands, even the music’s most bravura moments were tempered with a sort of Germanic reserve."
