Christopher - profile

Christopher Dicken

trumpet

INTERVIEW

When and where was your first concert with the MCO? 2003, in Ferrara with Daniel Harding performing Béla Bartók’s Violin Concerto with Viktoria Mullova, and Dvořák’s Symphony No 8.

What do you need to feel at home while on tour? Good restaurants, a yoga mat, good coffee and my iPad.

What is the most difficult aspect of your job? Finding places to practice whilst on tour!

What would you do if you weren’t a musician? Something to do with food, coffee or wine.

What’s the last book you read?The Hare with Amber Eyes – Edmund de Waal.

BIOGRAPHY

Christopher Dicken is the solo trumpet player of both the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (since 2003) and Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (since 2000)  and a member of the Luzern Festival Orchestra (since 2007). He is a founder member of WorldBrass and its Artistic Director. 

Chris was born in Manchester England. From 1989 to 1994, he studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, during which time he was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, the European Union Youth Orchestra, the World Youth Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. Whilst in Scotland, Chris played regularly with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, as well as appearing in numerous performances with baroque and contemporary music ensembles. In 1997 he moved to Berlin, where he studied with Prof. Konradin Groth and a year later he enrolled in the Soloists’ course at the State University of Music in Saarbrücken, studying with Prof. Peter Leiner.

Chris performs regularly with an extensive range of leading international orchestras and chamber ensembles, both contemporary and period, including: Capella Andrea Barca (with András Schiff), Chamber Orchestra of Europe (Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Iván Fischer) Concerto Köln, Dunedin Consort, Ensemble Modern (with John Adams, George Benjamin), European Brandenburg Ensemble (with Trevor Pinnock), Hessische Rundfunk Brass Ensemble, NDR Symphony Orchestra (with Christoph Eschenbach), Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra (with Daniel Harding) and the London Symphony Orchestra (with Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

Since the Summer semester 2011 Chris has been the visiting teacher for natural trumpet in the Hochschule for Music in Saarbrücken. He has given many courses and masterclasses in Germany; England (Royal Northern College of Music, Royal College Music London, Royal Academy of Music London, Trinity Laban College of Music);

Australia (Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Australian National Academy of Music); Brazil and Argentina. He has worked as a coach with such orchestras as the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Theater Krefeld/Mönchengladbach, Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen as well as with the Academy of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.