Marie-Elisabeth Hecker

Marie-Elisabeth Hecker

"No instrument comes as close to the human voice as the violoncello, and Marie-Elisabeth Hecker is able to give her singing without words a warmth of heart that enchants from the first bar. No note could be unimportant to her, for each one is meant to shine, to form itself into a loving thought, into a graceful dance movement, into a beguilingly beautiful cantilena." Tagesspiegel, Frederik Hanssen, 21 May 2023


Cellist Marie-Elisabeth Hecker touches with the emotional unconditionality and warm sensitivity of her playing. With outward modesty and great inner richness, she feels the music down to the last cell. She herself says about the cello: "For me, it is the most versatile instrument: it can sing, be a pulse generator, the basis for all music, especially chamber music, the position of the tenor. Besides, you can play it very naturally, you don't have to contort yourself." She made her international breakthrough with her sensational success at the 8th Rostropovich Competition in Paris in 2005, where she became the first contestant in the event's history to win first prize as well as two special prizes.

Since then, Marie-Elisabeth Hecker has become one of the most sought-after soloists of the younger generation. Highlights of her career to date include performances with Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Belgian National Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Dresden Philharmonic, Filarmonica della Scala, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Mariinsky Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Spanish National Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin, and Wiener Symphoniker. She has collaborated with conductors such as Barenboim, Gergiev, Harding, Hengelbrock, Herreweghe, Janowski, Luisi, Nagano, Saraste, Thielemann, and von Dohnányi.

Especially with her husband, the pianist Martin Helmchen, she appears in recitals all over the world and has been a guest at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, L'Auditori Barcelona, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Bozar Brussels, the Teatro Colón Buenos Aires, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Wigmore Hall London, the Carnegie Hall New York, the Louvre Paris, the Toppan Hall Tokyo, the Konzerthaus Vienna and the Tonhalle Zurich, among others. She also regularly performs chamber music concerts in various formations with Antje Weithaas, Christian Tetzlaff, Stephen Waarts, Carolin Widmann and the Apollon Musagète Quartet. Since July 2023, the International Chamber Music Festival "Fliessen", curated by Marie-Elisabeth Hecker and Martin Helmchen, takes place under the umbrella of the Brandenburg Summer Concerts. In the Spreewald region and on the artists' campus of the Drauschemühle just outside Luckau, the artists want to play, live and perform chamber music from duos to octets.

Together with Martin Helmchen, Marie-Elisabeth Hecker premiered York Höller's new double concerto in the spring of 2022 at the Ruhr Piano Festival and the Kölner Philharmonie, which was also performed at the Ultraschall Festival in 2023.

In May 2016, the label Alpha Classics released Marie-Elisabeth Hecker's recording of Brahms' cello sonatas together with Martin Helmchen to great critical acclaim. Recently, her second CD containing Schubert´s Arpeggione Sonata and Trio No. 2 (together with Martin Helmchen and Antje Weithaas) has been released by the same label alongside a CD with Elgar's Cello Concerto (together with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra) and the Piano Quintet.

Born in Robert Schumann’s hometown Zwickau in 1987, Marie-Elisabeth Hecker started playing the cello at the age of five and attended the Robert Schumann Conservatory, before the distinguished German cellist Peter Bruns became her principal teacher. She continued her studies with Heinrich Schiff and subsequently took part in masterclasses with eminent figures such as Anner Bylsma, Bernard Greenhouse, Frans Helmerson, Gary Hoffman and Steven Isserlis. In 2009, she won a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. She was appointed a professor at Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden in August 2017. In cooperation with Music Road Rwanda, she regularly travels to Rwanda in order to support a local music school with concerts and educational projects.
April 2025
01 APR, tu, 19:00 - PAWEŁ DOMAGAŁA – HOTELOWE PIOSENKIkoncert zewnętrzny
TOMORROW02 APRwd, 19:00
CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERTS | Misterioso 2024/2025Bach HistoricallyChamber concert
03APR '25th, 10:00
School concerts 2024/2025UP-Down—being KarłowiczSchool concert for primary schools students
03APR '25th, 12:00
School concerts 2024/2025UP-Down—being KarłowiczSchool concert for primary schools students
03 APR, th, 19:00 - KASIA KOWALSKA – 30 LAT GEMINIkoncert zewnętrzny
04APR '25fr, 14:00
04APR '25fr, 15:00
04APR '25fr, 19:00
GUESTS AT THE SZCZECIN PHILHARMONICThe Sound of Youth!Symphonic concert
05APR '25sa, 09:00
RANIUTTOworkshopsfor children aged 1-2 with caregivers
05APR '25sa, 10:30
RANIUTTOworkshopsfor children aged 3-4 with caregivers
05APR '25sa, 12:00
RANIUTTOworkshopsfor children aged 5-6 with caregivers
05APR '25sa, 12:00
05APR '25sa, 12:00
Level 4. GalleryHELMUT NEWTON. MUSIC & PORTRAITSExhibition
06APR '25sn, 11:00
Young Music Lovers' Academy | Family concertsOn the Trail of Percussion RunawaysConcertfor children with caregivers
06APR '25sn, 12:00
06APR '25sn, 12:00
Level 4. GalleryHELMUT NEWTON. MUSIC & PORTRAITSExhibition
06 APR, sn, 18:00 - MEISINGER: Spanish Nightkoncert zewnętrzny
07APR '25mn, 10:00
Donuta discoversChamber concertfor preschool and early school-age children
07APR '25mn, 12:00
Donuta discoversChamber concertfor preschool and early school-age children
07 APR, mn, 18:00 - TRE VOCI „FOREVER”: JUBILEUSZ 10 LAT NA SCENIEkoncert zewnętrzny
07 APR, mn, 21:00 - TRE VOCI „FOREVER”: JUBILEUSZ 10 LAT NA SCENIEkoncert zewnętrzny
08APR '25tu, 12:00
ConsonancesChamber concertfor seniors
11APR '25fr, 14:00
11APR '25fr, 15:00
11APR '25fr, 19:00
SYMPHONIC CONCERTS | Grandioso 2024/2025Saint John PassionSymphonic concert
12APR '25sa, 09:00
RANIUTTOworkshopsfor children aged 1-2 with caregivers
12APR '25sa, 10:30
RANIUTTOworkshopsfor children aged 3-4 with caregivers
12APR '25sa, 12:00
RANIUTTOworkshopsfor children aged 5-6 with caregivers
12APR '25sa, 12:00
Level 4. GalleryHELMUT NEWTON. MUSIC & PORTRAITSExhibition
13APR '25sn, 12:00
Level 4. GalleryHELMUT NEWTON. MUSIC & PORTRAITSExhibition
13APR '25sn, 19:00
SYMPHONIC CONCERTS | Grandioso 2024/2025Saint John PassionSymphonic concert
14 APR, mn, 20:00 - MATT DUSK – BACK IN TOWNkoncert zewnętrzny
16 APR, wd, 19:30 - GRUBSON MTV Unplugged [ODWOŁANY]koncert zewnętrzny
23APR '25wd, 19:00
CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERTS | Misterioso 2024/2025In Western EuropeChamber concert
25APR '25fr, 14:00
25APR '25fr, 15:00
25APR '25fr, 16:00
25APR '25fr, 19:00
SYMPHONIC CONCERTS | Grandioso 2024/2025 | SYMPHONIC MONUMENTSSymphonic Monuments - BrahmsSymphonic concert
26APR '25sa, 12:00
Level 4. GalleryHELMUT NEWTON. MUSIC & PORTRAITSExhibition
26APR '25sa, 20:00
ELECTRONIC CONCERTS | SoundLab 2024/2025French Love | Thylacine
Event CANCELLED
Electronic music concert
27APR '25sn, 12:00
Level 4. GalleryHELMUT NEWTON. MUSIC & PORTRAITSExhibition
27APR '25sn, 19:00
PHILHARMONIC LIGHT | Brillante 2024/2025Good to be GreenConcert
28 APR, mn, 19:00 - HEROES ORCHESTRA – PREZYDENCJA 2025koncert zewnętrzny
29 APR, tu, 19:00 - NATALIA KUKULSKAkoncert zewnętrzny
30 APR, wd, 19:00 - RAY WILSON – GENESIS CLASSICkoncert zewnętrzny
May 2025
02MAY '25fr, 12:00
02MAY '25fr, 13:00
02MAY '25fr, 14:00
02MAY '25fr, 15:00
04MAY '25sn, 12:00
Level 4. GalleryHELMUT NEWTON. MUSIC & PORTRAITSExhibition
09MAY '25fr, 14:00
09MAY '25fr, 15:00
09MAY '25fr, 19:00
SYMPHONIC CONCERTS | Grandioso 2024/2025I'm Back in Town!Symphonic concert
10MAY '25sa, 12:00
Level 4. GalleryHELMUT NEWTON. MUSIC & PORTRAITSExhibition
10MAY '25sa, 17:00
11MAY '25sn, 12:00
Level 4. GalleryHELMUT NEWTON. MUSIC & PORTRAITSExhibition
12MAY '25mn, 19:00
JAZZ CONCERTS | Espressivo 2024/2025Mickiewicz-flavoured PuddingJazz concert
15MAY '25th, 19:00
WORLD MUSIC | Rubato 2024/2025Orient ExpressWorld music concert
16MAY '25fr, 14:00
16MAY '25fr, 15:00
16MAY '25fr, 19:00
SYMPHONIC CONCERTS | Grandioso 2024/2025Duel of ErasSymphonic concert
17MAY '25sa, 09:00
RANIUTTOworkshopsfor children aged 1-2 with caregivers
17MAY '25sa, 10:30
RANIUTTOworkshopsfor children aged 3-4 with caregivers
17MAY '25sa, 12:00
RANIUTTOworkshopsfor children aged 5-6 with caregivers
17MAY '25sa, 12:00
Level 4. GalleryHELMUT NEWTON. MUSIC & PORTRAITSExhibition
18MAY '25sn, 12:00
Level 4. GalleryHELMUT NEWTON. MUSIC & PORTRAITSExhibition
21MAY '25wd, 19:00
CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERTS | Misterioso 2024/2025Theory of New MusicChamber concert
22MAY '25th, 10:00
School concerts 2024/2025Just So You Know?School concert for students aged 14+
22MAY '25th, 12:00
School concerts 2024/2025Just So You Know?School concert for students aged 14+
23MAY '25fr, 14:00
23MAY '25fr, 15:00
23MAY '25fr, 16:00
23MAY '25fr, 19:00
GUESTS AT THE SZCZECIN PHILHARMONICGoldberg VariationsRecital
24MAY '25sa, 09:00
RANIUTTOworkshopsfor children aged 1-2 with caregivers
24MAY '25sa, 10:30
RANIUTTOworkshopsfor children aged 3-4 with caregivers
24MAY '25sa, 12:00
RANIUTTOworkshopsfor children aged 5-6 with caregivers
24MAY '25sa, 12:00
Level 4. GalleryHELMUT NEWTON. MUSIC & PORTRAITSExhibition
25MAY '25sn, 11:00
Young Music Lovers' Academy | Family concerts“And When the Orchestra Gets Tired of Playing Alone…”Concertfor children with caregivers
25MAY '25sn, 12:00
Level 4. GalleryHELMUT NEWTON. MUSIC & PORTRAITSExhibition
26MAY '25mn, 10:00
Donuta discoversChamber concertfor preschool and early school-age children
26MAY '25mn, 12:00
Donuta discoversChamber concertfor preschool and early school-age children
27MAY '25tu, 12:00
ConsonancesChamber concertfor seniors
30MAY '25fr, 16:00
30MAY '25fr, 19:00
SYMPHONIC CONCERTS | Grandioso 2024/2025Romantic, so romanticSymphonic concert
31MAY '25sa, 12:00
Level 4. GalleryHELMUT NEWTON. MUSIC & PORTRAITSExhibition
2025
REPERTOIRE