Bernd Goetzke

Lecturer of the Gradus International
Piano Academy Mainz

“Many years ago, during a conversation on the sidelines of a meeting, the then-president of the Hanover University of Music, Richard Jakoby, casually mentioned the ‘formative power of music’ in an aside. I remember nothing else from that meeting, but this little phrase stuck with me. It was said offhandedly, apparently a quote he had used before, yet it lodged itself deep in my mind and has resurfaced repeatedly ever since. In just a few words, it encapsulated a series of aspects, because the formative power of music affects not only those who play and learn it but also those who listen and teach it—and in all these roles, I felt personally addressed. The rather general attribute ‘formative’ is surely meant here in an exclusively idealistic sense, yet I have found its truth confirmed a thousand times over. Enough motivation for an entire professional life!

What I could not have foreseen, however, were developments that now genuinely concern me. I see certain things under threat that I once—naively—believed were secured forever. Here I would mention the vast fields of stylistic understanding, contextual knowledge, nuanced sound production, listening skills, interpretation of the score, individual imagination, and artistic curiosity.

Alongside the excellent piano playing we still witness as the result of equally excellent instruction, there are also emerging variants that one can only hope will not establish themselves or even become dominant. This danger cannot be dismissed, as we are dealing with large numbers. One fears a kind of tipping point, where a former majority could turn into a minority.

And then our beautiful formula no longer works. That means, before music can unleash its special powers, we as teachers are especially challenged today. If that’s not a mission, I don’t know what is!”

— Prof. Bernd Goetzke

Bernd Goetzke, born in 1951, was accepted into the Hanover University of Music and Drama at the age of 13, where he studied with Prof. Karl-Heinz Kämmerling. From 1969 to 1977, he worked with Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, who referred to Goetzke as his last student. In 1982, Goetzke became a professor at the Hanover conservatory, founded the Institute for the Highly Gifted (IFF) in 2000—an institution that became a national model in Germany—and served for decades as the director of the Solo Performance program.

At Hanover, he teaches a large international class of young pianists, many of whom have won prestigious prizes and embarked on promising careers. These include first prizes at competitions such as the German Music Competition in Berlin, the Busoni Competition in Bolzano, the Beethoven Competition in Bonn, the Hilton Head International Piano Competition, the Van Cliburn Competition, the Santa Cecilia Competition in Porto, and the Enescu Competition in Bucharest.

Beyond his academic work, Bernd Goetzke gives masterclasses worldwide and is frequently invited to serve as a jury member at international competitions. For several years, he continued the Beethoven courses in Positano, founded by Wilhelm Kempff and Alfred Cortot. He describes Beethoven and Debussy as the two “focal points” of his repertoire, a dedication reflected in his 2018 publication of the first German translation of approximately 500 letters by Debussy.