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© Chiara von Galli
TRIO LIRICO
Trio Lirico brings together three distinctive artistic voices: violinist Franziska Pietsch, violist Atilla Aldemir, and cellist Arne-Christian Pelz. Together they create an impassioned chamber music dialogue defined by depth of expression, soloistic brilliance, and an uncompromising dedication to their art.
Since its founding in 2014, the trio has grown into a vibrant, ever-evolving ensemble. Its first formation with Franziska Pietsch (violin), Sophia Reuter (viola), and Johannes Krebs (cello) set the artistic course, followed by significant phases with Israeli cellist Hila Karni and, since 2023, with Atilla Aldemir on viola. With Arne-Christian Pelz joining on cello in July 2025, the trio begins a new chapter, expanding its shared soundscape through each musician’s unique artistic signature.
The ensemble’s repertoire spans from classical masterpieces to contemporary works, including specially arranged string duos that offer fresh dramaturgical perspectives. Premieres by composers such as Georg Biller, Thorsten Encke, and Wolfgang Schultz highlight the trio’s commitment to contemporary music.
Trio Lirico’s acclaimed discography includes recordings of works by Max Reger, Weinberg, Schnittke, and Penderecki, as well as a 2024 release featuring Dohnányi, Kodály, Ysaÿe, and a string trio by Hungarian composer Peter Eötvös, honored with the Supersonic Award. Looking ahead, 2026 will see a special recording celebrating the 150th anniversary of Arnold Schoenberg’s birth, pairing his string trio with Mozart’s Divertimento in E-flat major K.563 — a resonant dialogue between modernity and classicism.
Franziska Pietsch Violin
“Franziska Pietsch is one of the most exciting artists of her generation,” wrote Fono Forum — and for good reason. A musician’s playing always reflects the experiences of their life, and hers has been remarkably eventful, both musically and personally. At just twelve, she was already celebrated as a soloist in major violin concertos and recorded virtuoso works by Paganini and Sarasate. As concertmaster of various orchestras, she immersed herself deeply in the world of grand symphonic and operatic repertoire before devoting several years intensely to chamber music — especially in duo, piano trio, and string trio formations. Today, her artistic path has come full circle: she impresses audiences equally with Bach’s solo sonatas and partitas and with Prokofiev’s violin concertos — the latter earning her the prestigious German Record Critics’ Award, among others.
The British magazine Gramophone praised her unique combination of “raw expression” and “special intimacy.” Whether playing Bach or Bartók, Grieg or Penderecki, Strauss or Shostakovich, Franziska Pietsch performs with a captivating intensity that never feels showy. And when she indulges her love for the string trio through Trio Lirico, she knows when to step back and let the music breathe — a maturity shaped by her life story.
Born into a musical family in East Berlin, Pietsch was discovered and supported early on. She studied with the renowned pedagogue Werner Scholz, made her solo debut at eleven at the Komische Oper Berlin, and won first prize at the Bach Competition for Children and Youth in Leipzig a year later. While preparing for the Menuhin Competition in London, her father defected to the West during a tour. It took two years before Franziska, her mother, and sister were allowed to leave the GDR — years marked by repression, with no violin lessons or concerts, but also years that forced her to confront fundamental questions: what path to choose in life and what role music should play in it. The music of Johann Sebastian Bach became her refuge.
Starting over in the West was challenging, but Ulf Hoelscher, one of Germany’s foremost violinists, took her under his wing. After winning the “Maria Canals” Competition in Barcelona in 1989, she took a leap of faith at twenty and moved to New York to study at the Juilliard School with the legendary Dorothy DeLay. She also gained invaluable insights through masterclasses with Wanda Wilkomirska, Herman Krebbers, and Ruggiero Ricci.
Returning to Germany, she became concertmaster of the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra and also held guest positions as concertmaster with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the Frankfurt Opera, the Solistes Européens, and the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg (as deuxième soliste).
Between 2000 and 2014, she performed with Trio Testore, recording all of Brahms’s piano trios and founding the “Mai Klassik” festival. In 2014, she founded the string trio Trio Lirico. Chamber music remains just as vital to her as her solo collaborations with leading orchestras. Recent partners include the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Budapest Philharmonic, and the Konzerthaus Dortmund, and she has worked with renowned conductors such as Antoni Wit, Horst Stein, Arpad Joò, Moshe Atzmon, Julia Jones, Toshiyuki Kamioka, and Christian Macelaru. Tours have taken her throughout Europe, the USA, and South America. She is also a welcome guest at major concert halls including the Elbphilharmonie, the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle, the Berlin Philharmonie, and the Konzerthaus Berlin, as well as at chamber music festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein and Aspen Music Festivals.
Her recordings receive outstanding acclaim and numerous awards; in 2021, she received the coveted International Classical Music Award for her album Fantasque.
A new facet of her artistry emerged just a few years ago: in 2015, she published her own poetry for the first time in a collaborative book with artist Nasrah Nefer.
With her innovative project musikMachtpoesie, she embarks on an unconventional musical journey together with a pianist and an actor. The interplay of music and spoken word aims to offer audiences a deeper understanding of music as the poetic voice of the soul. Inspired by this unique concert format, she founded her own festival WINTERKLASSIK.
The premiere took place in January 2024 at the Sorbian Museum Bautzen — a place where different cultures coexist, making it the perfect starting point for an inspiring exploration of music, language, and poetry.
In April 2025, her latest recording was released on ARIA Classics: Tides of Dance — featuring Richard Strauss’s rarely performed violin concerto and Édouard Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole, recorded with the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada under Jonathan Pasternack.
She performs on a violin by Carlo Antonio Testore, Milan 1751.
Atilla Aldemir Viola
Atilla Aldemir was born in Istanbul in 1975 and studied music at the State Conservatory of the city’s Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. On completing his studies there in 1994, he moved to Germany to perfect his technique with Prof. Lukas David at the Detmold University of Music and, from 1999, with Prof. Mintcho Mintchev at the Folkwang University in Essen, where he comple- ted his concert diploma with distinction in 2002. He also received valuable advice and encouragement from Barbara Górzynska and Matthias Maurer. Atilla Aldemir has received numerous awards and prizes, starting with the GWK Young Artist Award of the Society for the Promotion of Cultural Work in Westphalia (GWK) in 1998. In 2000 he won the first prize in the Istanbul Violin Competition and two years later received the Folkwang Prize.
In 2005 he was a prize winner at the 8. Int. Vaclav Huml Violin Competition in Zagreb and in 2006 won a special prize at the 25. Int. Rodolfo Lipizer Awards, when he was commended for his “passion for music” and “strong artistic temperament”. In 2007 he won the second prize for violin at the Fourteenth Int. Johannes Brahms Competition, when he also took away two special prizes. The following year he won the third prize for viola in the same competition as well as the prize for the best interpretation of a contemporary work. In 2011 he received a Donizetti Classical Musical Award as best Turkish string player.
Concert tours have taken Atilla Aldemir to numerous European countries as well as to the United States, Israel and Egypt. Among the concert halls where he has appeared are the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Vienna Musikverein, the Dresden State Opera and the Leipzig Gewandhaus. As a soloist he has also performed with the Salzburg Camerata, the Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier, the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, the Zagreb Philharmonic, the Berlin Konzerthaus Chamber Orchestra, the MDR Symphony Orchestra in Leipzig, the Borusan Philharmonic, the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra and all the State Symphony Orchestras in Turkey. Among the conductors with whom he has worked as a soloist are Iván Fischer, Kristjan Järvi, Lawrence Foster, Alexander Rahbari and Sascha Goetzel. His chamber music partners include not only Itamar Golan but also Fazil Say, Polina Leschenko and Jeremy Menuhin. Since April 2017 Atilla Aldemir has been the principal violist with the MDR Symphony Orchestra in Leipzig.
In 2021 Aldemir released his latest SACD (Recoding of the Year 2020 awarded by the MusicWeb International) of Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin (arranged for Solo Viola) by J.S. Bach at Cybele-Records, about which the press wrote:
Aldemir is one of the finest violists alive today, and his solo work on this disc is ample proof of this. Fanfare Magazine (James V. Maiello) 2021 [...] Turkish violist Atila Aldemir is an excellent musician, and he handles the musical and technical demands with intelligence and ease—a remarkable achievement considering his unusually large viola. The American Record Guide (Magil) 2021 [...] A superb and surprisingly rare Bach recording on viola... Music Web Internatinal - Dominy Clements (2020) [...] He is, indeed, a master on the viola in every meaning of the word: Technically, with perfect intonation, and passionately, with an unbelievably accurate sense of hitting the right mood at the right moment.
His playing is addictive, someone said, and I believe it is indeed. HR-Audio (Adrian Quanjer) 2020
Arne - Christian Pelz
Cello
Photo Chiara von Galli
Arne-Christian Pelz, principal cellist of the Deutsche Oper Berlin since 2016, grew up in Rostock on the Baltic Sea and studied in Houston, Berlin, and Leipzig. At the age of 25, he was appointed principal cellist of the Symphoniker Hamburg under Sir Jeffrey Tate.
As a sought-after soloist, he regularly performs with orchestras in major concert halls such as the Berlin Philharmonie, the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Konzerthaus Berlin, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus.
Driven by a deep passion for chamber music and a curiosity for diverse musical formats, Pelz engages in collaborations that span genres and disciplines — working with choreographers, electronic musicians, and video artists. At the 2024 Kissinger Sommer Festival, he premiered his arrangement of J.S. Bach’s BWV 996 for five-string cello and electronics during a dance matinée. His earlier collaboration with choreographer Andreas Heise and electronic musician Kian Jazdi led to the experimental dance performance Schütz-Universum, presented in Dresden in autumn 2022, featuring arrangements and improvisations on works by Heinrich Schütz with AuditivVokal Dresden.
In April 2024, he toured across Germany with the Neue Philharmonie Berlin, performing Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, including a concert at the Konzerthaus Berlin. His affinity for interdisciplinary performance brought him to the Hatch House Festival 2024, where he appeared alongside world-renowned dancer Ksenia Ovsyanick. His arrangement of Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words, commissioned in 2023 by the Tokyo Ballet, was recently broadcast live by German classical radio stations NDR and MDR during the opening concert of the 2024 Liedstadt Hamburg Festival.
From 2019 to 2024, Pelz served as a faculty member at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin and, since winter semester 2023, at the Academy of Fine Arts (ASK) Berlin. He regularly teaches international masterclasses, including summer residencies in Wuxi, China, in 2024 and 2025. In summer 2025, he will return to the Rosamunde Festival in Winnipeg, Canada — where he previously appeared in 2016 — as both soloist and teacher.
Arne-Christian Pelz currently performs on a 2017 cello by Alexandre Breton and a rare five-string cello crafted by Lockey Hill in 1792.