Velvet Brass
{{ time.start_TS | TS2dateFormat('MMM') }}
{{ time.start_TS | TS2dateFormat('YYYY') }}
| free admission |
| Please leave coats and large bags at the checkroom or lockers before the concert. The number of seats is limited, plus standing room. In case of overcrowding we have to close the entrance temporarily. |
| Start: Mechanical Arena in the Foyer |
| Duration: 60 min |
| 6 years and older |
| German, No language skills required |
| For people with visual impairments |
| Part of: Micro Concerts of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin |
“Velvet Brass” – the name speaks for itself. Performing at the Humboldt Forum, the formation of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin proves that brass players are in fact capable of making very poetic music. Four members of the RSB come together to play the softer-sounding Flügelhorn instead of the sharp trumpet, the sonorous euphonium instead of the heroic trombone, and in any case the noble French horn and the bass tuba, which is capable of all melodic glamour.
Look forward to a very special Micro New Year’s Concert with music ranging from Bach to the Beatles!
Born in Frankfurt am Main in 1984, Simone Gruppe received her first trumpet lessons at the age of 9 from Sunhild Pfeiffer at the Frankfurt Youth Music School. After graduating from high school, she studied with Prof. Klaus Schuhwerk, Heiko Hermann and Balázs Nemes at the Frankfurt University of Music and with Prof. Sepp Eidenberger at the Bruckner University in Linz, Austria. She then moved to the Karlsruhe University of Music under Prof. Reinhold Friedrich, where she completed her master’s degree with distinction.
She gained orchestral experience in the European Youth Orchestra (EUYO) and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, among others. Following internships with the Mannheim National Theatre Orchestra and the Stuttgart Philharmonic, she has been a member of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra since 2010.
Anne Mentzen was born in Braunschweig in 1981, where she received her first piano lessons at the age of five. She began horn lessons at the age of nine and was trained from 1998 by Theodor Wiemes, principal horn of the Hanover Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.
After graduating from high school, she began studying horn in the fall of 2000 in Marie-Luise Neunecker’s class at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts. From 2003, she studied with Thomas Hauschild at the University of Music and Theater in Leipzig, where she graduated with distinction.
Anne Mentzen has won several national prizes at Jugend musiziert and prizes at other competitions, both on the horn and on the piano. In 1999, in addition to the first national prize, she was awarded a special prize from the Hanover Artists’ Association and in 2000 she was also awarded the Lower Saxony Prize for “outstanding achievements in the cultural field”. She also received scholarships from the Volkswagen Bank (1999), the Richard Wagner Association (2000) and the Gustav Mahler Academy (2002, 2005).
The horn player gained orchestral experience in the state and national youth orchestras, the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and was invited several times to the International Orchestra Academy of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. After an internship with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and a temporary position with the Kassel State Orchestra, she joined the Deutsche Oper Berlin as an intern in 2005.
Anne Mentzen has been a horn player with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin since 2006. Here she also plays in various chamber music formations, such as the Samtblech ensemble.
Hannes Hölzl was born in 1987 in Bad Hofgastein in the Austrian province of Salzburg. After beginning his musical education playing the recorder, he switched to the tenor horn at the age of 5. At the age of 10, he also received trombone lessons from Goldegg music school teacher Gernot Pracher. He later studied at the renowned Mozarteum University in Salzburg with Prof. Dany Bonvin.
From 1998 to 2000, Hannes Hölzl completed the Austrian Wind Music Association’s bronze, silver and gold performance badges, all with “excellent success”. He has also been successful at numerous international competitions: he won the Prima la musica competition, was awarded 2nd prize in Córdoba (Argentina) and 1st prize at the European Solo Champion in Montreux, 4th prize at the International Brass Competition in Markneukirchen (Germany), 4th prize at the Città die Porcia competition. He also received the Gustav Mahler Prize as the youngest finalist in the entire competition and the City of Prague Prize as the most successful finalist in the trombone competition. He was also awarded 2nd prize at the International Trombone Competition in Budapest and received the Vienna Symphony Orchestra Sponsorship Award.
Hannes Hölzl is a member of various brass ensembles and performs as a soloist with various brass orchestras and symphony orchestras at home and abroad, including in China, America, Tunisia, the Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and many more.
Hannes Hölzl began his career in the large symphony orchestra with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra at the age of 18. In the same year, he won a 2-year internship with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. During this time, Hannes Hölzl earned his first permanent position at the Mainfrankentheater Würzburg, which he took up as solo trombonist at the age of 21. He has been principal trombonist with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin since 2012.
Fabian Neckermann, born in 1995 in Ochsenfurt, Lower Franconia, has been principal tuba in the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin since 2018 and has also been a lecturer at the Anton Rubinstein International Music Academy since 2021.
After starting out in the local music association, he completed a two-year training course to become a state-certified ensemble leader at the vocational school for music in Bad Königshofen with instrumental teacher Udo Schneider. In 2013, he studied with Prof. Jens Bjørn-Larsen at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, where he completed his bachelor’s degree with top marks.
He gained his first orchestral experience as a member of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and the European Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, as well as an academy member of the Nuremberg State Philharmonic and the Bavarian State Orchestra in Munich.
Guest appearances as an orchestral musician have also taken him to the opera houses in Würzburg, Saarbrücken, Bonn, Hamburg and Berlin, as well as to the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the hr-Sinfonieorchester and the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Fabian Neckermann was a finalist in the 2016 German Music Competition, whereupon he received a special prize from the Capriccio Kulturforum – Gesellschaft zur Förderung von klassischer Musik und Kultur e.V. and was accepted as a scholarship holder in the 61st national selection of Concerts of Young Artists. In the final, he performed on stage as a soloist with the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn.
With his ensemble Trio 21meter60, consisting of three tubas, he was awarded the OPUS KLASSIK in 2022. He is also a regular guest in ensembles such as Genesis Brass, the Brass Ensemble Ludwig Güttler and the Brass Ensemble of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra.
The micro-concerts are part of a series of concerts in which musicians from the RSB enter into a dialog with the location and the exhibitions. The Humboldt Forum and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin are jointly organizing the micro-concerts as part of the 100th anniversary of the RSB.
