Johannes Goritzki studied with Atis Teichmanis at the college of music in Freiburg. Then he met three representatives of his chosen subject who have long been musical legends: Gaspar Cassadò, Andre Navarra, and Pablo Casals. It was especially under the influence of Cassadò, who became teacher and father figure at the same time, that the sound of the cello revealed itself to the student Goritzki.
In spite of his diverse activities as conductor, the cellist Goritzki has never put the bow aside. One of the gems in his extensive discography is Othmar Schoeck's cello concerto, the performance of which filled a gap that was first revealed by this brilliant production. This CD was awarded the "Grand Prix du Disque- Discobole de L'Europe". Apart from the traditional repertoire of cello concertos with orchestra, solo pieces for cello (Bach, Reger, Kodaly, Veress, etc.) Johannes Goritzki plays chamber music specialities together with the pianist Pavel Gililov (Duo Goritzki-Gililov).
From 1980 to 2003 Goritzki was the chief conductor of the "Deutsche Kammerakademie". He performed and toured internationally with this orchestra as a soloist and conductor. These concerts and tours led him to places like Australia, Switzerland, Netherlands, Austria, China, Korea, France, Mexico, Poland, Rumania, Peru, Bolivia, El Salvador, Argentina, Japan, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Italy, Spain, Guatemala, Culumbia, Costa Rica and Greece.
He has been invited as a soloist at the "Ansbacher Bachwochen", the "Berliner Festwochen", the "Enescu Festival" in Bukarest, the "Festivales Musicales de Buenos Aires", the "Festival de L'lle de France", the "Festival Gstaad", the "Festival Lockenhaus", the "Beethoven - Osterfestival" in Krakow, the "Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival", the "Settimane Musicale Ascona" and at the "Flandern Festival" - to name a few.
In 2008 the label CPO released a CD which contains among others the concertos for cello in C-Major (G 477) and D-Major (G 479). The "Stuttgarter Kammerorchester" is lead by the soloist Johannes Goritzki. Since 2008 Johannes Goritzki is teaching as Professor at the "Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana" in Lugano and since 2010 as "Prince Consort Professor" at the "Royal College of Music" in London.
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