Artistic career

Dear music lovers!
25 years of chamber music (1999-2024)
and no end in sight!

Highest artistic quality“, „deeply touching musicality“, a „performing with soulful breath“ and the „warm, floating sound perceived as romantic“ have been enthusiastically confirmed by the press!

And she has long been in demand as a soloist with a number of renowned ensembles….

Now from the beginning…

The freelance clarinettist Sigrun Felicitas Vortisch first fulfilled her oldest instrumental wish during her final exams in economics in Bamberg (1995/96):

The clarinet. And the clarinet became the discovery of her life.

As a newly graduated economist, she initially found clarinetistic and musical support with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, while she initially remained connected to the university and economics as a research assistant.

In 1997 she is principal clarinettist of the Bamberg University Orchestra and performs in the „Concert Hall of Bamberg Symkphony Orchestra“ on the occasion of the university’s 350th anniversary celebrations. In the same year she is able to work with Prof. Bernhard Kontarsky at the Frankfurt University of Music, who encourages her in her musical endeavours. In 1999, she began studying clarinet and chamber music as a guest student at the Nuremberg University of Music and in the same year won first prize at the music competition of the Otto Friedrich University in Bamberg (Irmler Competition). During this time she received decisive musical encouragement from Prof Alexander Willscher. At the same time, she not only performed as a soloist with the Bamberg University Orchestra, but also developed a wide range of chamber music concert activities. She also teaches clarinet and piano, including as part of the „German Society of highly gifted Children (DGhK)“, Bamberg, and develops a concept for supporting gifted children through music and music lessons.

Finally, in January 2003, a near-fatal road accident interrupted her previous career. After a lengthy and difficult rehabilitation process, it was not until autumn 2004 that she was able to resume both her concert activities and her teaching commitments in Munich. She found enthusiastic chamber musicians among the members of the Bavarian State Orchestra and founded the Merlin Trio; the Merlin Ensemble was formed from members of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. With these partners and ensembles, as well as various string quartets such as the Aglaia Quartet, the Rodin Quartet and the Augsburg String Quartet, she regularly performs as part of various series such as the Munich Town Hall Concerts, the Wasserburg Town Hall Concerts, the Ismaning Castle Concerts, the Master Concerts Classic in the Ries, the Schwaz Summer Serenades (Austria) etc.. Her concept of reviving rarely performed yet enchanting „rarities of classical and romantic music“ has been a great success with audiences and has become one of her trademarks.

From 2011, after returning to her adopted home of Franconia, she initially devoted herself to setting up her „Musikzentrum am Weinberg“ in Eckental.

She returned to concert life in 2013. She presents numerous works for clarinet and piano – both well-known and unknown – with various piano partners,  in which her chamber music encounter with pianist Paul Badura-Skoda in Vienna is becoming a personal and musical highlight. In addition to her „rarities programmes“, she succeeds – with various string quartets and in renowned concert series – in bringing the well-known clarinet quintets of Mozart and Brahms to an enthusiastic audience, and with the ensembles of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra (Bamberg String Quartet), the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (Hába Quartet) and the Frankfurt Opera (Hindemith Quartet) in particular, she is able to develop a quintet culture that corresponds to her ideal conception of chamber music …

In 2017, she founded the „Trio Pathétique“ (clarinet, violoncello and piano) and also gave concerts with this ensemble.

In 2019, she also performed as a soloist in chamber concerts with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra.

During the pandemic years (2020-22), she developed arrangements for clarinet and organ from organ works by the Romantics Josef Rheinberger (1833-1901), Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911) and others in collaboration with the Erlangen professor of church music, Konrad Klek, for which she was even awarded a scholarship from the German Music Council in 2022. In the same year, she found two enthusiastic chamber musicians and future duo partners in the Zurich pianist Andrea Wiesli and the Munich pianist Heiko Stralendorff.

In 2023, she will also take her „creations“ out into the international music world and perform them at the „30th International Festival of Symphonic Organ Art St Martin“ in Dornbirn/Austria, in the cathedral of Vaduz/Liechtenstein and at other renowned organ concert series in Munich, Bad Kissingen and elsewhere.

Her interpretation of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, in a chamber music version for clarinet and string quintet, has also attracted great attention at concerts in Munich, Nuremberg and Erlangen.

This „Mozart success story“ will continue in autumn 2024.
She will then be joined by the Arias Ensemble, with principal violinist Raúl Teo Arias and other members of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. Before that, however, she will be performing in chamber concerts – with her piano partners Stralendorff and Wiesli – as well as in numerous „gallery dreams“, including as part of the „Thuringian Organ Summer“, providing many hours of musical enjoyment!