Christoph Schlüren studied with the late Sergiu Celibidache from 1981 to 1996. Other strong influences were the composers Anders Eliasson, Pehr Henrik Nordgren, and Per Nørgård, the musicians Paul Zukofsky, Sándor Végh, Murray Perahia, Juha Kangas, and many more.
As a conductor (Symphonia Momentum, Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss am Rhein, St Michel Strings Mikkeli) Christoph Schlüren led first performances of works by Peter Michael Hamel and Anders Eliasson. Some of the lesser established composers he particularly favors are:
Heinz Tiessen, Eduard Erdmann, Anders Eliasson, Jean-Louis Florentz, Paul Büttner, John Foulds, Vittorio Giannini, Nicolas Flagello, Giorgio Federico Ghedini, Peter Mennin, Bernard Stevens, Felix Draeseke, Heinrich Kaminski, Max Butting, Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling , Heinz Schubert, Philipp Jarnach, Emil Bohnke, Matthijs Vermeulen, Harald Sæverud, Georges Migot, Eduard Tubin, Vagn Holmboe, Douglas Lilburn, Robert Simpson, Per Nørgård, Boris Tishchenko, Ketil Hvoslef, Pehr Henrik Nordgren, Tristan Keuris, Halvor Haug, Peter Michael Hamel, John Pickard, Håkan Larsson, and Juan José Chuquisengo
He combines their works in dramaturgically correlated programs with the established great composers.
Christoph Schlüren works as a musical mentor with soloists and chamber ensembles (Rebekka Hartmann, Ottavia Maria Maceratini, David Frühwirth, Masha Dimitrieva, Omar Rahbany, Margarita Oganesjan, etc.).
He is a music researcher, author and journalist as well (Frankfurter Rundschau, Gramophone, Tempo, Fono Forum, Crescendo, Neue Musikzeitung, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Deutschland Radio, etc.) and works as main editor and researcher on the rare music scores series Repertoire Explorer. Christoph Schlüren wrote the first basic introduction into Musical Phenomenology as it was created as a universal approach to music by Sergiu Celibidache developing further on.
As a program adviser he collaborates with orchestras and conductors (Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Münchner Philharmoniker, Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, Arcos Orchestra, Münchener Kammerorchester, etc.; Lavard Skou Larsen, Juha Kangas, José Serebrier , Mario Venzago, Christoph Poppen, Israel Yinon, etc.), and created commissions for the Musica Viva series of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (Anders Eliasson’s Fourth Symphony, Cynthia Lee Wong, and Onute Narbutaite, as well as arranging the world première of Artur Schnabel’s Third Symphony).
José SerebrierChristoph Schlueren is one of the most complete musicians I know. Historian, musicologist, conductor, writer, critic, and many other specialties make him one of the wonders of today’s music world, a true Renaissance man of music. His general culture is equally outstanding, as is his sense of history. His love of music is so communicative that musicians are instantly inspired by his presence. He has equally proven to be an amazing coach for young performers, able to guide them with a final touch of phrasing and concept.
Beth LevinChristoph Schlüren is a unique and masterful musician who can articulate the essence of the music at hand to an orchestra or to a student with great clarity and a sense of vision. As a conductor he is very lean and never wasteful of motion but at the same time can evoke great emotion from the orchestra. I had the honor to coach with him and to play a concerto under his musical direction and found it enlightening and freeing. He is one of those rare blends of the disciplined and the romantic, the objective and the courageous, the result always fresh and a discovery for all involved.
Lavard Skou LarsenVery rarely I have experienced that a musician and pedagogue articulates and communicates his opinion as mercilessly and authentically as Christoph Schlüren. It is incredibly refreshing in this way to work with him and to get his advise and coaching. In its quality this work exceeds anything that I learned during my time as a student and that is taught today at musical conservatories. Very often I experienced that students or young artists experienced a quantum jump in their skills after studying with Christoph Schlüren. I am particularly fascinated that Mr Schlüren doesn’t ever consider anything approximately, generally, or pretentiously. He always dismantles the substance into its components and analyses the underlying truth, the spiritual content and the true secrets of the coherences of a work, making it accessible and bringing it into the light of day.
I recommend every artist and musician – even the most talented, advanced or even world-famous – to meet Mr. Schlüren and thus elevate his/her own musical access and execution and to crystallize this in his/her consciousness.
Mario VenzagoWith his knowledge about all the parameters of interpretation, including authentic performance practice, Christoph Schlüren is a unique and critical surveyor and consultant. Everything in this fine and incorruptible man is inspired by his passionate love for music. Mr. Schlüren is not only one of the best journalists and critics. For advanced artists, ensembles and orchestras who want to go deeper into the substance he is a predestinated coach and teacher. A man of knowledge who is able to help others to find their way.
Omar RahbanyStudying with Maestro Christoph Schlüren was the most substantial, enjoyable and fulfilling musical experience. His intuition makes him one of the very few who are able to offer a diagnosis and troubleshoot, an attribute, that if absent, could prohibit an artist from reaching his higher self. He easily identifies hidden emotions that lie within a composition and helps transcend the musical experience and thus, making him the unique conductor, musician and coach that he is. A risk lover by nature, he continuously experiences music with the joy, love and freshness of a young child discovering the world for the first time.
Ottavia Maria MaceratiniChristoph Schlüren’s access to music is completely unconventional and reveals qualities that are unknown to most musicians. They begin to understand the music from the core of its energetic reality beyond conventional theoretical analysis. The structural coherences of the music become clear, every bar gets its distinct sense and function in relation to the whole, and there are no gaps left for unconscious playing.
Rebekka HartmannWorking with Christoph Schlüren provides an irreplaceable quality for musicians who have completed their academic studies and want to constantly widen their horizon and deepen their knowledge, independent from style and difficulty level of the music. His teaching starts where the professional world normally is at its wit’s end. Working with him always gives fresh inspiration and infuses the musicians with power, self-assurance, lucidity, playful ease and depth of intuitive and conscious performance. No aspect of shaping, representation and expression stays untouched by this work that results in a continuous transformation leading the musician more and more to himself and making his performance increasingly objective and at the same unmistakable and individual.