Composer and pianist, born in Neustrelitz (Mecklenburg). In 1964 he received piano lessons for the first time; at nine he composed first pieces. From 1969 to 1975 he attended the special school of music Berlin. He then studied composition with Erhard Ragwitz and piano with Ruth Zechlin at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin until 1980. This was followed by a two-year postgraduate study with Tadeusz Baird at the Fryderyk Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw. Finally, he was a master student with Ruth Zechlin at the Academy of Arts Berlin from 1981 to 1983.
In 1982, he worked in Budapest on film music for “Guernica” by Hungarian director Ferenc Kósa.
In 1986 he moved to Hamburg. From 1989 to 1990 he held a lectureship at the Musikhochschule Lübeck. He works since 1997 for the NDR. He has been responsible for several hundred piano-historical programs in recent years. As a pianist he played among other countries in Finland, Hungary and Italy. As early as 1983, his 5 Rilke songs were premiered at the Warsaw Autumn. Musicians like Miklós Perényi, John-Edward Kelly, Michael Korstick and Michael Massong could be won over for his compositions.
His most recent compositions include the “Concerto for 2 Pianos and Percussion” (2014, commissioned by Norddeutscher Rundfunk NDR); the “KOktett” (2016) for harp, piano, flute, clarinet and string quartet (written for members of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra) and the “K10 Preludes for Piano” (2017-18), the Alexandre Paley in its entirety at his festival in France , “KMoulin d Andé”, will premiere in spring 2019.
His most recent work “Hommage à Szymanowski” (commissioned composition of the NDR in 2018) was performed on 20 November 2018 at the Elbphilharmonie, performing for the first time by the Meccore String Quartet (Poland).
In 2005 he published a book about the pianist Tamás Vásáry. He worked as a juror at the Svjatoslav Richter piano competition in Moscow.
Thomas Böttcher is living in Hamburg.
(Rainer Stelle)