Christian Schmitt
Christian Schmitt studied at the Conservatoire Supérieur in Lyon and at the Music Academy in Karlsruhe, graduating with top honors. Throughout his career, he has continued to refine his skills with great masters such as Thomas Indermühle, Maurice Bourgue, and Heinz Holliger.
In 1992, he was awarded the first prize of the European Cultural Foundation (Freiburg). He furthered his artistic career with the Basel Symphony Orchestra, where he worked as the principal solo oboist for over 20 years. In 2012, he left the orchestra as he had, in the meantime (since 2008), taken over the professorship of the oboe class at the State University of Music in Stuttgart, succeeding Ingo Goritzki. In recent years, he has taught at the Académie Supérieure Strasbourg and as a guest professor at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena.
Christian Schmitt is constantly involved in the further development of his instrument, and numerous works by various composers have been dedicated to him, including French composers Vincent Paulet and Laurent Riou, Italians Jacopo Baboni Schilingi and Nicola Sani, and Germans Hans Tutschku and Dirk Michael Kirsch. Christian Schmitt has performed as a soloist under the baton of renowned conductors such as Nello Santi, Armin Jordan, Marcello Viotti, Heinz Holliger, Walter Weller, and others. He has also recorded for Swiss Radio DRS, Radio Suisse Romande, Italian Radio RSI, Radio France-Musique, Bayerischer Rundfunk, and Südwestrundfunk (SWR2), with various recordings in collaboration with pianist Alessandra Gentile and the CD label "Stradivarius."
Christian Schmitt has been invited to numerous recitals and masterclasses across Europe, as well as to universities in the USA (Columbia-New York, Austin-Texas, Chicago, Detroit-Michigan), South Korea (Seoul), China (Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong), Japan (Tokyo), and Russia (Sochi). He has served as a jury member for the Gillet-Fox International Competition in Ithaca, New York, Birmingham, and Chicago, as well as for competitions in Muri (Switzerland), Petritoli (Italy), and the prestigious International ARD Music Competition in Munich.
