The German Cellist Christoph Henkel started learning the cello at the age of 6 years with G.U. von Buelow, a pupil of Emmanuel Feuermann‘s. After winning first prizes in all the Young Artists Competitions in Germany, he became a student of Janos Starker in the USA with scholarships of the DAAD and the Cultural Society of the German Industry. He became Starker‘s assistant at the Indiana University, where he was awarded the « Artist Diploma ».

He started a concert career after winning the « Young concert Artists » competition in New York, the competition of the Cultural Society of the German Industry and the « Young Concert Artist » series in Germany.

At the same time his teaching career continued with an appointment to the Illinois State University, followed by invitations to the Michigan State University and the Freiburg Musikhochschule, where he became the youngest German professor at the age of 26 years.

After some years of being Principal Cellist of the NDR Hamburg and Hessischer Rundfunk Frankfurt Symphony Orchestras, he is now devoting his whole time concertizing and teaching at the Freiburg Musikhochschule.

He earned a worldwide reputation as a soloist and chamber musician through his many concerts, radio and TV appearances and award-winning CDs with Deutsche Grammophon, EMI-Electrola, CBS, Lyrinx etc. Enthusiastic acclaim won his recordings of the Bach Solo Suites, Kodaly‘s Unaccompanied Sonata and the Beethoven Piano-Cello works (with Georges Pludermacher).

He has played under many eminent conductors, among others Erich Leinsdorf, Vaclav Neumann, Eliahu Inbal and with such orchestras as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Radio Symphony Orchestras of Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Baden-Baden.

Appearances as soloist include concerts at the Bach-Woche Ansbach, the Festival de Montreux, the Schwetzinger Festspiele and the Casals Festival Prades.

Christoph Henkel‘s extensive repertoire covers the entire range of the solo literature as well as chamber music.