Cristiano Holtz, Harpsichord

Biography

Cristiano Holtz (1972)

"None other composer touches my heart more then Bach,since my childhood his music always makes me few at home,he is my main master and source of inspiration, therefore I devote my life to his music."

Influenced by J.S. Bach, he began his studies of harpsichord when he was twelve years old, with Pedro Persone. At fifteen he moved to the Netherlands, following an invitation of Jacques Ogg, in order to pursue his musical studies, where he stayed for ten years, studying with various teachers.

Since very young age, his strongest influence was Gustav Leonhardt, for whom he was exceptionally accepted as his last official student.
It was also important for him , to work privetly with Pierre Hantai, Miklos Spaniy and Marco Mencoboni.
In 1998 he came at the invitation of the Gregorian Institute of Lisbon,to work in Portugal, where he is since then professor of harpsichord at this institution.
Cristiano Holtz performs especially as soloist, both on harpsichord, clavichord and occasionally on historical organs in various countries in Europe, Asia,South America and the United States, playing for several prestigious international festivals.
He has obtained several international awards such as: Eldorado competition (Brazil 1996), Preis der Deutschen Schallplatten kritik (Germany 2006), 5 Stars Golgberg Magazine (Britain, Spain) for his CD devoted to the composer J. Mattheson(Ramee 2006), which was a world premiere.

In 2008 he recorded the Inventions and Sinfonies of J.S.Bach, played on the Clavichord for the label Hortus, and in 2011 again for the Label Ramee, a cd devoted to G.F.Haendel,wich obtained the prestigious "Record Geijutsu Award" from Japan.

His most recent recording is devoted to J.S.Bach "Rare works for harpsichord" for the label Edition Hera.
Cristiano Holtz has Bach as the center of his musical work.