Maurice Steger, “the world’s leading recorder virtuoso,” (The Independent) tours extensively around the world and has made a number of critically-acclaimed recordings. With his dynamic style and his brilliant, spontaneous and personal technique, he has also contributed to a resurgence of interest in the recorder as an instrument. ... read full bio

Maurice Steger, “the world’s leading recorder virtuoso,” (The Independent) tours extensively around the world and has made a number of critically-acclaimed recordings. With his dynamic style and his brilliant, spontaneous and personal technique, he has also contributed to the resurgence of interest in the recorder as an instrument.

With a repertoire focused on Early Music, Maurice Steger is a sought-after soloist with leading Early Music period instrument ensembles including Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, The English Concert, Musica Antiqua Köln, Europa Galante and I Barocchisti. He also appears regularly with modern orchestras including the Berliner Barock Solisten, Les Violons du Roy and the State Orchestra of Brandenburg. He continues to perform with the most renowned artists such as Hilary Hahn, Rainer Kussmaul, Igor Oistrakh, Fabio Biondi, Sandrine Piau, Andrew Manze, Diego Fasolis, Sol Gabetta and Thomas Quasthoff.

A major portion of Steger’s artistic activities are devoted to recitals accompanied by just a harpsichord or with small chamber orchestras. He frequently collaborates with harpsichordists Naoki Kitaya and Sergio Ciomei. During the 2009-2010 season, Maurice Steger visited Japan on a recital tour, repeatedly played with Les Violons du Roy under Bernard Labadie in Canada and toured extensively through India. He is equally successful in reappraising seldom played music from the 17th and 18th centuries with Hille Perl (viola da gamba) and Lee Santana (chitarrone). The trio has performed in Strasbourg, Munich’s Herkulessaal, the Tonhalle in Zurich, as well as in Braunschweig and Vienna.

Maurice Steger is no stranger to contemporary music: He premiered two solo concertos for recorder and orchestra and has performed Rodolphe Schacher’s musical fairytale "Tino Flautino" over 50 times.

After studying with Marcus Creed in Stuttgart and on Reinhard Goebel’s encouragement, Maurice Steger has been conducting for several years. He performed with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, NDR Radio Philharmonic, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the English Concert, the State Orchestra of Brandenburg, the Musikkollegium Winterthur as well as several baroque ensembles. He has been invited to conduct in places as far away as Taiwan, where he developed a very successful baroque program. In his position as the Baroque Music Director at the Zurich Chamber Orchestra (Principal Conductor: Sir Roger Norrington), he has  developed and conducted concerts from both the baroque and classical eras. He also collaborates with other conductors of early music and accompanies soloists like Andreas Scholl and Hille Perl.

His many recordiings include the Telemann Flute Quartets (Deutsche Grammophon/Archiv), sonatas by Sammartini and Telemann’s Suites and Concerto for Recorder (harmonia mundi) as well as Vivaldi’s Concertos for Recorder. Several recordings, among them the album "Venezia 1625" (harmonia mundi) have received prestigious international awards. His latest release is devoted to Corelli’s Collection Opus 5 in English adaptations. Based on handwritten sheet music only recently uncovered by Maurice Steger himself, the project brings back to life a historically authentic, but almost forgotten style of musical performance ("Mr. Corelli in London" – Steger & The English Concert – harmonia mundi USA 2010).