The versatile cellist Jens Peter Maintz enjoys an outstanding reputation as a soloist, chamber musician and professor. The Hamburg native studied with David Geringas and was also influenced by Uwe-Martin Haiberg, Heinrich Schiff, and Walter Levin, among others. In 1994, Maintz won first prize at the ARD International Music Competition, which had yet to be awarded in the cello category for 17 years. In his solo career, the ECHO KLASSIK prizewinner has worked with orchestras such as the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the MDR Symphony Orchestra Leipzig, and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and has played under conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Marek Janowski, and Franz Welser-Möst. His chamber music partners include Janine Jansen, Hélène Grimaud, Isabelle Faust, and the Minguet Quartet. Other festivals and tours have taken him to London, Spain and South Korea. Jens Peter Maintz is one of the world's most successful cello pedagogues and has held professorships at the Berlin University of the Arts and the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía Madrid.