One of the greatest cellists of his generation, Austrian Heinrich Schiff was born in Gmunden on November 18, 1951, and died in Vienna on December 23, 2016. Trained at the Vienna Hoschschule, he made his professional debut in 1971, touring festivals before recording for various labels. He built up a solid repertoire including not only the great works of Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms and Dvorak, but also lesser-known scores, many of them contemporary. He premiered numerous compositions for cello by Friedrich Gulda, Christoph Casken, Friedrich Cerha, Helmut Eder, Hans Werner Henze, Peter Maxwell Davies and Hans Zender. At the same time, he converted to conducting with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie and then the Northern Sinfonia in Newcastle (1990-1996), the Musikkollegium in Winterthur (Switzerland), the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra (1996-1999) and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra (2004-2008). He retired as a cellist in 2012, and died four years later at the age of 65.
