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Maria Kliegel's international career started in 1981 when she received the "Grand Prix" of the Concours Rostropovich in Paris. Since that time she has established herself as one of the leading cellists in the world. Moreover, she has become the best CD-sold cellist worldwide.
Maria Kliegel took up her studies with Janos Starker at Indiana University, Bloomington, IN. She won first prizes at the American College Competition, at the First German Music Competition in Bonn and at the Concours Aldo Parisot. She was in the national selection for "Concerts with Young Artists," and after the Rostropovich Competition the series of outstanding international concerts and tours started: Maria Kliegel played in Basle, she played with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington and with the Orchestre National de France in Paris - always accompanied by Mstislaw Rostropovich conducting, who remarked: "Brilliant musical fireworks ... Maria Kliegel is the best cellist I've heard since Jacqueline du Pré." She has toured Europe, the United States and South America, Japan and other countries in the Far East. Everywhere the response of audience and critics is enthusiastic.
These successful concert events have naturally led to numerous recording sessions for radio, television and record labels. In 1990, when she recorded Alfred Schnittke's first concerto for violoncello and orchestra, the Russian composer came to acknowledge her interpretation as the standard recording of his work, with the experts literally foaming with enthusiasm about this altogether fascinating rendering of the concerto.
In the meantime further musical highlights have taken place. Maria Kliegel has recorded e.g. the concertos of Dvorák, Elgar, Saint-Saëns, Shostakovich and Schumann, Brahms' Double Concerto, Beethoven's Triple Concerto, works by Sofia Gubaidulina, the two Hebrew Rhapsodies, "Schelomo" by Ernest Bloch and "Kol Nidrei" by Max Bruch, and Tchaikovsky's "Rococo Variations." Chamber music recordings include among others works of Brahms, Chopin, Kodaly, Mendelssohn, Schubert and Schumann.
With the release of the above-mentioned works on CD, Maria Kliegel has become one of the world's CD-best-selling cellists within four years. She continues in recording an exceptionally voluminous catalogue of cello literature. Her recording with pieces of Sofia Gubaidulina has been awarded record of the month in France in February 1996. Also, the recording of the Brahms Double Concerto has been editor's choice in the Gramophone 10/95. In 1998 she will record Tavener's The Protecting Veil, the concertos of Lalo and Dohnanyi, Hommage à Nelson by Wilhelm Kaiser-Lindemann and the cello works of Gabriel Faurè.
Hommage à Nelson has been initiated by Maria Kliegel and was premiered in December 1996 at the Düsseldorf Tonhalle. Dedicated to Nelson Mandela, Maria Kliegel performed parts of this composition on the occasion of South Africa's Heritage-day in the Nico-Theater in Capetown in September l997. As a result of this she was invited by the president to give a private concert on 10 November 1997. Hommage à Nelson is a kind a reflection on the life of Nelson Mandela.
Next concerts will see Maria Kliegel among others at the Konzerthaus Berlin, at the Stuttgart Liederhalle, at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, at the Weilburger Schloßkonzerte, at Gidon Kremer's Lockenhaus Festival, at a Gubaidulina Festival in West Germany, at the Risør Kammermusikkfest in Norway, at the Alte Oper Frankfurt and at the Kultursommer Nordhessen. Further she will play concerts in Switzerland, the United States and New Zealand.
Since 1986, Maria Kliegel has been teaching a master class at Cologne Music Academy. She plays the legendary violoncello "ex Gendron" made by Stradivarius in 1693. It was owned for more than 30 years by Maurice Gendron and was eventually put at her disposal by the "Stiftung für Kunst und Kultur in NRW" (Foundation for the Arts and Culture in N. Rhine/Westphalia).
