Christoph Israel
Christoph Israel is a Berlin-based pianist, arranger, composer and producer, working in a wide range of repertoire. A classically trained pianist, he is active as a Lied pianist, theatre and film composer, and as producer of musical productions and recordings.
As pianist, Christoph has collaborated with Max Raabe since 1993 with Lied programs originating from the Weimar Republic, and together they have performed in all of the major concert venues throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and also have appeared in England and the US. Christoph performed frequently with Otto Sander from 1996 to 2004, touring with a program entitled "Klagendes Leid - Schaurige Lust", featuring Romantic ballads and melodramas. A CD of this program was released in 1998. From 2003-2010 Christoph was the pianist for "Dominique Horwitz singt Jacques Brel." In 2010 he accompanied an evening of German folk songs together with Angela Winkler, Udo Samel, Max Raabe and Thomas Quasthoff which toured through the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Laeiszhalle Hamburg and the Philharmonie Köln.
As arranger and musical director Christoph has worked for numerous theatre productions. In 2006/07, he was musical director and pianist for Oscar-winning Pepe Danquart's show, "Human Voices," with performances at the TIPI am Kanzleramt in Berlin. In 2010 he arranged music for Horwitz's Brel program, and both arranged music and was the pianist for a program entitled "Verlorene Heimat--Komm mit Kamerad"(Lost Homeland--Come Along, Friend) at the Musiktriennale Cologne together with Daniel Hope, Dominique Horwitz and David Orlowsky among others. This program was broadcast on radio and TV by the WDR.
Since 2008 he is musical director, arranger and pianist of the musical theatre production "Zwei auf einer Bank" with Andreja Schneider and Katharina Thalbach at the Bar jeder Vernunft, Berlin.
For the theatre, he has worked for the Hanns-Otto-Theater Potsdam and the Theater am Kurfürstendamm, Berlin among others. 2011 saw, in collaboration with Thomas Pigor (lyrics), a new version of Jacques Offenbach’s operetta, Orpheus in the Underworld, at the Staatsoper Berlin, directed by Philipp Stölzl. In 2014 he wrote the stage music for ‚Amphitryon’ in Katharina Thalbach’s version at the Berliner Ensemble.
As a film composer, Christoph wrote the music for Pepe Danquart's movie, "To the Limit" (2007) in which he collaborated with Dorian Cheah. In 2019, he arranged and produced the music for Philipp Stölzl’s Musical Film ‘Ich war noch niemals in New York’(‘I have never been to New York’), based on the stage musical of the same name.
As a producer he has been involved in numerous recordings: "Ubers Meer" CD (2010) with Max Raabe: "Küssen kann man nicht alleine" CD (2011), awarded platinum prize, and "Für Frauen ist das kein Problem" CD (2013), awarded gold prize, both in collaboration with Annette Humpe and Max Raabe.
In November 2016 the album "Wintermärchen" has been released, which he arranged and produced with the Filmorchester Babelsberg and the solo artists Cassandra Steen, Katharina Thalbach, Gregor Meyle, Thomas Quasthoff, Max Raabe, Albrecht Mayer and Andreas Blau.
In November 2019 the sequel was released: ‘Ein Wintermärchen 2’, this time with German as well as international Christmas carols. Featuring Max Raabe, Nadine Sierra, Kandace Springs, Ute Lemper, Theo Bleckmann, Götz Alsmann, Carolin Niemczyk and the S’wonderful-Orchestra, conducted by Catherine Larsen Maguire.
Christoph Israel studied piano with Klaus Hellwig at the UdK, graduating in 1993. During his studies he participated in master classes with with Gyorgy Szebok, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Aribert Reimann. From 1994 to 2009 he taught piano at the University of Music, Berlin.