“Music – especially that of Ravel and Gershwin – is, for me, the art of allowing classical music and jazz to speak in a single breath. At the piano, this story becomes particularly vivid.” Karl Eichinger

Karl Eichinger

The pianist, teacher, and artistic director Karl Eichinger studied piano and instrumental pedagogy at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. He subsequently completed concert piano studies at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna (MUK) and studied jazz piano with Rudi Wilfer. He received critical artistic impulses through masterclasses with Oleg Maisenberg and Rudolf Kehrer.

In 2009, he was awarded the Silver Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria. In 2023, he was granted the professional title of Professor by the Federal President of Austria.

At the centre of his current pianistic work lies the 20th-century repertoire, with a particular focus on the fusion of classical virtuosity and a jazz-inflected sound world. The American music magazine FANFARE has highlighted Eichinger’s stylistic authority and his affinity with major interpreters of Gershwin’s music.

As a soloist, Karl Eichinger has worked with orchestras including Brno Philharmonic, Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, Kazakh State Symphony Orchestra, Moravian Philharmonic, Radio Symphony Orchestra Tirana, Sarajevo Philharmonic, Berliner Symphoniker, Tonkünstler Orchestra Austria and the Vienna Concert-Verein. He has appeared alongside artists such as Caspar Richter, Tonci Bilic, Daniela Fally, Hans Gansch, Peter Matić, Karl Merkatz, Petra Morzé, Cornelius Obonya, Ildikó Raimondi, Caspar Richter, Andreas Schager, Julia Stemberger, Hari Zlodre, and many others.

His concert activities as a soloist and chamber musician have taken him to venues such as the Musikverein Vienna, the Wolkenturm in Grafenegg, the Vienna Konzerthaus, and the RadioKulturhaus, as well as to festivals including the Allegro Vivo Chamber Music Festival, the Bregenz Festival, Carinthian Summer, the Pablo Casals Festival in France, the Gmunden Festival Weeks, St. Pölten Festival Weeks, Jeunesse Musicale, KlangBogen Wien, Kultursommer St. Paul, the Mozart Festival Salzkammergut, the Langenargen Music Weeks, the Millstatt Music Weeks, the Stams Music Weeks, and Schloss Halbturn.

Tours have taken him to Egypt, Asia, China, Germany, France, Israel, Italy, Canada, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, and the United States; he regularly collaborates with Austrian Cultural Forums abroad.

Numerous radio and television recordings, along with an extensive discography, document his artistic work. CDs have been released on labels including Extraplatte, Gramola, Naxos, Preiser Records, and Vienna2day.

Current video and concert recordings – including his interpretations of Gershwin’s symphonic jazz works – are available via his media platforms and complement the portrait of a pianist and programme curator who moves with equal ease between the classical tradition and jazz-adjacent sound worlds.

Since 2024, Karl Eichinger has served as Artistic Director of the International Concert Days at Stift Zwettl. In addition, he is Artistic Director of the Vienna Instrumental Soloists (Vienna Symphony Virtuosi) and curator of the concert series Music from History and the Present at the Mautner Schlössl in Vienna. He describes the opportunity to develop tailor-made ensembles, programmes, and thematic arcs as one of his greatest artistic pleasures, allowing him to directly integrate his experience as a soloist and chamber musician into his curatorial work.