Silke-Thora Matthies was born in GÌtersloh, in North Rhine-Westphalia, and studied in Detmold with Renate Kretschmar-Fischer and at the Juilliard School of Music in New York with Joseph Kalichstein, winning first prize at the New York Gina Bachauer Competition and further awards in the Budapest Liszt/Bartók Competition, the Bordeaux Jeunes Solistes, and the Cleveland ( Ohio) Robert Casadesus Competition. She has recorded music ranging from Domenico Scarlatti to the contemporary and appears as a soloist and recitalist in Germany and abroad. Since 1992 she serves as a professor of piano at the Hochschule fÌr Musik WÌrzburg in Bavaria and in October 2003 became Rector of the school, leads master classes and is often a jury member for international piano competitions.
