A double passion
Dirk Hirthe is to become the new professor of tuba and brass chamber music in Weimar
In the succession of Prof. Walter Hilgers, the lowest notes at the Department of Wind Instruments and Percussion will soon be in experienced professorial hands again. On Thursday, 6 March, Dirk Hirthe received his certificate of appointment as Professor of Tuba and Brass Chamber Music from the university's president, Prof. Anne-Kathrin Lindig.
The tuba player of the Badische Staatskapelle will thus move from the University of Music in Karlsruhe, where he has taught since 2011, to the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar in his role as tuba professor on 1 April 2025.
‘I am looking forward to teaching in Weimar because it is my dream job. Being able to teach tuba and chamber music at the same time is truly a great joy: my two passions combined in one job. Now I am looking forward to meeting all the new students and working with them,’ says the newly appointed professor.
‘Weimar is one of the most renowned music universities in Germany. The tuba has a great tradition here thanks to my predecessor, Prof. Walter Hilgers. It is therefore a great honour for me to be able to teach here in the future.’
Dirk Hirthe was born in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1984. From 1999 to 2004, he was a junior student of George A. Monch at the University of Music Freiburg. He then studied with Prof. Jens Björn-Larsen at the University of Music, Drama and Media Hanover, where he still works with him today as a teacher, mentor and friend. Dirk Hirthe was a scholarship holder of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and a special prize winner of the city of Marl and the state of Baden-Württemberg.
As a soloist, he has performed with the Frankfurt Museum Orchestra, the Bochum Symphony Orchestra and the Badische Staatskapelle, among others. From 2007 to 2008, he interned at the Stuttgart State Opera. Since 2008, he has been a tuba player with the Badische Staatskapelle and regularly performs with many symphony and opera orchestras in Germany, including the Bavarian State Opera, the Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra and the SWR Symphony Orchestra. In 2008, he performed with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Thomas Hengelbrock for the first time.
In 2012, Dirk Hirthe recorded the ‘Duetto per Tuba’ for the American composer Stephen Mellilo on his latest CD ‘Chapter21’. In 2014, he made his debut at the Lucerne Festival with the Lucerne Festival Brass Ensemble, with whom he has since been a welcome guest and recorded their latest CD ‘Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition’. In 2019, he also made his debut with the renowned brass quintet Stockholm Chamber Brass, of which he has been a permanent member since 2022.
Since 2011, Dirk Hirthe has been teaching as a professor of tuba and wind chamber music at the Music university in Karlsruhe. His students have won numerous prizes at international competitions, including 1st and 2nd prizes at the International Instrumental Competition Markneukirchen, the International Competition in Jeju (South Korea), the International Competition Lieksa (Finland) and the International ‘Leos Janacek’ Competition in Brno (Czech Republic).
Furthermore, his students have won places in well-known orchestras such as the Monte Carlo Symphony Orchestra, Opéra Montpellier, Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Busan Symphony Orchestra, Bundesmusikkorps Siegburg/Bonn, the Federal Police Orchestra Munich and many more. In 2015, Dirk Hirthe became an official ‘Miraphone Artist’. Numerous masterclasses have already taken him all over Europe.
[7 March 2025]