Simon Höfele

He has performed recitals at the Wigmore Hall London, Tonhalle Zurich, Konzerthaus Vienna, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon, L’Auditori Barcelona, Müpa Budapest, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Bozar Brussels, Elbphilharmonie, Konzerthaus Berlin, Prinzregententheater and Herkulessaal Munich, Konzerthaus Dortmund, at the Cheltenham Music Festival, Festival de Radio France et Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon, MiTo Festival, Rheingau Music Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, at the MDR Musiksommer and at the Grafenegg Festival.

Simon Höfele works with conductors such as Ryan Bancroft, Joseph Bastian, Semyon Bychkov, Alpesh Chauhan, Jonathan Cohen, Dennis Russell Davies, Jan Willem de Vriend, Kevin John Edusei, Ben Gernon, Jonathon Heyward, Pietari Inkinen, Julia Jones, Vladimir Jurowski, Roland Kluttig, Joana Mallwitz, Andrew Manze, Matthias Pintscher, Clemens Schuldt, Steven Sloane, Markus Stenz, Valentin Uryupin, Mario Venzago, Lorenzo Viotti, Duncan Ward, Kahchun Wong and many others.

The 2022/23 season will take Simon Höfele to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Munich Radio Orchestra, Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra, German State Philharmonic Orchestra Rheinland-Pfalz, Northwest German Philharmonic Orchestra with a tour to the Koningin Elizabethzaal Antwerp, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Chaarts Chamber Artists and the chamber orchestra I Tempi, with whom he will premiere Helena Winkelman’s new work “ICAROS”, among others. He will also be a guest at the Paris Philharmonic, where he will give the world premiere of Miroslav Srnka’s new work “Orion Arm,” at the LSO St. Luke’s in London, and at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, among other venues.

In addition to the well-known trumpet repertoire from Telemann to Tartini, Haydn, Hummel, Mozart to Jolivet, Arutjunjan and Zimmermann, Simon Höfele devotes himself with great enthusiasm to contemporary music and played the world premieres of the works written for him “Milky Way” by Miroslav Srnka (premiere 09/2019, Concertgebouw), “Three pieces for trumpet” as well as the Concertino for trumpet and orchestra by Mark Simpson (premiere 04/2019, Saffron Hall resp. 05/2021 Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra) and “Fantasy for Trumpet” by Kaan Bulak (premiere 04/2019, London). He also regularly performs works by Toshio Hosokawa, Christian Jost and Matthias Pintscher, whose Double Concerto for Two Trumpets he premiered in 2012 together with Reinhold Friedrich and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra.

Simon Höfele plays chamber music in a wide variety of instrumentations with equal enthusiasm. His partners include the pianists Elisabeth Brauß and Frank Dupree and the percussionist Vivi Vassileva.

Simon Höfele received his first trumpet lessons at the age of seven in his home town of Darmstadt, and five years later became a young student of Reinhold Friedrich, who accepted him as a 14-year-old into his trumpet class at the Musikhochschule Karlsruhe. He has been selected for the best European promotion programs, including BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, ECHO (European Concert Hall Organization) Rising Star nominated by the Kölner Philharmonie, Konzerthaus Dortmund and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and artist in the Konzerthaus Dortmund’s “Junge Wilde” series. Meanwhile he also teaches himself, as a “Visiting artist” of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire as well as at various master classes.

Simon Höfele is an exclusive artist with Berlin Classics; his album “Standards”, released in early 2020 and featuring the trumpet concertos by Haydn, Hummel, Arutjunjan and Copland, recorded with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Duncan Ward, was highly praised by the press and honored with the OPUS KLASSIK 2020 as “Concert Recording of the Year”. And the album “New Standards”, released in spring 2021, with recital classics by Hindemith, Honegger, Francaix and Enescu, among others, also received the highest praise from the specialist press and event organizers.

In addition to his musical projects, Simon Höfele is also involved in cultural politics and founded the association “Kunstverlust” (Art Loss), for which he portrays people as a photographer who are actively committed to the preservation of art and culture.