Even before his
studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt, attending courses of
Hans-Dieter Resch and Aloys Ickstadt, he discovered his passion for conducting.
At the age of eighteen he gained his first experience as choirmaster. During
his career as a musician, which he began as a very promising pianist and chamber
musician, conducting became more and more important to him. Throughout the past
years he worked as guest conductor of various orchestras together with eminent
soloists of international reputation, such as Liana Issekadze, Michela Petri,
Wladimir Krainjew, Anatol Ugorski and others.
In October 2000 he was appointed
Principal Guest Conductor of the Georgian State
Chamber Orchestra in Tiflis. Invitations to international festivals followed, such as – among others – the
Borjomi Festival of Arts.In October 2001, as
Artistic Director and
Principal Conductor, he founded the World
Chamber Orchestra, an orchestra formation of selected musicians from many
different nations.
Uwe Berkemer is the initiator, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor
of the Caucasian Chamber Orchestra, which is the most
important peace initiative in the Caucasus
region.
If asked about the concerts most important to him personally, Bekemer will
mention two events: His violin concert played for the first time with Liana
Issakadze and the State Lutoslawski Philharmonic Orchestra Wroclaw (Breslau) in
September 2000, at the International Music Festival Dietzenbach and then an
official memorial concert in honor of the 50th anniversary of Sergej
Prokofjew’s death, which he conducted at the invitation of Georgia I April of
2003 in Tiflis.
Furthermore he shows great
interst in rediscovering unknown opera, like the reproduction (including the
re-edition in cooperation with Frundner-Edition, Munich) of a symphony by Bach’s
grandson, Friedrich Ernst Bach (1759 – 1845) in 2000, or in the 80’s a
reproduction of the first edition of Robert Schumann’s “Der Rose Pilgerpfad”
(The Pilgrimage of the Rose), for choir, soloists and piano.
