German-Ecuadorian pianist and conductor Boris Cepeda has distinguished himself as a versatile musician. He was born in Quito in 1974 and first attracted attention when he was 5 years old on Ecuadorian television. His worldwide career as a pianist has now lasted over 40 years. His piano recitals have been enthusiastically received by audiences and the press at venues including Carnegie Hall in New York, Berlin Philharmonie, Konzerthaus Berlin, Laiesz Halle Hamburg, Beethoven Haus in Bonn, Maria Callas Hall in Athens, Istana Budaya in Kuala Lumpur, Albert Long Hall in Istanbul, Min-On Headquarters in Tokyo, Teatro Nacional in Brasilia and the National Theater in Quito. He has been working as a conductor of orchestra and choir with great success in opera and concert since 2009. Most recently, he made his debut as guest conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ecuador. His range in the symphonic and opera realms extends from rediscoveries of the classical period to world premieres of contemporary composers.
Boris Cepeda was Head of Music and deputy choir director at Theater Münster since 2016. In addition to rehearsing the soloists of the opera and the opera choir, he has also been the music director of various opera productions. Before that, he was a repetiteur and deputy Head of Music at the Anhaltisches Theater in Dessau. His repertoire of over 70 works covers all genres of opera and musical theatre from Handel to Eötvös. As a vocal coach he is in great demand, especially by singers preparing for auditions and roles at Bayreuth, Covent Garden, Salzburg Festival, or Theater an der Wien.
Boris Cepeda has recorded works by Schubert, Szymanowski, Reimann, Reger and Schumann for Radio Bremen, Bayerischer Rundfunk and DeutschlandRadio. Other video and audio recordings with music by Chopin, Liszt, Hindemith, Reger, and others, as well as South American composers can be found in various platforms on the Internet.
Boris Cepeda completed his studies with top marks under Professor Kurt Seibert at the University of Arts Bremen. He received further artistic inspiration from Roberto Bravo, Monique Deschausees, Juan Esteban Cordero, Boris Berman, Hans Leygraf, Hans Pålsson, Christian Zacharias and Chris Elton. He received conducting lessons from Wolfgang Kluge in Dessau, Prof. Joachim Harder in Münster and Jim Holmes in London.
As a lied accompanist, he has performed works by Franz Schubert, Max Reger, Moritz Eggert and Aribert Reimann to great acclaim. In 1998 Boris Cepeda founded the “Max Reger Piano Duo” together with his wife Katja. In addition to his concert activities, he organizes master classes and recitals at schools, music schools and conservatories in Europe, Asia and South America. From 2019 to July 2023 he was lecturer for orchestral score playing and research assistant at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf.
Boris Cepeda participated in the 1999 Weidener Max Reger Tage as assistant to the artistic director. In the same year he founded and directed the Festival of Ibero-American Music in Bremen. Between June 2002 and August 2007 he was Cultural Attaché of the Embassy of the Republic of Ecuador in Berlin. In 2009 he founded the International Music Festival “Mendelssohnfest” in Ecuador.
Boris Cepeda joined the prestigious list of Steinway artists in early 2021.
Since 2020, Boris Cepeda has been writing a doctoral thesis on the composer Maximilian Droste-Hülshoff (1764 – 1840) at the University of Münster. As part of this research, he publishes and performs Droste-Hülshoff’s extensive oeuvre. So far, he has recorded the four-hand piano work on a period instrument with his wife Katja. Further performances and recordings of symphonic works by Droste-Hülshoff with various orchestras are planned for 2024.