Florian Henschel was born in Berlin in 1970. He grew up in Nuremberg and started to learn the piano at the age of 6. In 1985, while still at school, his unusual talent led not only to his being accepted as a guest-student at the Nuremberg Meistersingerkonservatorium, studying double-bass and piano, but, more significantly, to his embarking on a wide range of musical activities. Between the ages of 17 and 19, and working as a double-bass player in the fields of both classic and jazz, he made two records for duo and two for trio. He played in both formations in five different European countries.

From 1988 the personal sponsorship by Yehudi Menuhin of the Trio AVODAH led to a live television appearance in Manchester and numerous concerts at prestigious international chamber music festivals, as well as a short appearance in the film, “Menuhin – a Family Portrait”, by Tony Palmer.

At the age of 19 Florian Henschel decided to concentrate on the piano, studying with Michael Schäfer at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich, as well as with Klaus Schilde and Erich Appel.

He received his training as an accompanist for “Lied” in the class of Helmut Deutsch in Munich, and in Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s Masterclass for Lied-interpretation in Berlin.

As a result of his soloist activities he was invited in 1995 to replace Svjatoslav Richter in the Stuttgart ensemble VARIANTI, conducted by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. In a programme dedicated exclusively to Hindemith he played at the Schwetzinger Festspiele and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, as well as in the Stuttgart Liederhalle and the Cologne Philharmonie. He went on to play with the Weimar Staatskapelle, conducted by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, whom he also accompanied in a series of German melodramas, written by Richard Strauss and Robert Schumann.

As both chamber musician and an accompanist of Lied Florian Henschel has appeared on a regular basis since 1994 at the Schubertiade in Feldkirch / Schwarzenberg, as well as in the Vienna Musikverein, the Berlin Philharmonie, the broadcasting houses of West German Radio (Cologne) and South German Radio (Stuttgart), in the Siegerlandhalle and in the Nuremberg Meistersingerhalle.

He has also been on tour in the USA and Europe.

He has accompanied singers such as Diana Damrau, Stella Doufexis, Simone Nold, Hans Georg Ahrens, Christian Elsner, Christoph Genz, Dietrich Henschel and Roman Trekel.

As a chamber musician he has played with Heinz Holliger (oboe), Dirk Altmann (clarinet), Milos Mlejnik (cello), Gaby Pas-van Riet (flute), the Henschel Quartet, the Bamberg String Quartet and the Chamber Orchestra of Schloss Werneck, working together with Mikis Theodorakis.

Seven CD recordings as soloist, Lied-accompanist and chamber musician, as well as numerous radio and television broadcasts, both at home and abroad, testify to the versatility and level of his artistic achievment. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.