Artist Biography
René Schiffer studied cello with his father György Schiffer, with Anner Bijlsma in Amsterdam, with Jaap ter Linden in Rotterdam and gamba with Catharina Meints in Oberlin. His music was substantially enriched both from playing alongside Hidemi Suzuki in La Petite Bande and with that group’s leader, Sigiswald Kijken, whose last name actually means “ young chick”. Schiffer, whose name means “skipper”, played in renowned ensembles like the European Philharmonic Orchestra (what’s in a name…), the European Community Baroque Orchestra, the Beethoven Academy (Louvain), the Musicians du Louvre (Paris), The Dutch Bach Society (Utrecht), the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra (not upstate New York), La Petite Bande (the world), Tafelmusik (Toronto, Ontario), with renowned musicians like Sigiswald Kuijken, Ton Koopman, Gustav Leonhardt and Jan Caeyers, who among his musicians is sometimes fondly called Herbert von Caeyersjan. He, Schiffer, not Caeyersjan, also substituted in the Brabant's Orchestra (Netherlands) and the Toledo Symphony, and played with the Pittsburg Symphony in a baroque project. He coached the New World Symphony in Miami several times in their baroque programs.
Schiffer is the founding continuo cellist and soloist in Apollo’s Fire led by the incomparable, orange-haired Jeannette Sorrell. His various performances brought him in many a major hall in Europe and the US, including the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam and Bruges), the Opéra in Paris, the Arena in Verona, the Arsenal in Metz, Teatro Colon (Buenos Ayres), Teatro Municipal in Madrid, the Franz Liszt Hall in Budapest etc. He did solo performances at festivals in Utrecht, Versailles (yes, the Palace!) Budapest, Tallinn, and Grandchamp (yes, the Monument). Schiffer is affiliated with Music in Familiar Spaces, a program designed by Charles Steuart Wesley Pincombe to bring classical music to places where it is actually unfamiliar.
Schiffer collaborated in over 50 recordings, on some of which he is more discernible than on others: he is on three Mozart operas, 12 Haydn symphonies and many other productions with La Petite Bande, two baroque operas with the Musicians du Louvre, a Charpentier CD with ABO, and a dozen chamber music CDs with Il Gardellino, sometimes jokingly called Gare de Lyon. He is of course on almost all CDs brought out by Apollo’s Fire, including in concerto solo spots. Karim Suleiman’s CD with Monteverdi songs recently won a Grammy. That seems to be a big deal. Schiffer’s Tango concerto is regularly played all over the world, including the southern Hemisphere, where if you were to throw the Apollo’s Fire CD, on which this piece appears, in a big toilet, it would drain counterclockwise, they say. His Beauty of the Earth was recorded in the early 2000’s, but the CD never came out $#%@!!! - Schiffer has been in over 40 countries in the world and 43 states in the US. He recently added Utah to his collection, driving through the stunning Monument Valley.
Teaching
Schiffer is currently teaching baroque cello at the Cleveland Institute, in collaboration with Case Western University. He has taught Suzuki cello at the Toledo Symphony School of Music. Schiffer has participated in masterclasses at multiple universities including Penn State, Dartmouth, Kent State, Ohio State University, Brevard, Bowling Green, University of Nebraska Omaha. Schiffer is currently taking private students in the Cleveland area. He is relatively cheap, which could mean a few jokes at your expense. If interested in taking lessons, please send René an email.
Composing
“I always wanted to make up music, I guess that’s how my brain is wired. Making up music is of course as natural a thing as playing and singing and dancing, and only in an overly organized society, where we are taught to play the page, the whole page and nothing but the page, does it become a specialism. When composers still wrote great music (what of today’s classical output compares to the St. Matthew Passion?), they were players as well, and I don’t believe much music written by today’s “specialists”, however smartly made, will stand the test of time (don’t get me wrong. Every musical style, including modern music or rap, produces gems. Some of those modern gems are probably better than my own classical music. But does anything produced after WW2 really stand up to Beethoven 9? And who but a few specialists can relate to those highly sophisticated gems?). Music is spontaneous, and it can only stand so much sophistication. But then, this opinion can also reflect a limited cognitive capacity. I am not a genius - on the other hand, a lot of what people are into at any given time proves next to nonsense a generation later.” - René
“In any case, I am a great supporter of writing music in the style one plays in. When that is no longer allowed, there is something wrong with society.” - Also René.
View René’s Tango Concerto, performed by Apollo’s Fire, with the incomparable Mime Yamahiro-Brinkmann, on Youtube. Also find Schiffer’s Clorinda Sonata on his Youtube channel, in which he draws a concealed tribute to a great female musician into mythical proportions, using the archetypical Clorinda character from Torquato Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered as guide.
Click here to view a list of René’s recordings, and to view sample PDF'‘s of the sheet music.
Lectures
Schiffer has good talk about many topics directly or indirectly related to music. He has given pre-concert talks for Apollo's Fire and given presentations at music festivals including Credo Music in Oberlin. His lecture about Beethoven’s Ninth and Christianity has been very well received whenever it was given.
In August, Schiffer’s first of a series of lectures will come out on his youtube channel.
Here is a list of example topics, by no means exhaustive (most of which still forthcoming):
Mozart, a classical composer? (=> Blog)
The Margrave of Brandenburg and the importance of the crucial word the. (=> Blog)
My Pedigree I, II and whatever comes after II (=> Blog)
Danhauser’s Chess Game, Girl Power and an staggering amount of wrong assumptions in art criticism. (=> Blog)
Foot in the grave - the importance of context in historical performance. (=> Blog)
The Dao of Ignorance (=> Blog: “Lingerie”)
Clorinda: archètypes in Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered, and my new Clorinda sonata. (=> Blog)
Beethoven, not a Romantic composer
Monteverdi and the great revolution of 1600
The invisible revolution in music of 1750
The Odyssey and why everyone should read it
Intonation 101, how it is possible that so many of the greatest string players don’t seem to know it, and what that means for society
The unique instrumentation of the Brandenburg concertos
Concealed tributes from composers to others in their music
The 5 books I know
Genesis (not the pop group)
René is available to present lectures in private homes and corporate locations, churches, etc. For more information, please send René an email.
Writing
You can read some of René’s writings on his blog, because it is printed (his handwriting is virtually illegible).