Jens Peter Maintz enjoys an outstanding reputation as a versatile soloist, is highly acknowledged as chamber musician, and a committed cello teacher. Originally from Hamburg, he studied with David Geringas, and took part in masterclasses with other great cellists such as Heinrich Schiff, Boris Pergamenschikow, Frans Helmerson and Siegfried Palm. He was further influenced by intensive chamber music studies with Uwe-Martin Haiberg and Walter Levin. In 1994, he won first prize at the ARD International Music Competition, which had previously not been given to a cellist for 17 years.
He gathered several years of valuable orchestral experience as principal cello of the German Symphony Orchestra in Berlin, and travelled the world as a member of the renowned Trio Fontenay. Since 2006, Jens Peter Maintz has been principal cello of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, on the invitation of Claudio Abbado.
His solo career has brought him into contact with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Herbert Blomstedt, Marek Janowski, Dmitry Kitajenko, Franz Welser-Möst, Reinhard Goebel and Bobby McFerrin. He has appeared as a soloist with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig MDR Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Den Haag Residenzorchester and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. Alongside classical repertoire, Jens Peter Maintz has performed numerous works by contemporary composers, from Isang Yun to Georg Friedrich Haas.
Since 2004, he has been professor at the Berlin University of the Arts, where he teaches an exceptionally successful cello class. Many of his students are prize winners of the important international competitions, and some of them are holding leading positions in major orchestras. Jens Peter Maintz is in equally great demand as a chamber musician. He is a member of the prestigious Spectrum Concerts Berlin concert series, and performs with chamber music partners such as Janine Jansen, Boris Brovtsyn, Torleif Thedéen, Hélène Grimaud, Kolja Blacher, Isabelle Faust, Antoine Tamestit, and also with the Artemis, Carmina and Auryn Quartets. It is now 30 years since he formed the Cello Duello with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt. Together they perform at the world’s most eminent festivals, such as the Kronberg Festival, Cello Biennale Amsterdam, and the Piatigorsky International Cello Festival.
For his recording with Sony Classical, in which – solo pieces by Bach, Dutilleux and Kodaly, Jens Peter Maintz was presented with the ECHO-Klassik Award. His highly acclaimed recording of Haydn’s cello concertos with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen was released on the Berlin Classics label. Since 2017, he is a professor at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid. Jens Peter Maintz plays the ‘Ex-Servais’ cello made by Giovanni Grancino in 1697.