Peter Dörpinghaus studied in Essen and in Hanover with Jeroen Berwaerts and was a scholarship holder at the Orchestra Academy of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. The prize-winner of the German Foundation for Musical Life has also won national and international prizes with his brass quintet, Salaputia Brass. He was principal trumpet with the Hamburg Philharmonic in the 2013/14 season. Peter Dörpingshaus is a member of the Konzerthausorchester’s current artistic advisory board.

Personally, I enjoy this profession so much that I rarely consider my work as a trumpeter to be work. It’s like a hobby, or rather a great passion that I’ve fortunately been able to turn into my job. Of course, I am all the more pleased when we trumpeters have real work to do. But even in works in which the composer uses our instrument rather sparingly, I can enjoy the concert experience in the centre of the stage.

My first visit to a classical music event was the opera “Hansel and Gretel” with my parents. I must have been about four years old then, but I can still remember many moments. I think a small but significant cornerstone of my musical sensibility was laid then. Even today, this opera by Humperdinck is one of my absolute favourite works.

If I played a string instrument, the doors to many more concert repertoires would be open to me. We brass players have a great variety of possibilities, which allow us to play pieces that other musicians might envy. But the most intimate and purest form of music for me is string chamber music, and above all the quartet. When you hear this type of music, even a happy trumpet player would wish to be able to perform similar music one day.