Cello
Austria
Valentin Erben
Valentin Erben (cellist, co-founder of the Alban Berg Quartet) studied in Munich, Vienna, and Paris with André Navarra and Joseph Calvet, and in Cincinnati with the LaSalle Quartet. In 1970, he co-founded the Alban Berg Quartet, with which he performed worldwide until 2008. Since then, Valentin Erben has developed his teaching activities extensively. He teaches at the Music University in Vienna, the Music School in Cologne, the Summer School in Hamburg, the Chigiana Academy in Siena, and since 1995 in the ProQuartet-CEMC programme. He has also been invited to perform as a soloist with other quartets: the Belcea Quartet — with whom he recorded the Schubert Quintet for EMI — the Arditti, Ysaÿe, and Apollo Musagète. He also collaborates with various actors. He recently recorded all of Beethoven's sonatas with Shani Diluka, as well as the six solo suites by J. S. Bach combined with organ chorales performed by his son Sebastian Erben, recorded on the famous Bruckner organ in St. Florian, Austria.