We gather at Schloss Colditz as a group of fifteen active and five passive participants.

The heart of the course are the eleven sessions we spend working together with the timpani as a group. Our two guests lead three each; I lead five. YOU decide what repertoire you would like to work on with our guests and with me, what questions and what issues you bring with you to Colditz. My only wish is that we try to look beyond the classic audition repertoire as much as possible: “Anything but Krüger…”

Lilian Genn, our embodiment and performance coach, actively accompanies each session, observing how each of us applies our body and mind to making music with our instrument. She helps us, both individually and communally, to exploit our physical capabilities to the full, allowing us to develop a more holistic approach to playing the timpani.

Lilian also leads short, twice-daily group sessions in which we develop our physical awareness away from the timpani.

Marek Stefula, my Gewandhausorchester colleague, joins us to demonstrate the entire process of replacing calf skins, explaining how to cope with the diverse climatic conditions the changing seasons inflict upon us.

In our downtime, we continue to learn from one another and nurture the future of our wonderful, small, intimate timpani community.

We have two sets of Hardtke Berlin timpani – one in the German set-up, one international – and a pair of smaller Dresden Salonpauken.

Active participation: €1400
Passive participation: €1000

Fee includes accommodation and all meals.
Payable by 1 April 2025.

There are a few things I would like to find out about you. Please make a short video (in English or German) in which you tell me about yourself, your musical path to date, your aims and aspirations, what you hope to get from Copper & Cow Unleashed, and anything else you think relevant.

Copper & Cow Probespiel is limited to twelve active participants. In eight sessions, plus two mock auditions, we work together entirely as a group.

The week is in two parts, each culminating in a mock audition.

In the first four days, we work on all the unaccompanied excerpts and solo pieces. At the mock audition with that repertoire we welcome a guest timpanist, who offers feedback on everybody’s performance, crucially from a different perspective to mine.

On days five and six we are joined by a pianist to focus on those excerpts that are, at many auditions, performed with piano accompaniment. The second mock audition is assessed, alongside me, by a player of another instrument, for a hugely valuable non-timpanist’s view.

A vital component of Copper & Cow Probespiel is the individual mental coaching participants receive in the spheres of practice, motivation, audition preparation and performance.

When I took most of my auditions, 20-25 years ago, there was, in most parts of the world, almost no focus on any targeted, insightful approaches to tackling the colossal mental challenges of walking out alone onto an empty stage, sitting down at instruments you don’t know and trying to produce your performance of a lifetime that might just convince the 100 musicians gathered to listen that YOU are their new timpanist.

Things are improving at conservatoires, universities and, particularly, orchestra academies, but it’s still astounding to what extent intensive mental training is a given in the field of elite sport, but, by contrast, still very much in its infancy in the field of elite music making.

Leonhard Königseder is a former timpanist and percussionist of the Graz Philharmonic in Austria, and now a sports psychologist and mental coach of considerable repute for musicians and sportspeople. The mental challenges each of us faces in the unique audition situation are various and highly individual. For this reason, Leonhard works with each participant in two one-to-one sessions. To avoid total mental overload during the week in Colditz, these sessions take place online prior to and following the masterclass.

We have a set of five Hardtke Berlin timpani in the German set-up and a pair of smaller Dresden Salonpauken.

Participation: €1300

Fee includes accommodation and all meals.
Payable by 1 October 2025.

There are a few things I would like to find out about you. Please make a short video (in English or German) in which you tell me about yourself, your musical path to date, your aims and aspirations, what you hope to get from Copper & Cow Probespiel, and anything else you think relevant.