Stefan Rapp

Timpani & Percussion

While the timpani usually tends to be played over long stretches as an accompaniment and acoustically in the background, Stefan Rapp manages to play each individual note in a positively soloistic manner. He learned this art in Freiburg and in masterclasses with renowned percussionists and timpani players such as Peter Sadlo, David Searcy, Isao Nakamura and Steven Shick.

As a timpanist he has worked with the conductors Claudio Abbado, Leonard Bernstein and Daniel Harding. One particularly fascinating experience was his collaboration with the Ensemble Modern.
Following a very brief stint at the Royal Opera in Copenhagen, Stefan Rapp became timpanist with The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen in 1996. From 1997 to 2004, he held percussion classes at the University of the Arts in Bremen.

Stefan Rapp is equally passionate about playing the timpani and percussion. In 1997, together with Marcus Linke and Slavik Stakhov, he founded ANTARES – The German Percussion Collective, with which he enjoys playing classical percussion compositions and especially experimental pieces.

For a number of years, he organized the concert series ›Back to the Roots‹ produced for and with him by The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, in which he presented his version of music integrated with other arts together with orchestra colleagues and external guests at very different venues in Bremen.

Stefan also dedicates much of his free time to music, either playing bass in his band or at home on the guitar. It is important to him to feel at home in different styles, including freestyle and improvisation, and to experiment with combining these in his music. He also enjoys spending quality time with his son and seeing the world through his eyes.