Dr. Matthias Sakel received his first piano lessons at the age of seven and subsequently attended specialist boarding schools for music in Halle/Salle and Markkleeberg, near Leipzig, Germany. In 1992, the prize-winner of the competition "Jugend musiziert”, began his studies in music education at the Hochschule für Musik “Felix-Mendelssohn-Bartholdy” Leipzig. There he studied the piano under Prof. Gerhard Erber and chamber music under Prof. Mathilde Erben, and attended Masterclasses of renowned pianists and distinguished paedagogues such as Amadeus Webersinke, Naoyuki Taneda and Christian Zacharias. As a soloist and chamber musician Matthias Sakel performed at the Steinway & Sons 150th Anniversary Tour, the Frankfurt Music Festival, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, with the Leipzig Symphony Orchestra, at the International Chopin Conference, at the Altenburg Music Festival, the Bluethner Classics and others.

 

After his diploma, Matthias Sakel became Head of Music at the Leipzig International School and Leipzig’s Schumannhaus and took up further studies in school music to broadened his teaching qualifications

In 2002 he moved to the Mozarteum in Salzburg, supported by an European Academic Exchange Fellowship. There he completed a PhD in music education and became a lecturer for music education. In addition he taught the piano at the Salzburg Musikum, where he was appointed head of piano teachers for the entire Salzburg county. His professional involvement in teaching also led to his appointment as EPTA project coordinator for the new national curriculum of piano teaching in  Austria.

 

In 2008 he was elected as scientific coordinator of the Hochbegabtenzentrum at the Musikhochschule FRANZ LISZT Weimar. Since 2014 Dr. Sakel is lecturer for piano and coordinator of the high ability programme at the Folkwang Universität der Künste, Essen.

 

Dr. Sakel is regularly engaged as a lecturer and teacher at Masterclasses and symposia. His students have gained numerous prizes at national and international competitions including “Jugend musiziert”, “Prima la musica”, “Boston-Festival für Tasten”, Medenus Klavierfestival and others.