Esther Birringer

Pianist Esther Birringer was a child prodigy who became a successful adult artist, playing chamber music, concertos, and solo music. As a soloist, she has performed in venues ranging from major orchestral halls to cruise ships. Her growing recording catalog includes the 2026 album Spectrum on the Rubicon Classics label.Birringer was born in the Saarbrücken suburb of Quierschied, in what was then West Germany, on October 22, 1983. Violinist Lea Birringer is her sister, and the two sisters have performed and recorded together. Esther Birringer was playing piano pieces by the age of three, and she made her debut with an orchestra in a Haydn keyboard concerto at six. During her childhood years, she performed not only in Germany but also in Italy and Switzerland. In 2003, Birringer enrolled at the University of Music, Drama, and Media in Hannover, where she studied with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and earned a bachelor's degree. She went on for further studies there with Arie Vardi and at the University of the Arts in Berlin with Pascal Devoyon. She has also named pianist Cécile Ousset as an inspiration. Important prizes during her student years helped her career along, including those at the Sixth International Johann Sebastian Bach Piano Competition in Würzburg, the Ninth International Piano Competition of the Chopin Society in Hannover, and the International Grieg Piano Competition in Oslo. In 2014, she made her recording debut, backing Lea Birringer on an album of sonatas by Szymanowski, Respighi, and Hindemith.Birringer has appeared at major halls in Germany and beyond, including the Philharmonie in Cologne, the Konzerthaus Berlin, and the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, Italy. She has played concertos with the Munich Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Dresden Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, among other groups. With the ballet company of the Bremerhaven City Theater, she performed Bach's Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, in a symbiotic music-and-dance project. Birringer's solo credits include performances on the cruise ships MS Europa and MS Europa 2. An enthusiastic chamber player, Birringer has performed not only with her sister but also with cellist Julian Arp, hornist Robert Langbein, the Szymanowski String Quartet, and others. As a soloist and accompanist, Birringer has made several recordings for the Rubicon Classics label, including the 2021 album Once Upon a Time, featuring piano arrangements of ballet music, and a 2022 recital of piano works by Debussy. She returned in 2026 with the recording Spectrum.
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