Casa dei Mezzo Chamber Music Festival

Born in Salzburg, Gerda Guttenberg took her first piano lessons at the age of seven. Two years later she played Mozart's Piano Concerto in D major with orchestra in the Great Hall of the Mozarteum, in the following year she played Haydn's D-major Piano Concerto in the same hall. When she was eleven Professor Kurt Neumüller accepted her in his masterclass at the former Mozarteum Academy in Salzburg. She was awarded her concert diploma with distinction and after a highly acclaimed debut in Belgium was invited to make recordings of works by W.A.Mozart.

At that time Gerda demonstrated her broad-ranging specialist interests and parallel to her training as a pianist she studied musicology and pedagogics at the Paris-Lodron-University in Salzburg, and successfully gained her doctorate.

During a three-year stay in the USA Gerda worked as a concert pianist and piano teacher. She has been a lecturer for piano and accompanist for string-players at the Mozarteum University since 1995. In 2006, after an university lecturing qualification in 'piano-chambermusic', she became a professor of this subject at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg.

Gerda has played in performances at the Salzburg Festival, Vienna Festival and at the Schleswig Holstein Festival and she accompanied many masterclasses (e.g. Shmuel Ashkenasi, Ivry Gitlis, Clemens Hagen, Artu Noras, David Oistrach, Ruggiero Ricci, Denes Zsigmondy) and international competitions (International Mozart Competition, Fritz Kreisler-Violin Competition, Queen Elizabeth Competition Brussels).

Gerda has performed in concerts in all parts of Europe and in the United States and several CDs bear witness to her varied musical work.