About Thomas Offermann

Thomas Offermann currently ranks among the world's most renowned guitar teachers. He has visited more than 40 countries of the world as a soloist, with orchestras, as a chamber musician and with the DUO SONARE, one of the world's outstanding guitar ensembles. Numerous radio and television productions as well as eight internationally highly respected CD recordings with the DUO SONARE show the great importance of his work. Together with the DUO SONARE, Thomas Offermann opened the repertoire of the classical guitar for compositions by musicians such as Chick Corea, Frank Zappa or Mike Oldfield. Chick Corea wrote about their interpretations of his songs with 'so much feeling and beauty'.

Prof. Dr. phil. Thomas Offermann teaches an international solo class at the Rostock Hochschule für Musik und Theater, and he is artistic director of the International Guitar Academy Berlin. Thomas Offermann has made a name for himself throughout the world as an experienced and sensitive teacher, yet also as a meticulous guitar 'coach'. His work on the development of an 'Integrative Kinesiology Guitar' makes him a highly respected adviser and lecturer in professional circles. He is guest lecturer at renowned music academies and international guitar festivals all over the world. Composers like René Eespere, Marco de Biasi, Carlo Domeniconi, and Benjamin Verdery dedicated works for guitar ensemble to the conductor Thomas Offermann.

Danielle Ribouillault wrote in her Cahiers de la Guitare about his teaching style and methods: When I arrive, Thomas Offermann just explains how to use the notes to revive a phrase….. and then you hear how a melody blossoms, fills with life. He shows students the way to a rich rubato that makes this melody vibrate. He, whose performance was characterized by such a great musicality and mastery, has the gift to impart to others the vibrant spirit that was so typical of his interpretations before his illness. His master class was well-attended, which shows that his passionate passing on of music gives him an incredible strength, something essential, something that you experience more intensely with him than elsewhere.

Since 2010 Thomas Offermann has been D’Addario’s European Classical Guitar Representative.