Rainer Seegers

Rainer Seegers, born in Dessau in 1952, joined the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1986 under Herbert von Karajan after working in Braunschweig and Cologne. After decades under the direction of Karajan's successors Claudio Abbado and Sir Simon Rattle, the musician retired after 33 years in Berlin shortly before Kirill Petrenko took office in summer 2019.

Seegers was also a guest professor at the Hanns Eisler School of Music and played the unusual repertoire for timpani and orchestra as a timpani soloist. He himself studied at the Hanover University of Music, where he also taught.

Photo: © Sebastian Hänel