Dorothea Stepp was born in Stuttgart in 1996, as the sixth of seven children. She received her first violin lessons from Ulrike Abdank at the music school in Stuttgart. In 2006, she moved on to be taught by Professor Ina Kertscher at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media. From 2007 to 2010 she participated in the preparatory class of the Institute for Exceptionally Gifted Young Musicians (IFF), and then went on to study at the institute. Since February 2014, she has been studying with Professor Antje Weithaas as a junior student at the University of Music Hanns Eisler in Berlin. She also receives a scholarship from the International Academy of Music in Liechtenstein, and takes part in the intensive music weeks on offer there.
From 2009 to 2013, Dorothea Stepp took part in “Jugend musiziert”, the German competition for young musicians, every year, in the categories violin solo, string instrument/piano duet, piano chamber music and string instrument chamber music, and notched up a total of seven 1st prizes in the national competition, numerous special prizes from the “Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben” foundation, and the “Diethard Wucher Prize”. In 2010, she won the “Sparkassen-Förderpreis” at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival with her piano quintet. In 2009, she also won the 1st prize at the international “Concours FLAME” competition in Paris, and the 2nd prize at the “International Hindemith Competition” in Berlin.
Dorothea Stepp has performed at various events, including the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the “Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern”, the “Brandenburgische Sommerkonzerte” and the FESTIVAL NEXT GENERATION in Bad Ragaz, and has played in the “Sendesaal Bremen”, the “NDR Sendesaal” in Hanover and in the “Konzerthaus Berlin”. As a soloist she has performed with orchestras including the Hanover University Orchestra, the regional youth orchestra, the Hanover Youth Symphony Orchestra, the “Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester” and the Trend Chamber Orchestra Newark. She is currently a member of the ENSEMBLE ESPERANZA, which is made up of scholarship holders from the International Academy of Music in Liechtenstein.
In 2009, the “Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben” had already loaned her a violin from the Salzburg area, and Dorothea Stepp currently plays a Carlo Tononi violin from 1727, on loan to her as a prize-winner of the 2012 “Deutschen Stiftung Musikleben” instrument competition.
February 2018