Christopher Wagner

Dr. Christoph Wagner, a native of Germany, is a prize-winning cellist and sought-after pedagogue and lecturer who enjoys a diverse, international career. He received first prizes at the German Youth Competition Jugend Musiziert, won the competition Ribalta Mozart Italia in Italy, as well as the Peter-Pirazzi-Competition in Germany in 2013, and was prizewinner of the National Society of Arts and Letters competition in Bloomington, Indiana in both 2016 and 2017. He was scholarship holder from the Richard-Wagner-Verband Frankfurt, the LIONS-Club Karlsruhe, and the Theodor-Rogler Foundation for Young Musicians. As a member of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Wagner performed in major concert halls in Europe under renowned conductors including Jonathan Nott, Lothar Zagrosek and Stefan Asbury. He played in the Gürzenich-Orchestra/Opera Cologne in the 2013-2014 season and has performed on festivals in Switzerland, Croatia, France, Italy, South Africa, South America, China, South Korea and the US. He has been a passionate music ambassador as fellowship holder from Live Music Now - Yehudi Menuhin Foundation in Germany and as a musician of Classical Connections in Bloomington, Indiana where he played numerous concerts in underserved areas. In 2018 he received the Sviatoslav Richter Grant from Rice University for outreach concerts in public schools, and participated in a summer residency with Los Angeles Street Symphony. He was a Young Artist Fellow of DA CAMERA Houston from 2018 to 2020, and received the Amici di Via Gabina Fellowship from Rice University for research and performances in Italy in 2019. 

Dr. Christoph Wagner received a Bachelor of Music at the University of Music Frankfurt, a Master of Music at Indiana University, and recently completed a Doctor of Musical Arts at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston. He was a graduate research fellow at Houston Methodist Research Institute to conduct his doctoral research focusing on injuries and injury prevention in orchestral musicians. Wagner taught as adjunct faculty of music at Lone Star College in Houston from 2018 to 2023, and currently serves as Assistant Professor of Cello at the University of New Mexico.