Univ.-Prof.
Matías Ignacio Piñeira
Matías Piñeira was born in Chile and studied horn at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. At the age of 19, he was appointed principal horn of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Chile. In 2014, he became a member of the Orchestra Academy of the Staatskapelle Berlin before taking up the position of principal horn with the Munich Philharmonic in September 2015. He has taught at the Mozarteum University Salzburg since 2022.
He began playing the French horn at the age of seven under the guidance of his grandfather. He subsequently studied with Edward Brown, initially privately and then formally at the Catholic University of Chile.
At the age of 16, joined the National Youth Symphony Orchestra as soloist with a scholarship, and in 2008, at the age of 19, he was appointed Principal Horn of the National Symphony Orchestra of Chile, a position he held for five years. In the same year, he was invited by Ignacio García, Solo Horn of the Berlin State Opera, to study privately with him in Berlin.
In 2014 he was a member of the Orchestral Academy of the Berlin State Opera, under the baton of Daniel Barenboim, and was appointed Principal Horn of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra the following year. He has worked with conductors including Valery Gergiev, Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Simon Rattle, Paavo Järvi, Andris Nelsons, Gustavo Dudamel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Barbara Hannigan, Semion Bychkov, Klaus Mäkelä, Lorenzo Viotti and Manfred Honeck.
Solo invitations have seen Matías Piñeira perform with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Staatskapelle Berlin, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich.
Matías Piñeira was appointed Professor of Horn at the Mozarteum University Salzburg in 2022.