Ulrich Schultheiss was born in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1956. He took piano lessons from the age of four and later studied violoncello and violin. At seven he appeared for the first time in public concerts. In 1967 Ulrich Schultheiss became an under-age student at the Nuremberg Conservatory, where he studied piano with Prof. Erich Appel. He won several prizes in Germany’s “Jugend musiziert” competition, including a nationwide award in 1970. In 1977 he moved to Italy and began to study human medicine in Ferrara.
From 1978 to 1987 Schultheiss was enrolled at the Musikhochschule in Wuerzburg, where his teachers included Julian von Károlyi (piano) and Bertold Hummel (master class in composition). He also took private lessons in composition from Róbert Wittinger. In 1984 he spent a study year in Paris in the Cité Internationale des Arts.
Since 1985 Schultheiss has taught at various musical institutions, including the conservatories in Wuerzburg and Munich (music theory) and the Hochschule der Kuenste in Berlin (stage music production). In 1989 he became a full-time staff member for music theory at the Hochschule fuer Musik Wuerzburg. From 2000 to 2002 Schultheiss together with Professor Dr. Christoph Wuensch leads the Wuerzburg “studio fuer neue musik”. Since 2002 he is professor at the University of Muenster.
Schultheiss performed his own works in public both in Germany and abroad and has taken part in many radio recordings. Besides his interest in contemporary art music, his work focuses on the composition, arrangement, production and performance of largely jazz-influenced music. He has also written, arranged and performed much incidental music for the theater and cabaret.
