From 1954 to 1957 he studied music with violin as his main subject with Gerhard Bosse in Leipzig.
The spectrum of musical encounters ranges from Wilhelm Backhaus, Elly Ney, Claudio Arrau, Leopold Stokowski, Franz Konwitschny, David Oistrach, Leonid Kogan, Sviatoslav Richter etc.
to more recent personalities like Rudolf Buchbinder and Frank Peter Zimmermann.
Since 1960 he has taught viola at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig.
He retired in 2000 and many of his students now play in orchestras at home and abroad.