1. Thomas Quasthoff was born in Hildesheim with serious birth defects caused by his mother's exposure during pregnancy to the drug thalidomide, which was prescribed as an antiemetic to combat her morning sickness.
14 Facts About Thomas Quasthoff
1. 2.
Thomas Quasthoff was denied admission to the Hochschule fur Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover, owing to his physical inability to play the piano, rather than a lack of skill required for entry to the conservatory.
3.
Thomas Quasthoff was a guest of BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs in February 2009.
4.
In January 2012, Thomas Quasthoff announced his retirement from public performance.
5.
Thomas Quasthoff cited various reasons such as illness, the strains of touring, and the death of his brother Michael from lung cancer.
6.
Thomas Quasthoff performed as Feste in the play Twelfth Night.
7.
Thomas Quasthoff performed with his jazz quartet and with a spoken role in a semi-staged opera at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2021.
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Claudio Abbado 8.
Thomas Quasthoff previously taught at the Hochschule fur Musik Detmold, Germany.
9.
Thomas Quasthoff is currently a professor at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin.
10.
Thomas Quasthoff led development of Das Lied, a biennial international song competition that started in 2009.
11.
Thomas Quasthoff has received three Grammy awards during his career to 2021.
12.
Thomas Quasthoff won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Performance in 2000, for his recording with Anne Sofie von Otter of Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn, along with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Claudio Abbado.
13.
Thomas Quasthoff won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Performance for the second time in 2004.
14.
In 2006, Thomas Quasthoff married Claudia Stelzig, a German TV journalist.