In their duo program with just two acoustic guitars, Sönke Meinen and Philipp Wiechert create a musical world that ranges somewhere between virtuoso fingerstyle guitar, lyrical folk and stirring film music.
Meinen and Wiechert started their collaboration in 2011 while studying together at the University of Music “Carl Maria von Weber” in Dresden with Thomas Fellow, Stephan Bormann and Reentko Dirks. After a few years in which the two musicians focused on other projects and influences, they have been on stage together again since 2023.
Outside of the duo project with Philipp Wiechert, Sönke Meinen plays solo concerts and shares the stage with violinist Bjarke Falgren. He has been a prize winner of various international competitions, in 2016 at two of the most prestigious worldwide: as winner of the “Guitar Masters” competition and sponsoring prize winner of the “European Guitar Awards”. Guitar legend Tommy Emmanuel described him as “one of the most creative guitarists of the current guitar scene”.
Philipp Wiechert is a renowned theater musician and composer, among others at the Staatstheater Hannover and the Kellertheater Winterthur, as well as guitarist of the Sarah Lesch Band and “Modern Gypsy Swing” band “Friling”. He also tours regularly as a duo with bass clarinetist Falk Breitkreuz.
In addition, Wiechert and Meinen form the artistic direction of the International Freepsum Guitar Festival, which has been held annually since 2011.
The magazine “Akustik Gitarre” made it clear that their different stylistic approaches are much more mutual sources of inspiration instead of a barrier when it attested their duo a “dreamlike intertwining of the two guitar parts”.