Rita Arkenau-Sanden
Biography Rita Arkenau-Sanden
Rita Arkenau
Her roots lie in the Rhineland, more specifically in the Bergisches Land region. Rita Arkenau knew from an early age that music was something special. At the age of six, she taught herself to play the recorder, and three years later, she began trumpet lessons. Her first orchestral experience was with the Rheinisch-Bergisches Wind Orchestra. The four musicians traveled to rehearsals in a small Fiat. They also cycled to Altenberg Cathedral, which is very close to her hometown. There, she regularly performed solo concerts with trumpet and organ alongside cathedral organist Paul Wißkirchen. Music increasingly became an integral part of the young musician's life.
In 1989, she began studying instrumental pedagogy at the Cologne University of Music with Prof. Reinhold Friedrich and Stanko Selak. After graduating in 1993, she studied orchestral music at the Folkwang University of Music in Essen with Prof. Wolfgang Pohle, completing her final artistic examination in 1995. She then continued her artistic training with Prof. Günther Beetz at the Mannheim State University of Music and Performing Arts. In 1997, she won the audition for the position of principal trumpet with the Lüneburg Symphony Orchestra and the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie. She continued her studies at the same time and completed her concert examination in the spring of 1999. After 13 years in the orchestra and curious to explore new musical paths, in 2010 – parallel to her orchestral service – she began further studies with Prof. Friedemann Immer at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and in the Master's program in Baroque Trumpet at the Institute for Early Music at the Cologne University of Music, which she successfully completed with a Master of Music.
"Being able to play music in an orchestra, in a community with many professional artists, is a great fulfillment. But without my solo concerts and teaching young people, I would be missing something essential." Rita Arkenau has always been closely connected to her educational work with young people. In addition to private lessons, she taught students majoring in trumpet and methodology/didactics at the Hamburg Conservatory until 2016. As a soloist, she has performed with the Baden-Baden Philharmonic, the Heidelberg Chamber Orchestra, the Collegium Musicale Essen, the Lüneburg Symphony Orchestra, as well as in Cologne Cathedral, Altenberg Cathedral, and Bremen Cathedral. International solo concerts have taken her to Estonia, Sweden, Poland, Switzerland, and South Africa. She has recorded three solo CDs and founded her own label, Clarin Nidos Records.
With her daily music-making, Rita Arkenau's desire to engage more closely with people in a creative process – also in light of cultural developments. In 2024, she founded the association Luna del ARTE e.V. in Lüneburg with friends and is currently pursuing a part-time Master's degree in Music Education/Music Management at the Detmold University of Music.
