German classical percussionist Peter Sadlo died on July 29, 2016. Born in 1962, he began studying at the Meistersinger-Konservatorium in Nürnberg at age 12 and then studied with Siegfried Fink at the Musikhochschule Würzburg. In 1982, when Peter was 20 years old, he became solo timpanist at the Munich Philharmonic, a position he held for 15 years. In 1998, he began to concentrate exclusively on his career as a soloist and ensemble leader. He also became a Professor of Percussion at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich and at the University Mozarteum in Salzburg. He held a Doctorate in Musicology from the University of Bucharest and an Honorary Doctorate from the Staatliche Musikakademie in Sofia.

He played with the following orchestras: Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, BR Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart, Staatskapelle Weimar, Orchestra Accademia di Santa Cecilia Rome, National Symphony Orchestra of RAI Turin, Nagoya Philharmonic, Peking Symphony Orchestra, and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony. He gave recitals at music festivals in Bad Kissingen, Basel, Bremen, Echternach, Ingolstadt, Istanbul, Lockenhaus, MDR Musiksommer, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Pollenca, Salzburg, Schwetzingen, and Vienna. He also performed concerts with his ensemble, Peter Sadlo & Friends, and with chamber music partners including Martha Argerich, Alice Sara Ott, Clemens Hagen, and Gidon Kremer. He recorded with Nexus on the CD NEXUS Meets Peter Sadlo, which was released in 1997.

Such composers as Luciano Berio, Minas Borboudakis, Ferran Cruixent, Moritz Eggert, Harald Genzmer, Sofia Gubaidulina, Hans Werner Henze, and Bertold Hummel collaborated with Sadlo or wrote pieces for him. He was Artistic Advisor to the Basel chamber music festival Les Muséiques and to the International Music Assemblage House Marteau in Lichtenberg/Upper Franconia.

He won numerous first prizes throughout his career including the first-ever percussion awards at both the Concours International Genève (1982) and at the Internationaler Musikwettbewerb der ARD in Munich (1985). He was awarded the Echo Klassik Preis 1998 as musician of the year for his CD Percussion in Concert. In April 2005, Sadlo was awarded the Soloist European Cultural Award at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. Sadlo received the Bavarian Culture Prize 2006. In 2012, the Upper Franconian Foundation gave Sadlo the Culture Award for his artistic life’s work and in 2015 awarded him the prestigious Frankfurter Musikpreis.