Michael Höltzel was born in 1936 in Tübingen (Germany). After his high school finals he went to Stuttgart to study horn and viola, later on to Salzburg to complete his hornstudies and conducting at the Mozarteum. He was solo horn with the Camerata Academica in Salzburg, the orchestra Palazzo Pitti Florence, the Bamberg Symphony and the Munich Philharmonic.

He founded and directed the Wind Ensemble of the Bamberg Symphony. His musical education practically predestinated the path: He studied in the wind chamber music class of the legendary clarinettist Philip Dreisbach at the Hochschule für Musik in Stuttgart where he also benefited from superb musical lessons with Hans Köhler, violist with the Wendling Quartett. In Salzburg he learned Mozart first hand from Bernhard Paumgartner, conductor of the Camerata Academica.

In summer 1970 he wanted to study with Philip Farkas at IU in Bloomington. After Mr. Farkas and Dean Bain had listened to the audition tape (Haydn's first horn concerto in a production with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra) they refused Höltzel as a student, but hired him as a guest teacher instead. This unique story was spread all over the US and made Michael Höltzel quite popular. Many of his former students became winners of highest awards: Radovan Vlatkovic (1. prize Munich), Eric Terwilliger, principal horn Munich Philharmonie Orchestra (2. prize Geneva), Dany Katzen, 2. horn Boston Symphony, an many others.

Since 1973, Höltzel is professor of horn and chamber music at the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold. He conducted numerous chamber music courses (Salzburg, Bloomington, Weimar, Bobbio etc.) and brought the woodwind quintet, "Kammervereinigung Berlin" to prize-winning success at the German Radio Competition (ARD 1989) an the German Music Competition (1991).

He appears frequently as guest conductor with various symphonie and chamber orchestras, and with ensembles such as the Piccola Academia di Roma, the Wind Academy Sachsen in Chemnitz, the winds of the Hamburg Symphony and the Radio-Symphony Orchestra Helsinki, Finland. And being conductor of the Gran Partita Detmold he leads this young wind players from one success to another. With his Detmolder Hornists he produced a CD of Dauprat's Grand Sextuor which Philip Farkas called the best Horn ensemble playing he ever had heard.

In order to having more free time für his international teaching and conducting activities, and to also concentrate more on his musicliteratury work, Michael Höltzel will terminate his teaching position at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold in summer 1999.