As first prize winner of various national youth competitions he was trained by Prof. Tomasz Tomaszewski at the Julius-Stern-Institute, where he was also appointed concertmaster of the symphony orchestra. Further engagements as concertmaster followed with the Landesjugendorchester Berlin, the Berliner Chamber Academy and the Hamburger Chamber Philharmonic.

After he completed his violin studies with Prof. Nora Chastain in Lübeck, he was forced to take a break from playing the violin for six years due to health reasons. During this break, he caught up his high school diploma, studied medicine and trained as a qigong teacher. Thanks to the acquaintance of a Chinese master of this art of healing, he managed to overcome his health issues and completed his violin studies with a diploma at the University of Arts, where he was taught by Prof. Raphael Oleg, Rainer Sonne and Prof. Bernhard Hartok.

Following his studies, Tilman joined the first violins of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and subsequently spent five years in the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin. He is co-founder of the Orbis Quartet, with whom he studied in Berlin with the Artemis Quartet and in Salzburg with the Hagen Quartet and won prizes at international competitions. This made him particularly fond of chamber music, which is why he is now a frequent guest in chamber orchestras such as the Potsdam Chamber Academy, the Metamorphosen Berlin and as section principal of the German Chamber Orchestra. Together with his colleagues in the Orbis Quartet, who share his joy of discovery and passion for chamber music, Tilman can pursue an uninhibited search for new forms of expression in the most diverse musical genres, for which he is very grateful.