Born 1929 in Meppen, died 2014 in Essen; organist, composer and musicologist; studied in Hamburg; professor of organ at the Folkwang-Hochschule Essen (1970–1991); focus on contemporary organ music. He trained from 1948 to 1953 at the Nordwestdeutsche Musikakademie Detmold – composition with Günter Bialas, conducting with Kurt Thomas, organ with Hans Heintze and Michael Schneider – and took his A-Examen in church music in 1957. From 1954 to 1957 he was cantor and organist of the German Protestant congregation in Santiago de Chile, from 1957 to 1970 organist of the Lutherkirche Hamburg-Wellingsbüttel; from 1970 he headed the department of Protestant church music at the Folkwang-Hochschule. He opened up new ways of playing the organ, including variable wind supply, and championed works by John Cage, György Ligeti, Mauricio Kagel and Dieter Schnebel; his own works include “Die Kunst einer Fuge”, ten readings of Bach’s Contrapunctus I. Six albums connect him with Cybele. They comprise his own Organ Works (2005) and the organ music of Juan Allende-Blin (2005), Mendelssohn’s Six Sonatas for the Organ op. 65 together with organ works by Brahms (2006) and Froberger’s Organ Works (2014). To these are added the conversation volume Juan Allende-Blin and the Ensemble from the Edition Künstler im Gespräch (2016) and one audiobook production of the label. A line also runs through him into the catalogue: Sandro R. Müller, who recorded Tournemire’s “L’Orgue Mystique” complete for Cybele, was his student.
Gerd Zacher
Organ / Composer
