Wolfgang Seifen

German organist and improviser, born in Bergheim an der Erft in 1956. From 1973 to 1976 he studied Catholic church music in Aachen. From 1976 to 1983 he was church musician at St Sebastian in Nettetal-Lobberich, and from 1983 to 2000 organist of the papal Marian basilica in Kevelaer. From 1989 to 1992 he led the improvisation class of the Musikhochschule Stuttgart and from 1992 to 2000 taught at the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf, which appointed him honorary professor in 1995. In October 2000 he became professor of improvisation and liturgical organ playing at the Universität der Künste Berlin; in 2004 the post of titular organist at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche was added. In the Cybele catalogue he improvises at the Rieger organ of Marienstatt Abbey on the album Organ Improvisations on Cistercian Chants (1999).