Bernhard Haas (born 1964) is a German organist, music theorist and academic.
Haas studied organ, piano, harpsichord, sacred music, composition and music theory in Cologne, Freiburg and Vienna. He won several international prizes at organ competitions, such as the Bach-Wettbewerb in Wiesbaden 1983 and the Liszt-Wettbewerb in Budapest in 1988. [1]
From 1989 to 1995 he taught organ and organ-improvisation at the music school in Saarbrücken. In 1994 he became an organ professor at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart. [1] In 2012/13 he moved to the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München to succeed Edgar Krapp. [2]
He has been toured in Europe as well as to the US and Japan. His main interest is music of the 17th and 19th century, contemporary music, Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He has also released CDs of adaptations of works by Franz Liszt, Max Reger, Igor Stravinsky, Brian Ferneyhough, Morton Feldman and Iannis Xenakis. [1] As a musicologist, he has written a book on 'new tonality' from Schubert to Webern [3] and a collaboration with Veronica Diederen on the two-part inventions by J. S. Bach. [4]
Karl Richter was a German conductor, choirmaster, organist, and harpsichordist.
Max Rostal was a violinist and a viola player. He was Austrian-born, but later took British citizenship.
Gerd Zacher was a German composer, organist, and writer on music. He specialized in contemporary compositions, many of which feature extended techniques, and are written in graphic or verbal scores. He interpreted the scores of numerous contemporary composers, including John Cage, Juan Allende-Blin, Mauricio Kagel, György Ligeti, Hans Otte, Luis de Pablo, and Isang Yun. He is also known as an interpreter of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Wolfgang Friedrich Rübsam is a German-American organist, pianist, composer and pedagogue.
The International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) is a music organization that promotes contemporary classical music.
The Donaueschingen Festival, or more precisely Donaueschingen Music Days, is a three-day October event presenting new music in the town of the same name, where the Danube River starts, at the edge of the Black Forest in southern Germany. Founded in 1921, it is the oldest festival for contemporary music in the world.
Joseph Haas was a German late romantic composer and music teacher.
Harald Feller is a German organist, choral conductor and composer teaching at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München. He was awarded the 1983 Grand Prix du Disque Liszt.
Gabriel Dessauer is a German cantor, concert organist, and academic teacher. After studies with Diethard Hellmann and Franz Lehrndorfer, he was responsible for the church music at St. Bonifatius, Wiesbaden from 1981 to 2021, conducting the Chor von St. Bonifatius until 2018. Besides normal church services, he conducted them in regular masses with soloists and orchestra for Christmas and Easter and a yearly concert. In 1995 he prepared the choir for a memorial concert commemorating the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, performing Britten's War Requiem with choirs from countries involved in the war, and concerts in Wiesbaden and Macon, Georgia. Programs of choral concerts included Hermann Suter's Le Laudi in 1998, the German premiere of Rutter's Mass of the Children in 2004, and the world premiere of Colin Mawby's Bonifatiusmess in 2012 which he had commissioned for the choir's 150th anniversary. The concert of 2008, Vivaldi's Gloria and Haydn's Nelson Mass, was also performed at San Paolo dentro le Mura in Rome.
Edgar Krapp is a German organist and music professor. Krapp is a member of the Board of the Neue Bachgesellschaft in Leipzig and the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts.
Philipp Julius Wolfrum was a German conductor, musicologist, composer, organist and academic teacher. He was influential to university education in church music in Heidelberg, and in 1907 became the town's Generalmusikdirektor.
Heinz Wunderlich was a German organist, academic, and composer. He was known for playing the organ works of Max Reger. He studied in Leipzig with Karl Straube, a friend of Reger. Wunderlich worked as both a church musician and academic in Halle until 1957 when he fled to West Germany and became a church musician and academic in Hamburg. He toured internationally and attracted students from many countries to study with him in Hamburg. After retiring from teaching, he went on to more compositions.
Ralf Otto is a German conductor, especially known as a choral conductor and academic teacher. He founded the Vokalensemble Frankfurt, focused on contemporary music and winning competitions including Let the Peoples Sing. Since 1986, he has been director of the Bachchor Mainz, with a tradition of performing Bach cantatas in broadcast church services. He added late romantic and contemporary works to their repertoire and made international tours with them. They made world premiere recordings of some cantatas by Bach's oldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, among other recordings. Otto was professor of choral conducting at the Folkwang Hochschule from 1990 to 2006, when he took the same position at the Hochschule für Musik Mainz.
Kristin Merscher is a German classical pianist and professor at the Hochschule für Musik Saar in Saarbrücken, Germany.
Alfred Hoehn was a German pianist, composer, piano pedagogue and editor.
Hans-Dieter Karras is a German church musician, composer and organist.
August Schmid-Lindner was a German pianist, composer and music educator working in Munich.
Samuel Kummer was a German organist, from 2005 to 2022 at the Frauenkirche in Dresden. When he took the position at the restored church, destroyed by bombing in World War II, with a new Kern organ, he programmed a first recital with music by Bach, Brahms, Reger, Louis Vierne and his own. In concerts and in church services, he was particularly known for his improvisations. He played concerts internationally and made award-winning recordings. He taught at the Hochschule für Kirchenmusik Dresden from 2007.
Andreas Rothkopf is a German organist, pianist and music educator.
Markus Becker is a German pianist and academic teacher. He is focused on chamber music, and on piano concertos from the time around 1900. His recording of the complete piano works by Max Reger earned him awards. He is also a jazz pianist, and has been professor of piano and chamber music at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover since 1993.