Christian Kabitz

Christian Kabitz (born May 4, 1950 in Nuremberg ) is a German conductor , organist and composer .

Artistic creation

He received his training as a church musician and conductor from Diethard Hellmann and Hermann Michael in Munich. At first he was employed as a church musician in the Christ Church in Munich . In 1979, Kabitz was appointed cantor at the St. Johannis Church in Würzburg. There he directed the Würzburg Bach Choir and the Würzburg Bach Orchestra . In this capacity he was responsible for the Würzburger Bachtage , an annual music festival of national importance.

In 1986 Kabitz was appointed artistic director of the Heidelberg Bach Choir . There he conducts five oratorio concerts per season. Since 1988 Kabitz has also been the artistic director of the Cäcilien Choir Frankfurt, which has played a decisive role in shaping the musical life of the city for many years through its oratorio concerts in the Alte Oper Frankfurt . Performances of baroque operas in the church made him as well known as synthesizer concerts. His relationship to modern music is documented by two record albums, Rock Requiem (1980) and Cosmogenia (1989), compositions in which a rock formation with a large choir and orchestra make music.

In 1991, 1993 and 2000 he was invited to conduct concerts in Israel ; Bach cantatas, Brahms ' German Requiem and Arnold Schönberg's A Survivor from Warsaw were heard in Jerusalem , Haifa and Tel Aviv . Christian Kabitz was in the USA for the first time in 1996, where he performed a selection from his three choirs with great success three times the Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi and twice Carmina Burana by Carl Orff . In 2001 a major concert tour took him to Japan for the first time . In 2005 he organized the German Cultural Week in Shanghai with three concerts , and in 2006 he was invited back to China with three Mozart concerts . From 2008 to 2013 he organized the Würzburg Mozart Festival .

On December 6, 2015, Christian Kabitz was released from his duties as church music director at St. Johannis and retired. He continues to lead the Bach Choir Heidelberg and the Cäcilienchor Frankfurt. His successor as Johanniskantor and director of the Würzburg Bach Days is Matthias Querbach . Kabitz organized and directed the Würzburger Bach Days 37 times.

Awards

• 2007: Main sponsorship award from the Bücher-Dieckmeyer-Foundation for his work in the service of Protestant church music
• 2004: Culture Prize of the City of Würzburg .
• 1986: State Prize of the Free State of Bavaria as a conductor.

Web links

• Works by and about Christian Kabitz in the catalog of the German National Library
• Christian Kabitz's website