Christian Schmitt (organist)

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Christian Schmitt (* 1976 in Erhaben / Saar ) is a German concert organist .

Life

After studying church music at the Hochschule für Musik Saar , which he completed in 2001 with a church music diploma, in 2002 with the concert qualification for organ (with distinction) and in 2003 with the A-exam for church music, he continued his studies at the Boston Conservatory (USA) with James David Christie continued and earned the Artist Diploma in 2003 . He then studied at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts in the soloist class with Daniel Roth and graduated in 2007 with the soloist exam. During this course of study, Schmitt specialized in the romantic and contemporary repertoire. In master classes and private lessons, he trained with, among others, Dame Gillian Weir and Margaret Phillips in London, Almut Rößler in Düsseldorf, Lionel Rogg in Geneva, Franz Lehrndorfer in Munich and Zsigmond Szathmáry in Freiburg. He also took courses in Catholic theology and musicology at Saarland University .

Schmitt performed a. a. in the Culture and Congress Center Lucerne , Tonhalle Zurich , Berlin Konzerthaus , Berlin Philharmonie , in the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg , in the Wiener Konzerthaus and in the Wiener Musikverein , as well as in the Leipzig Gewandhaus . In the 2009/10 season he made his debut in the Cologne Philharmonic and, at the invitation of the Berlin Philharmonic Foundation, played the final concert of the organ series in the great hall of the Berlin Philharmonic and in 2012 at the Salzburg Festival .

He performed together with Juliane Banse , Sibylla Rubens , Michael Volle , Andreas Schmidt , Matthias Höfs, Reinhold Friedrich, Martin Grubinger , Michael Gielen , Wen-Sinn Yang , Marek Janowski , Sir Roger Norrington and Christoph Poppen . In 2013 she made her first solo appearance with the Berliner Philharmoniker under their chief conductor Sir Simon Rattle . In November 2018 he was a soloist with the Staatskapelle Berlin, also under Sir Simon Rattle, and in 2019 under their chief conductor Daniel Barenboim .

With the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra he was heard as a soloist under Manfred Honeck , Giovanni Antonini and Thomas Dausgaard .

Since 2014 Schmitt has been principal organist of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and artistic director of the organ series there. In the 2016/17 season he also made music for the first time with Kent Nagano in the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie , in the Maison Symphonique Montréal and in the Leipzig Gewandhaus under Kristjan Järvi . In April 2017 Christian Schmitt gave the world premiere of Toshio Hosokawa's Organ Concerto in the Cologne Philharmonic, together with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and their new chief conductor Jakub Hrůša .

Schmitt gave world premieres of works by Guy Bovet (commissioned by the Lucerne Festival 2004), Theo Brandmüller (Breitkopf, premier for the Federal Selection of Concerts of Young Artists 2002), Friedrich Cerha ( attacca series of the SWR), Toshio Hosokawa (Schott, premier and Prize for New Music in Tokyo 2000), Martin Herchenröder (Konzerthaus Berlin 2012), Werner Jacob (EA in the Meistersingerhalle Nürnberg), Matthias Pintscher ( attacca series of the SWR), Daniel Roth (commissioned by the Bamberg Symphony 2018 and in the Philharmonie Essen 2008), Iannis Xenakis (EA with the Luxembourg Philharmonic), Isang Yun (Bode) and Frank Zabel .

In addition to his teaching activities (2007–2016) at the Saar School of Music, Schmitt held guest lectureships at the music academies in Oslo , Mexico , Moscow , Seoul , Tashkent , Cremona , Ljubljana , Boston and Bogota . He gave courses at the London Royal Academy of Music and taught Jürgen Essl's class at the Stuttgart University of Music in the 2011 summer semester as part of a substitute professorship .

He is a member of the juries of the German National Academic Foundation , the Wiesbaden Bach Competition, the National Youth Music Competition , the “Soli Deo Gloria” organ festival in Moscow and the German Music Competition. From 2010 to 2012 Christian Schmitt worked together with Martin Haselböck as an expert for the organ renovation with the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation. Since 2016 he has also been working as an organ expert for the new organ at the Tonhalle Zurich. Schmitt is also chairman of the organ commission for the organ in the new building of the Nuremberg Concert Hall and the organ building commission at the concert hall of the Janáček cultural center in Brno . There he works with the acoustics expert Yasuhisa Toyota .

Awards

Schmitt was a scholarship holder of the German National Academic Foundation , the Gerd Bucerius Scholarship of the Zeit Foundation , the Boston Conservatory, the Märkische Kulturkonferenz and the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben .

He was a prizewinner at organ and music competitions in Atlanta, Bruges, Calgary, Philadelphia and Tokyo. In 2001 he won the German Music Competition . In 2003 he was the first organist to receive the soloist prize of the European cultural foundation “Pro Europa”.

  • 2nd prize in the 10th international organ competition "Dom zu Speyer" (1997; first prize was not awarded)
  • 1st prize at the 12th International Bach Competition Wiesbaden (1999)
  • Special Prize for New Music at the 4th International Organ Competition in Tokyo (2000)
  • Audience Award at the 4th International Organ Competition in Tokyo (2000)
  • Prize of the German Music Competition in Berlin (2001)
  • Soloist Prize of the European Cultural Foundation "Pro Europa" under the patronage of the Prince of Denmark (2003)
  • ECHO Klassik concert recording of the year (music of the 19th century) for the recording of the Widor organ symphonies opp. 42.3 and 69 (2013).

Discography

Schmitt's discography includes over 40 solo CD recordings, including the album “Prayer” with Magdalena Kožená ( Deutsche Grammophon ). It includes CD recordings as well as radio recordings with various ARD broadcasters. Among other things, he recorded the organ works of Georg Friedrich Handel according to complete scientific editions on CD. With the Bamberg Symphony , he recorded several works by Charles-Marie Widor for organ and orchestra. With the Bayerischer Rundfunk and the label cpo he prepared the works of the publisher M. Belotti complete recordings of Charles Koechlin , Charles-Marie Widor and Johann Pachelbel ago. For the project Bach333 the Deutsche Grammophon he played in 2017 at various historic organs several works by Johann Sebastian Bach one.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Christian Schmitt . Vita. Official website of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben. Retrieved November 24, 2018.
  2. ↑ the magazine 11/12 2009 - Cologne Philharmonic . Retrieved November 24, 2018.
  3. ↑ Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker: I take my freedom . In: Tagesspiegel from August 13, 2013. Retrieved November 24, 2018.
  4. ↑ Simon Rattle conducts the Staatskapelle: Alle Lust des Thisesseits . In: Tagesspiegel of November 14, 2018. Retrieved November 24, 2018.
  5. ↑ Great: The Staatskapelle with Daniel Barenboim . In: Berliner Zeitung of November 12, 2019. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
  6. ^ Christian Schmitt on the website of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra
  7. ↑ Bruckner comfortably sunk . Concert review. In: DIE WELT of February 21, 2017. Retrieved May 31, 2018.
  8. ↑ GLOWING PASSION . Concert program. Accessed May 31, 2018.
  9. ↑ Bach and Brahms are more appealing to the listeners than Far Eastern experimental music . Concert review. Accessed May 31, 2018.
  10. ↑ TONHALLE ZURICH, NEW ORGAN DISPOSITION . Retrieved November 24, 2018.
  11. ↑ echoklassik.de - Prize Winner 2013 , accessed on December 7, 2018.
  12. ↑ Discography , accessed December 7, 2018.
  13. ↑ Detailed curriculum vitae , accessed on December 7, 2018.
  14. ↑ Playlist Bach333 Organ Works on Youtube (provided by the Universal Music Group)
personal data
SURNAME Schmitt, Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German organist
DATE OF BIRTH 1976
PLACE OF BIRTH Provide