Gerhard Track

Gerhard Track (born September 17, 1934 in Vienna ) is an Austrian composer, choir director and university teacher. He composed over 600 works, founded two orchestras, several choirs and a festival. He worked as a professor in Austria and the USA.

Life

He was born in Vienna on September 17, 1934, the son of the once well-known emcee, composer and singer Ernst Track. He has been married to the concert pianist Micaela Maihart since 1958 and the couple has two sons.

From 1942 to 1948 he was a member of the Vienna Boys' Choir. He studied composition and conducting at the Vienna Federal School for Teachers and at the Academy for Music and Performing Arts Vienna . From 1953 to 1958 he was the youngest choir director of a concert choir of the Vienna Boys' Choir and founded the Chorus Viennensis . He has led concert tours in the USA, Canada, Japan and in European countries.

In 1958 he accepted a professorship at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, USA. He directed the St. John's Symphony Orchestra and St. John's University Men's Chorus. With this choir he won first prizes at the 16th and 19th International Eisteddfod in Llangollen, Wales in 1962 and 1965 and toured Europe, the Bahamas and the United States.

In 1969 he became Music Director of the Pueblo Symphony Orchestra in Pueblo, Colorado, USA. He founded the Pueblo Symphony Choir and a youth orchestra program as well as a Mozart Festival, which took place annually in January. At the University of Southern Colorado he held a professorship established for him by the local Thatcher Foundation. With his ensembles in Pueblo he went on concert tours in the USA and Europe.

In 1986 he returned to Vienna. He took over the management of the “Jung-Wien” choir association until 1997 , headed the “ Wiener Männergesang-Verein ” from 1990 to 2003 , founded two orchestras, the “Orchester Pro Musica International” and the “Wiener Serenaden-Orchester”. After two years as a lecturer at the University of Music and Performing Arts and at the Conservatory of the City of Vienna , he was appointed director of the "Musiklehranstalten der Stadt Wien" (Conservatory, 17 music schools and a children's singing school program) in 1989. He retired in 1999, but continues to work internationally as a guest conductor with various orchestras in Europe, USA, Canada, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China and Greece. He leads choir and orchestra workshops all over the world.

composer

As a composer he has written over 650 compositions and arrangements, including an opera, a children's opera, eleven masses, choral orchestral works, three musicals, choirs, orchestral pieces, chamber music works and songs.

Honors

• Gold medal for services to the Republic of Austria
• Cross of Honor for Science and Art 1st Class
• Gold medal for services to the State of Vienna

Web links

• Gerhard Track's website
• Works by and about Gerhard Track in the catalog of the German National Library
• Gerhard Track in the Music Information Center Austria
• Audio recordings with Gerhard Track in the online archive of the Austrian Media Library (interviews, radio reports, ...)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Vita on the website of the choir association "Jung-Wien" ( Memento from April 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ History of the choir master on the website of the Vienna Men's Choir Association
3. ↑ List of winners of the Medal of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria . Retrieved December 9, 2015.