Hermann Kreutz

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Hermann Kreutz (born September 12, 1931 in Büssow , Friedeberg / Neumark district ) is a German church musician , church music director , choir teacher and lecturer in choral conducting .

Artistic development

Hermann Kreutz is a son of pastor Ernst Kreutz and lived with his family from 1933 to 1945 in Reetz (today: Recz ), where his father was pastor of the then Katharinenkirche (today: Christ Church). After the expulsion at the end of the Second World War , in which his father died, he lived with his mother and siblings near Herford and attended a boarding school in Petershagen . Here he soon took over the direction of the school's madrigal choir as a pupil. After graduating from high school, he began studying church music at the Westphalian state church music school in Herford with Wilhelm Ehmann . During his studies he worked as a part-time organist and choir director in ( Löhne ) - Obernbeck .

After completing his church music studies in Herford, he went on to study choral conducting at the Northwest German Music Academy with Kurt Thomas . In 1957 he was invited to Gütersloh , where his fiancée and later wife Elisabeth (née Wellmer) was already employed as an organist and choir director. The position of a choirmaster was to be filled here, as the incumbent church musician Eduard Büchsel wanted to dedicate himself primarily to organ playing from then on.

Bach Choir Gütersloh

After taking up the position in Gütersloh, where the church choir and a children's choir had previously existed alongside the decaying Evangelical Bach Choir, Hermann Kreutz expanded the choir work in the parish by founding a choral singing school (later: Gütersloh Singing School) and a youth choir.

As a result, he developed the Bach Choir into one of the most famous Westphalian choirs with a wide national reputation. In 1961 the choir was renamed " Bachchor Gütersloh ". From 1964 the radio companies became aware of the fact that the WDR as well as the NDR and SFB subsequently made numerous recordings, especially of seldom performed a cappella works by various composers. In 1959 a first single record was recorded with the Bach Choir, in 1968 he recorded the first long-playing record with Bach choirs , which was soon to be followed by more. In addition to the classical choral works by Schütz, Bach, Brahms and other well-known composers, the focus of the choir's work was the development of new, demanding choral works by Hugo Distler , Ernst Pepping , Johannes Driessler , Willy Burkhard , Frank Martin , Francis Poulenc and numerous world premieres of works by the Gütersloh composer Carl Theodor Hütterott . Among other things, the first record of Ernst Pepping's Christmas story was released in cooperation with WDR. Kreutz performed concert tours with the Bach Choir to Belgium, France, Poland and Berlin.

Since the Wall was built , Hermann Kreutz regularly led the Bach Choir for over 30 years on Whitsun tours to Berlin. With exclusion of the public, on the verge of legality and under adventurous conditions - initially individually or in small groups "privately" - the border was crossed in order to musically help shape church services there and by (illegally) taking chorus notes and other materials with them, the church music work in to support the East Berlin communities. In West Berlin concerts were given in the Memorial Church and other churches.

In 1967 Hermann Kreutz was invited with the Gütersloh Bach Choir to participate in the European choir festival Europa cantat in Namur , where his mass was rehearsed and performed together with the composer César Geoffray . Since 1970, Hermann Kreutz has regularly performed open singings with the Bach Choir and the WDR , which were broadcast live on the WDR .

Artistic importance

From 1958, Kreutz led an annual choir week of the Kassel International Working Group for Music in the Bündheim educational center in Bad Harzburg . From 1964 onwards, members of this group formed their own choir, the Bündheimer Kantorei, which has been rehearsing and preparing concerts on monthly choir weekends in the Hanover area since then .

From 1960 to 1990 he headed the choir work of the music week at the Jugendburg Gemen , which takes place annually in autumn, in the music group of the Catholic diocese of Münster .

In 1975 Hermann Kreutz was appointed lecturer in choral conducting at the Münster University of Music (State University for Music Westphalia-Lippe, Münster department). Here he founded the choir and the chamber choir of the Münster University of Music. The 6-cylinder vocal ensemble later emerged from the chamber choir . With the Chamber Choir and the Gütersloh Youth Choir, Kreutz performed regularly at the Protestant Church Days .

In 1978 Kreutz traveled with the Westphalian Vocal Ensemble , which consisted of its choirs, the Bach Choir and the Gütersloh Youth Choir, the Bündheimer Kantorei, the Chamber Choir of the Münster University of Music and the Chamber Choir of the Münster Adult Education Center, on a concert tour to Poland, on which in Szczecin and Stargard concerts were held. There was also an invitation to the international choir festival in Międzyzdroje , which was attended by 17 choirs from all Eastern Bloc countries, from England, France, Holland, Italy, Spain and the USA. The ensemble under the direction of Hermann Kreutz was awarded the first prize at the festival. In 1986 there was another concert tour to Poland.

In 1990 Hermann Kreutz had to give up his activity as a church musician in Gütersloh due to a protracted illness. Since his recovery and moving to Münster , he has continued to work with the Bündheimer Kantorei, the chamber choir of the Münster University of Music and the Münster Volkshochschule choir . After his retirement, the Chamber Choir separated organizationally from the Musikhochschule in 1997 and continues to exist today as the “Chamber Choir Münster” as an independent choir under the direction of Hermann Kreutz. Every year three to four concert programs are rehearsed and regular concert tours are carried out, mainly to Poland. At the Choir Festival in Międzyzdroje , Kreutz and the Münster Chamber Choir received a prize from the Association of Polish Choirs and Orchestras in 2007 for the best interpretation of the choral works by the Polish composer Józef Świder .

In 2015, Hermann Kreutz was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon for his services to choir work and international understanding .

One of his sons is the pianist and professor at the Detmold University of Music, Peter Kreutz .

Discography (selection)

literature

  • Festschrift 50 Years of the Gütersloh Bach Choir 1946-1996 , Gütersloh 1996

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Website of the Chamber Choir Münster: Concert tours to Poland ( Memento from December 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Chamber Choir Münster: Concert tour to Poland ( Memento from April 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Award of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
  4. ↑ Award of the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Music as a universal language and message - Federal Cross of Merit for Hermann Kreutz
personal data
SURNAME Kreutz, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German church musician, church music director, choir teacher and lecturer in choral conducting
DATE OF BIRTH September 12, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Büssow , Friedeberg / Neumark district , today Buszów