Klaus Gutjahr

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Klaus Gutjahr (* 1948 in Saxony-Anhalt ) is a German bandoneon player and bandoneon builder.

Life

His father was a tiler and played the bandoneon . This instrument, developed by Heinrich Band in Krefeld around 1840 , was a folk instrument in the 1930s. In 1950 he moved to Leverkusen with his parents and siblings . Because bandoneons were no longer being manufactured anywhere in the world at that time, he began to be involved in building them and today he makes the most sonorous and best instruments. At the age of eight he and his brother Walter began to learn to play the bandoneon from his father. Very early on, Klaus Gutjahr made guest appearances with his brother and father at various events. At the age of twelve he decided to make this instrument his life. Since 1964 his family lived in Burscheid (Bergisches Land). After completing an apprenticeship as a tiler, he went to Berlin in 1968 to study music. He completed his studies as a music teacher at the University of Music, now the “ University of the Arts ”. He worked in this profession for many years.

Klaus Gutjahr noticed already during his music studies that the quality of his instruments was not sufficient to adequately represent his musical possibilities. For this reason he began to work on the new construction of this instrument in 1970. Klaus Gutjahr has been mass-producing bandoneons in Berlin since 1990 and sells them worldwide. Due to the unique combination, as a bandoneon soloist and bandoneon farmer alike, only he is able to further develop this instrument in detail. He eliminated construction defects in the mechanics and in the reed plate area in traditional bandoneons and today offers the most advanced instruments.

Since 1980 he has dealt intensively with the Argentine tango , the most important music of the bandoneon. In 1984 he visited Buenos Aires for the first time and there got to know the greatest artists of this instrument. Until 1990 he visited the Argentine capital every year to study his local music. In 1989 in Buenos Aires he spoke with Astor Piazzolla about the future of the bandoneon.

Because there was insufficiently qualified teaching material, he wrote two textbooks for self-taught studies between 1998 and 2001.

Before, during and after his studies he played in various formations. He worked on record productions and concerts by artists such as u. a. Klaus Hoffmann , Hannes Wader , Eva-Maria Hagen and Wolf Biermann , with. With his tango ensemble he has made guest appearances at many tango events since 1980. He helped build the Berlin tango scene, which was the nucleus of the Argentine tango in Germany. His musical diversity and high quality made him a sought-after musician in the theater world. Since 1997, a tango ballet evening has played at the Krefeld / Mönchengladbacher theater for several seasons . Then The Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare . In Berlin, it took Frank Castorf at the Volksbühne and he was in Danton's Death by Georg Buchner 's only musicians on stage. He also played as a bandoneon soloist in the orchestra at the Dresden State Operetta.

He plays tango , baroque music , folklore and his own compositions with his own formations and accompanies the songwriter Michael Z. Many different music productions by him can be heard on CD. This also includes his own compositions as well as Argentine tango and baroque music. In his solo concerts he plays a. a. also works by Bach and Astor Piazzolla and leads through the program with his moderation. His extensive knowledge of the musical history of his instrument makes a concert by him very varied.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Z. & Klaus Gutjahr. In: Deutschlandfunk , On Stage, May 1, 2015. Accessed June 5, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Good year, Klaus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German bandoneon player and bandoneon builder
DATE OF BIRTH 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Saxony-Anhalt