Michael Gees

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Michael Gees (born October 9, 1953 in Bielefeld ) is a German pianist , improviser , composer and founder of the Consol Theater in Gelsenkirchen .

Life

Michael Gees was born into a family of musicians. Both parents were singers. At the age of three he discovered the piano for himself, two years later he received his first piano lessons. At the age of eight he won the Steinway competition in Hamburg and was celebrated as a child prodigy . At the age of nine he received a scholarship from the Salzburg Mozarteum and subsequently studied with Heinz Scholz, Paul von Schilhawski and Kurt Neumüller. A little later he made his debut in his hometown as a concert pianist under the direction of Bernhard Conz and was a junior student at the universities in Vienna ( Bruno Seidlhofer , Thomas Christian David ) and Detmold (Jan Natermann, Klaus Schilde, Johannes Driessler ,Walter Steffens ). At the age of 15 he left home, school, college and the concert stage, kept his head above water with odd jobs and went to sea for two years. In 1974 the opportunity to study piano and composition (Walter Reinhold, Alfred Koerppen ) at the Hanover University of Music arose rather by chance . Since 1980 he has been working as a freelance pianist and composer. In 1989 he founded forum kunstvereint eV , which was incorporated into the Consol Theater, which opened in Gelsenkirchen in 2001. Here people are encouraged to realize their own artistic impulses. Since 2009 he has been teaching vocal and instrumental improvisation and song finding at the HfMT Cologne. In cooperation with the singer and speaker Dagmar Boecker, he developed the Composing Voices platform - ensembles, projects, workshops and salons.

Concert activity

The focus of Michael Gee's artistic work is the concept of development. Therefore he refuses to be faithful to the work that is only reproducible and plays the traditional repertoire in his solo programs as an adapting (ie making himself his own) improvisation. He thus moves in the continuity of a creative approach to music, which was common well into the 19th century, but which today amounts to breaking a taboo in the field of so-called classical music. His concert meditations, often with vocal or instrumental partners, are entirely dedicated to free improvisation. As a lied pianist, he gives concerts worldwide with Ulf Bästlein , Ingeborg Danz , Julia Kleiter , Julian Prégardien , Christoph Prégardien   and Anna Lucia Richter, among others . A special feature of the thematic program compositions he developed together with Julia Kleiter, Julian Prégardien and Anna Lucia Richter are extempores , which are performed partly as soloists and partly as joint, spontaneously composed settings of lyric poetry. He is a regular guest at the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg , the Schwetzingen Festival and at Wigmore Hall . At the Consol Theater in Gelsenkirchen he develops musical projects with amateurs and stage music for in-house productions.

Sound carrier (selection)

  • Songs of Farewell and Journey, program composition by Christoph Prégardien, Michael Gees, Franz Schubert, EMI, 1993
  • Like it's a piece of me
CD, label kunstvereint, AGV 001, 1996
  • Goethe's episodes, program composition by Christoph Prégardien, Michael Gees, Label kunstvereint, WDR, CPO, 1997
  • Scherzo - Letter to my audience, Kunstvereint label, DeutschlandRadio, 1997
  • Robert Schumann - Michael Gees - Ein Dialog, Label kunstvereint, DeutschlandRadio, 1999
  • Robert Schumann, Liederkreis op.24, Kerner-Lieder op.35,
selected songs, Christoph Prégardien, Michael Gees, RCA Red Seal, 2001 (awarded with Diapason D'Or)
  • Robert Schumann, Hugo Wolf, songs based on texts by Joseph von Eichendorff, Christoph Prégardien,
Michael Gees, Hänssler Classic, WDR 3, 2005
  • Forget-me-not - what songs tell about
Program composition for young listeners by Ingeborg Danz and Michael Gees, Ars production 2006
  • Gustav Mahler, songs, Christoph Prégardien, Michael Gees,
Hänssler Classic, WDR 3, 2007
  • Franz Schubert, Christoph Prégardien, Michael Gees, Die Schöne Müllerin, Challenge, 2008 (Awarded the MIDEM Classical Award, also Recording of the Year 2009)
  • Christoph Prégardien, Michael Gees: "Between Life and Death", Challenge, 2009
  • ImproviSatie, Michael Gees on compositions by Erik Satie, CD, Challenge, 2011
  • Beyond Schumann, Michael Gees on compositions by Robert Schumann, SACD, Challenge, 2013
  • Julia Kleiter, Michael Gees: "Beautiful world, where are you?", SACD Challenge 2013
  • Franz Schubert, Christoph Prégardien, Michael Gees, Die Winterreise, SACD Challenge, 2013
  • Secret Keymasters: Michael Gees, Frans Ehlhart, Marion von Tilzer, Extempore, SACD Challenge, 2015
  • Anna Lucia Richter, Michael Gees: Liederkreis - Schumann, Brahms, Britten, Extempores, SACD Challenge, 2015
  • Bella Adamova, Michael Gees: Blooming - instant composed modern classical, CD, Challenge, 2019

Compositions (selection)

  • op.7, song circle of classical and romantic poets (1980–1982)
  • op.8, The Divine (Goethe), for vocal quartet and piano (1982)
  • op.9, piano trio (1982)
  • op.11, piano sonata, dedicated to Leonard Bernstein (1981)
  • op. 19, children's playbook (1985/1986)
  • op.20, Seasons, for chamber ensemble and piano (1985/1986)
  • op. 21, In Memory of an Unborn, Sonata for piano (1985/1986)
  • op. 24, Kai - Encounter with a Child, suite for chamber orchestra and piano (1987)
  • op. 29, stages (from "Glasperlenspiel", H. Hesse), for mixed choir and solos ad libitum (1989)
  • op. 30, Shameless, for piano (1990)
  • op. 31, Variations on an attitude towards life - dedicated to his immortality - for the 200th year of death (1991), for chamber orchestra
  • op.33, Kassandra (future prediction), Fantasy for piano (1995)
  • op.37, The Inner Voice, for string quartet (2000)
  • op.40, The Canterville Ghost, Concert Tale (2003)
  • op. 41, Die Schönmacherin, a salon musical (2003)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ WDR 3 TV broadcast from May 18, 2012
  2. ^ Goetheinstitut homepage
  3. ^ WDR 5 table talk from April 17, 2013
  4. ↑ Homepage Michael Gees Recital
  5. ↑ Homepage Michael Gees review Vielklangfestival
  6. ↑ Homepage Michael Gees KoMed
  7. ↑ Homepage Schwarzenberg Profile Michael Gees
  8. ↑ Homepage Michael Gees published LPs and CDs
  9. ↑ Homepage Michael Gees composition
personal data
SURNAME Gees, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION classical pianist
DATE OF BIRTH October 9, 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Bielefeld