Organ Summer in Hallgrímskirkja - Gereon Krahforst, organ Maria Laach, Germany
Organ Summer in Hallgrímskirkja
Sunday July 23rd at 17hrs
Gereon Krahforst, organ Maria Laach, Germany
Tickets are available at the entrance and on https://tix.is/is/
Admission ISK 3.500
Gereon Krahforst was born into an artistic household in Bonn, Germany, 1973. After a comprehensive early education in music, upon graduating from high school in 1990 he studied composition, musicology, church music, piano, and organ in Cologne and Frankfurt for ten years . His earliest organ teachers were Markus Karas and the Rev´d. John Birley, followed by studies with Clemens Ganz and Daniel Roth. Numerous masterclasses and private studies with Marie-Claire Alain, Jon Laukvik, Petr Eben, Wolfgang Seifen, Tomasz Adam Nowak, Guy Bovet, and Franz Lehrndorfer expanded his studies. Mr. Krahforst held a series of distinguished positions as organist and director of music, beginning in Bonn (Kreuzbergkirche), Moenchengladbach (Minster Basilica), Minden (Cathedral) and Paderborn (Cathedral), and in 2004 he began an eight-year tenure of teaching organ repertoire and improvisation at the Hannover University for Music and Dance. At that juncture he emigrated to the Mediterranean resort town of Marbella in southern Spain (Andalusia) and served as organist at the Church of the Immaculate Conception on the nationally significant "Órgano del Sol mayor". Between 2012 and 2014 he held the highly selective O -1B visa for artists demonstrating exceptional abilities while serving as the cathedral organist and associate director of music at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, Missouri (USA). In 2014 he returned to his homeland and tot he position of director of music at St. Lutwinus's Church in Mettlach (Saarland), where he was responsible for six choirs. In April 2015, he was summoned to assume his present position of abbey organist and artistic director of the well-attended international organ concert series at the famous twelfth- century abbey of Maria Laach, one of Europe´s most significant monuments of pure Romanesque architecture. Furthermore, he is artistic director of the organ concert series at the Baroque organ oft he Kreuzbergkirche Bonn, and at the precious historic Balthasar Koenig organ (1714) in the cloister church of St. Leodegar in Niederehe (Eifel). Since 2017, he is also working as a staff member in the committee for the International Organ Weeks in the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate, managing in an office of the Ministry of Culture, Education and Research in Mainz. 2018, he became president of the committee for the organ-fiest of Bonn (Germany's old capital), and since 2019, he is also titular organist at a historic Romanesque British organ in St. Castor, Andernach, near Maria Laach. As a composer, Krahforst has written a number of works for piano, organ, voice, choir, string quartet or orchestra. His compositions are found in the catalogs of American, German, and Dutch publishers. He recently composed his Second Organ Symphony (for 1-4 organs) on commission from the Metropolitan Canonic Chapter of the Archdiocese of Freiburg at the Freiburg Cathedral. Mr. Krahforst has received wide ranging and profound accolades for many aspects of his artistry, especially for his improvisations in distinctive styles, his sensitive and refined registrations, and his thoughtfully varied programming, from colleagues such as Jean Guillou, Olivier Latry, Thierry Escaich, John Scott , Philipp Kloeckner, and Stephen Tharp. His vast organ repertoire includes the complete organ works of Scheidt, Pachelbel, Muffat, Couperin, Bruhns, Buxtehude, Bach, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Franck and Duruflé as well as the complete 10 organ symphonies by Widor and all 6 symphonies by Vierne – and unique organ works by composers from different eras and countries. With numerous international prizes in composition, piano, and organ to his credit, he has appeared in numerous cathedrals, churches, and concert halls in almost all the European countries, South Korea, Japan, the United States, and Canada. These activities are complemented by his CD recordings and broadcast performances.
Krahforst also appeared as a juror in international organ competitions, and he is a devotee of contemporary organ compositions from different countries, for example Rami Bar-Niv (Israel).