Event info

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).