Gereon Krahforst

Born in Bonn, Krahforst received his first piano lessons at the age of 5; his first organ teachers were John L. Birley (Himmerod Abbey) and Markus Karas from 1987/1990 (Bonn Minster). He studied composition during his school years from 1990 to 1993 (junior studies with Hans Werner Henze and Günter Fork), then after his Abitur (from 1993) composition, piano (instrumental pedagogy) and church music with Clemens Ganz, Henning Frederichs, Günter Ludwig, Johannes Schild and Phillip Langshaw at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln. He passed his A-Examen (Kirchenmusik) with a distinction for Liturgisches Orgelspiel, after which he studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main Organ (KA) with Daniel Roth. He complemented his training with master classes with Marie-Claire Alain, Tomasz Adam Nowak, Jon Laukvik, Wolfgang Seifen, Peter Planyavsky, Guy Bovet and Franz Lehrndorfer.

In 1985, at the age of 12, Krahforst became an organist at St Martin, Kirchsahr (Ahrweiler district); from 1989, he regularly played organ substitutes at Bonn Minster and St Josef, Bonn-Beuel. In 1993-1997, while studying church music, he often substituted for his organ professor Clemens Ganz at Cologne Cathedral; in 1998, he was briefly organist at St. Aposteln in Frankfurt. He received his first prestigious position in 1998 at the Kreuzbergkirche (Bonn), where he performed the complete organ works of Bach in 16 concerts in 2000. In 2000, he became organist and cantor at the Basilica of St Vitus, Mönchengladbach as well as the main parish church there St Mariä Himmelfahrt; there too he again recorded Bach's complete organ works. At the end of 2001, he moved to the Minden Cathedral as cathedral organist and choir director. In 2001, he also held a lectureship in organ improvisation at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold. In 2003, he was finally appointed cathedral organist at the Paderborn Cathedral. In 2004, he also took up a position as lecturer in organ and organ improvisation at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover. In 2011, he relocated to Marbella in Andalusia, as an organist at the Iglesia de la Encarnación - his family has had a second home there since 1987. In 2012, he moved to the US and became Cathedral Organist, Associate Director of Sacred Music, and artistic director of the International Organ Concert Series at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis (Missouri); there he taught several times for the American Guild of Organists. In 2014, he returned to Germany and first worked as a cantor at St. Lutwinus in Mettlach. In 2015, he finally returned to his old home by being appointed abbey organist and artistic director of the International Organ Concerts at the Maria Laach Abbey. Since January 2017, he has been a part-time committee member of the artistic planning group for the Organ Weeks Rheinland-Pfalz at the Ministry of Culture, Education and Research in Mainz, and since 2018 he has also been organist and custodian of the great organ at the Rhein-Mosel-Halle in Koblenz and artistic director of the Bonn Organ Festival; since 2019, he has been working, also part-time, as church musician in the Plaidt parish association, where, among other things, the valuable historic Keates organ of the parish church of St. Kastor in Andernach-Miesenheim is among his instruments. In addition to the International Laach Organ Concerts and the Saturday organ matinées he founded, he is artistically in charge of the International Organ Weeks Rhineland-Palatinate and the organ concerts on the oldest playable organ in Rhineland-Palatinate in the former monastery church St. Leodegar in Niederehe, and in 2019, the "Music for Sunday" concerts he founded at the Basilica St. Severus in Boppard and another concert series in Boppard-Buchholz. As a composer, he writes for various instrumentations, primarily for organ, piano, or choir; since around 2010, more and more commissioned compositions have reached him. Krahforst's repertoire of organ music includes all the organ works of Bach, Buxtehude, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, Franck, Duruflé, Brahms Zachow, Couperin, the 8 organ sonatas and individual works by Guilmant, the 10 organ symphonies by Widor, all organ works by Vierne a large part of the organ works of Dupré, Langlais, Rheinberger and Reger as well as a large fund of standard works, little-known ones and works of the so-called early music and Romanticism alongside a large selection of English, American and Canadian organ literature. His piano repertoire includes The Well-Tempered Clavier (Volumes I and II), the Italian concerto, the Goldberg Variations, the Inventions and Sinfonias, the 6 Partitas, the French Overture, the Toccatas as well as some individual works by Bach, the complete piano sonatas by Mozart as well as works by Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninofff, Scriabin, Ravel and Debussy. As a harpsichordist he has worked intensively with the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book and the sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti. Krahforst also often appeared as a Lied accompanist. In his younger years, he created a song album with rock and pop songs for which he wrote the English lyrics himself and which even won a prize in a competition for light music; he also occasionally occupied himself with jazz piano music. He was allowed to record parts of his Zaubersee from 1991 for the radio station WDR 5 in 1993; further appearances on television and radio as well as CD recordings round off his wide-ranging activities. The Zaubersee, next to the Bilderbuch Andalusien, Krahforst's most personal work to date on the border between serious music and light music, will undergo a complete revision and digitalisation in 2020, after which a publication of the musical text is planned. Concerts have taken Krahforst to almost every country in Europe, both in cathedrals (e.g. Notre-Dame de Paris, St. Thomas, New York City, St Paul's Cathedral, London, Kyungdung Church, Seoul) and churches, as well as in concert halls, from smaller concert series to renowned international festivals, and - also before his time in St. Louis - to the US, Canada, Israel, Korea, Japan and the Russian Federation. Already in 2007, he received the highest commendations and recognition from the American Guild of Organists for his Reger interpretations and his improvisation lessons. Krahforst is the dedicatee of various contemporary compositions from Germany, Belgium, Israel, and the US. He is a member of the Rotary-Club and the American Guild of Organists.

• Krahforst is a grandson of the musicologist Joseph Schmidt-Görg. • He is also a great-nephew of the painter Hermann Krahforst. • He is also a nephew of the musicologist Hans Schmidt.