International Series 2010-2011
Fridays at 8 pm

Oct 8, 2010
Gunter Kennel

Jan 21, 2011
David Briggs

May 13, 2011
Bálint Karosi

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INTERNATIONAL ARTIST SERIES


Gunter Kennel

Program
Bruns: Praeludium in e minor
Scheidemann: Vater unser in Himmelrich (2 versus)
Muffat: Toccata septima
Buxtehude: Vater unser in Himmelrich
Buxtehude: Toccata in d
Bach: Vater unser in Himmelrich
Bach: Praeludium in e minor BWV 548
Mendelssohn: Sonata 6

Gunter Kennel was born in 1961 in the city of Kaiserlautern, palatinate, not far from the Ramstein airbase. From 1980 - 1989, he studied sacred music, organ and theology in Munich and London, where his organ teachers were Franz Lehrndorfer and Nicolas Kynaston. Mr. Kennel has participated as well in the masterclasses of Piet Kee, Ewald Kooiman (Organ), Gerd Wachowski (Improvisation) and John Eliot Gardiner (Conducting). As a concert organist and conductor he has appeared all over Europe as well as in Israel and the United States.

Gunter Kennel is also an ordained Protestant pastor and holds the degree of Doctor of Theology; his doctoral dissertation was entitled "Early Christian Hymns” (Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen 1995). In the course of the last years he has published various essays on subjects related to practical theology, theory of music and organ building. From 1990 - 95, Mr. Kennel was Lecturer of music theory at the Hochschule der Künste; now he has been serving as a Lecturer of sacred music since 1995 on the Faculty of Theology at the Humboldt-University Berlin.

In 1992 he was appointed Kantor, or organist and choirmaster, of the Passionskirche and the Kirche Zum Heiligen Kreuz, both of which are located in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Gunter Kennel plays in the latter on the three- manual romantic organ produced by E. & G. G. Hook, Boston, in 1870. Because of the multiple uses of his churches, Gunter Kennel is permanently confronted with many diverse musical styles. Often his concert programs include stylistic contrasts and multiple interpretations, and are sometimes even combined with scenic elements. Although versed in the field of authenticity in musical performance, Mr. Kennel is not a purist, but rather a musician who is also inspired by modern aesthetics and theological issues and perceptions. In 1998 he produced the CD "passion” (LA 75951), which includes several cross- over pieces in a trumpet/saxophon/organ arrangement. In 2001 followed the first recording of the Hook-organ with music of Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Reger and Liszt.

In September 2002 he was appointed Landeskirchenmusikdirektor, i.e. chief supervisor for sacred music of the protestant „Landeskirche“ (i. e. diocese) of Berlin and Brandenburg. In that function he produced further CDs on historic organs in the Brandenburg area.

Since 2006 he is also president of the Evangelische Direktorenkonferenz für Kirchenmusik, which is the assemby of all Landeskirchenmusikdirektoren and the heads of the departments of Sacred Music at the music academies in Germany.


Old West Organ Society
Old West Church
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