New cathedral Organist of st. gallen
The succession of the retiring St. Gallen Cathedral organist Willibald Guggenmos has been settled. The 30-year-old Christoph Schönfelder from Munich will follow in his footsteps as of August 1, 2023. The newly elected cathedral organist Christoph Schönfelder convinced the search committee not only musically because of his technical and artistic abilities and talent for improvisation, but also because of his theological and liturgical knowledge and as a person.
The search committee headed by Raphael Kühne, who is also the president of the administrative council of the Catholic denomination of St.Gallen, was able to choose from 26 applications (10 from Switzerland and 16 from abroad). "This shows the high attractiveness of the cathedral organist position in St.Gallen, both in Switzerland and abroad," says Kühne.
A child of the Regensburg Cathedral Boys' Choir
Christoph Schönfelder is originally from Landshut in Bavaria. He currently works as a full-time senior lecturer in liturgical organ playing and improvisation at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich. He once received his basic musical training with the Regensburger Domspatzen, where he also enjoyed organ lessons with the cathedral organist there. Later he studied organ, Catholic church music and piano at the aforementioned college, his current employer.
Private studies of 19th and 20th century music drew him to Italy. In the course of time he won numerous organ improvisation competitions, for example in Stuttgart, Luxembourg, Bayreuth, Landau and Schlägl. Concert tours have taken him to Austria, Spain, Italy and South Korea, among other places. His transcription of Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto for organ was documented by Bayerischer Rundfunk, and Christoph Schönfelder also recorded Franz Liszt's Totentanz on the organ.
He is looking forward immensely to his new position as cathedral organist in St.Gallen, which he already made known in his application video: "On the one hand, having the opportunity to enrich the celebration of the liturgy with my improvisations and literature pieces, and on the other hand, being active at the Diocesan Church Music School (DKMS) and imparting my pedagogical knowledge there, are challenges that excite me." He is looking forward to being part of it in the future, says Christoph Schönfelder.
The workload of the new cathedral organist is ninety percent. The majority of this is reserved for liturgical activities including rehearsals or ensemble accompaniment. The rest is reserved for concert activities and his teaching at the DKMS.
