The Joy of Passing it on
Since the winter semester of 2021/22 I have been teaching as Professor of Artistic and Liturgical Organ Playing at the Protestant University of Church Music in Halle (Saale). For me, teaching is not an accessory to my concert work rather its natural counterpart: my experiences in concerts and services I pass on in my teaching – and in dialogue with my students I keep discovering the music anew myself.
What is Important in my Teaching
It is my vital concern to pass on my knowledge and my skills to others and to share them with a young generation of organists.
It fills me with great joy to convey the beauty and versatility of organ music in all its facets, and to help students find not only the composer’s intentions but also a personal tone and expression.
I try, in both artistic and liturgical organ playing, to nurture the individual strengths of my students and to develop further their playing technique, musical expression and stylistic sensibility.
Teaching the Organ – my Experience
Ever since my own student days I have taught students of all ages and levels in piano and organ.
Alongside my assistantship in the training of young students in the class of Prof. Martin Schmeding at the Freiburg University of Music, I taught privately as well. From 2014 to 2015 I was involved as district cantor in Bad Krozingen/Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald in the regional church’s D-level church-music training in organ, supervising several organ pupils. I was able to prepare some of my pupils successfully for entrance examinations at German music academies, as well as for their participation in competitions and audition rounds for scholarships.
From 2016 to 2019, teaching a class of organ students at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig gave me particular joy. I ended this work for reasons of time and because of the distance between Leipzig and my then centre of life, Zurich. All of my former students had a successful start to their professional lives and I wish them all the very best.
It fills me with great joy that, in addition to my work in Halle, I was able to take on part of the interim professorship for Prof. Martin Schmeding at the HMT Leipzig in the winter semester of 2025/26. Returning to Leipzig, looking beyond my own department, getting to know something different, and being able to teach, among other places, at the wonderful organs of the Thomaskirche, has enriched me greatly.
Looking Ahead
All in all, I have no doubt that in the future, too, superbly trained church musicians will make our churches resound. The high standard and the great commitment of the young church musicians are most worthy of support and give hope for a very fine quality in the coming generation of church musicians.
Never miss an opportunity to practise on the organ. There is no instrument that takes such immediate revenge on the impure and the unclean – in composition as in playing – as the organ.
Robert Schumann, 1810–1856