Organ recital in the Cathedral - Helmut Freitag (DE)

Helmut Freitag was born in Bad Kreuznach (Rhineland-Palatinate). He studied at the Universiteit van Saarbrücken, the Hogeschool Düsseldorf, and the Conservatorium van Genève. After obtaining his state examination in history and music for secondary education, and his music teacher examination with organ as his major, which he completed with distinction, he passed the Protestant cantor final examination and the concert diploma examinations as a pianist and organist. He obtained his conductor's diploma with distinction as a student of General Music Director Drewanz. After being director of the Kaiserslautern District Music School from 1988 to 1991, he became district cantor for the deaneries of Kaiserslautern and Otterbach in 1991. Since 1991, he has also been a vocal coach instructor at the Hogeschool Heidelberg-Mannheim. In addition to winning prizes at competitions, he has made numerous recordings for various radio stations and played keyboard instruments in the SWR Radio Orkest from 1990 to 2007. In March 2001, he was appointed director of church music, and in 1999 he took over the artistic direction of the Bad Kreuznach Concert Society. He has toured extensively with the Kaiserslautern Chamber Orchestra and performed in the US, Switzerland, Scandinavia, and Italy. His solo organ recitals have taken him to almost every European country, as well as Iceland, Japan, and South Korea. At the beginning of the 2002 summer semester, he was appointed music director at the Universiteit van Saarland and became a professor in 2007. In 2005, he traveled to Tokyo as a musical ambassador for the city of Kaiserslautern, where he gave an organ concert. In November 2006, he taught organ and choral conducting as a guest lecturer at the Hanil Universiteit in Jeonju, South Korea, and in December of the same year, he received the Art and Culture Prize of the city of Bad Kreuznach. In 2011, he performed a Bach cycle with all of Bach's trio sonatas and presented a cross-section of Bach's complete oeuvre in Bern. His fruitful collaboration with church musicians in Saarbrücken has resulted in concert weeks in honor of Bach, Liszt, and Mendelssohn. For years, he has cultivated an approach of 'practical music' in his organ concerts, where he explains the work, the instrument, and the musicians. The audience is invited to participate in the dialogue and is encouraged to sing along. In 2016, Helmut Freitag received his doctorate with a dissertation on "Composers from the Nahe region". In 2024, he played the complete organ works of J.S. Bach in 18 concerts and was awarded the culture prize by the municipality of Interlaken/CH for this in May 2025. Freitag brings works by Bach, Mendelssohn, and Liszt with his program in Bruges.