On the Arents Memorial Organ:

Fantasy and Fugue on the Chorale “Ad nos, ad salutarem undam”


Improvisation

Franz Liszt
(1811-1886)

Ansgar Wallenhorst
(b. 1967)

ANSGAR WALLENHORST pursued his music degree at the Hochschule für Musik in Würzburg, where he studied organ and improvisation with Professor Günther Kaunzinger, piano with Professor Norman Shetler and music theory (harmony, counterpoint, and fugue) with Professor Zsolt Gárdonyi. He subsequently attended Prof. Kaunzinger’s organ masterclass and took his master class diploma at the age of 25. He broadened his improvisation skills with Thierry Escaich and in the class of Olivier Latry in Paris, while Maître Jean Guillou provided him with further guidance on interpretation and improvisation. Under the influence of his teachers’ French traditions, Wallenhorst’s organ playing is marked by creative interpretation and artistic improvisation. He took up the study of theology and philosophy while in Münster and Paris, focusing especially on the discourse between these disciplines and the arts. Since 1998, Wallenhorst has been director of music at SS. Peter and Paul in Ratingen. Between 1998 and 2002 Ansgar Wallenhorst directed the improvisation and liturgical organ class at the Musikhochschule in Dortmund. As the founder and artistic director of the Offene Orgelklasse für Interpretation, Improvisation und Analyse, an open organ class for interpretation, improvisation and analysis at the large Klais concert organ in the Auditorium Maximum of the Ruhr University in Bochum, he has realised his ideal of an interdisciplinary form of instruction that focuses on all aesthetic aspects of the art of organ playing. Not least, his reputation as a distinguished improviser and his successful participation in the 3ème Concours d’orgue de la ville de Paris and the Grand Prix of the 43rd international improvisation competition in Haarlem, the Netherlands in 2000 provided the foundation for his busy career as a performer and guest lecturer throughout Europe and the United States.