Experimental Organ Studio
First "Day of Young Organ Music" presents the work of composer Hans-Joachim Hespos
In future, the "Day of Young Organ Music" will be held once a year to provide an insight into the extensive work of the "Experimental Organ Studio" at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar. The 1st Day of Young Organ Music on Saturday, November 11 in Weimar, Oßmannstedt and Waltershausen will present the work of composer Hans-Joachim Hespos, who was one of the most important guests and supporters of the Experimental Organ Studio. Hespos, who died in 2022, wrote his last work "PORA" inspired by his work with students of the Experimental Studio.
The 1st Day of Young Organ Music begins with an international panel discussion on November 11 at 11:00 in the Am Palais hall of the Weimar University of Music. At 15:00, the event continues in Oßmannstedt: here, in the Mühlenhof Cämmerer, sound panels up to several meters high will be played, which were designed by the composer Hans-Joachim Hespos himself.
At 19:00, the day closes in the town church in Waltershausen with a performance of Hespos' complete organ works by Weimar organ professor Martin Sturm and students from the Experimental Organ Studio. Admission to all events is free.
For four years now, the Experimental Organ Studio at the Weimar University of Music, under the direction of Prof. Martin Sturm, has been committed to new approaches in organ and church music, as well as in organ building and the art of improvisation. The Experimental Studio brings together various departments of the university, for example in joint improvisation with the university choir and in artistic work with students from other departments, including accordion and violoncello.
Among the numerous guests of the Experimental Studio were both internationally renowned and young composers, artists from the field of electronic music, contemporary music ensembles and luminaries from the field of experimental organ building. As a laboratory for new church and organ music, cooperation projects continue to link the Experimental Organ Studio with the universities in Lübeck, Regensburg and Würzburg as well as with the directors' conferences of the churches.
In addition to cultivating the organ repertoire of the 20th/21st century, the Experimental Organ Studio sees itself as a contact point and free space for young artists and composers to come into contact and work with the world-renowned organ landscape of Thuringia and with students of the organ and church music department.
[7 November 2023]