German organist to give Bangor recital

BANGOR – St. John’s Organ Society and the Bangor Chapter of the American Guild of Organists will present distinguished German organist and recording artist Gunter Kennel in recital at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 16, at St. John’s Catholic Church, 207 York St., Bangor. The concert is free and open to all. Donations will be appreciated.

Gunter Kennel was born in 1961 in Kaiserlautern not far from the Ramstein airbase. From 1980-1989, he studied sacred music, organ and theology in Munich and London, where his organ teachers were Franz Lehrndorfer and Nicolas Kynaston. He has participated in the master classes of Piet Kee, Ewald Kooiman, Gerd Wachowski and John Eliot Gardiner.

As a concert organist and conductor Kennel has appeared throughout Europe and in Israel and the United States.

Kennel is an ordained Protestant pastor and holds the doctor of theology degree. His doctoral dissertation in 1995 was titled “Early Christian Hymns.” He has published various essays on subjects related to practical theology, theory of music and organ building. He was lecturer of music theory at the Hochschule der K?nste from 1990-1995. He has served as a lecturer of sacred music since 1995 on the faculty of theology at Humboldt-University Berlin.

In 1992 Kennel was appointed kantor, or organist and choirmaster, of the Passionskirche and the Kirche Zum Heiligen Kreuz in Berlin-Kreuzberg. He plays in the latter on the three-manual romantic organ produced by E. & G. G. Hook, Boston, in 1870.

Because of the multiple uses of his churches, Kennel is permanently confronted with many diverse musical styles. Often his concert programs include stylistic contrasts and multiple interpretations, and are sometimes even combined with scenic elements. Although versed in the field of authenticity in musical performance, Kennel is not a purist, but a musician who is inspired by modern aesthetics, and theological issues and perceptions.

Last year, Kennel was appointed chief supervisor for sacred music for the diocese of Berlin and Brandenburg.

Kennel produced the CD “Passion” in 1998, which includes several cross-over pieces arranged for trumpet, saxophone and organ. That CD was followed in 2001 by the first recording of the Hook organ with music of Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Reger and Liszt.

To learn more about the concert, call 942-6941.