The tradition of church music at the Maria Magdalenen Church in Buch am Forst continues with an unusual concert. Jazz pianist Stefan Graser makes a guest appearance tomorrow, Sunday, 11. November, at 5 p.m. in the house of God, which can celebrate its 650th anniversary in 2020. Graser will present his program of church hymns arranged in jazz on the piano.
Study of jazz piano
Stefan Graser, born in 1981 in Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz, received his first piano lessons at the age of seven. At 14, he also began training as a C church musician at the Eichstatt Episcopal Ordinariate for Church Music. From 2001 to 2006, he studied jazz piano at the Carl Maria von Weber College of Music in Dresden with Michael Fuchs, Matthias Batzel and Gunther "Baby" Summer.
He played and worked under famous musicians and composers. Stefan Graser performed several times in Russia, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Turkey. Since 2006 Graser lives in Berlin, composes for film and media, is organist at the Pfingst-Kirchengemeinde Berlin-Friedrichshain and is especially engaged in the development of new music teaching methods for children.
His piano school "Die Tastentiere" belongs to it among other things, which according to his homepage will be published soon. In Berlin, in addition to his work as a pianist, he plays the organ as a freelance church musician in various congregations.
Current album "Tantum Ergo
A few years ago, he first began to sing the melodies from the Catholic hymnbook "Gotteslob" to arrange for the piano and illuminate from a different side in the context of jazz improvisation. At the concert in Buch am Forst he presented his current CD "Tantum Ergo" in concert and many as yet unpublished arrangements, the main focus of which are Protestant melodies. The hymn "Tantum ergo includes the last two stanzas of the hymn "Pange lingua" written by St. Thomas Aquinas. The hymn sings of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, where Catholic Christians venerate the body of Christ, and is usually sung before the sacramental blessing at Eucharistic Adoration. Often followed by a versicle and as an oration the daily prayer of Corpus Christi, which is sung by the priest or deacon who gives the blessing.
A good memory of Buch church music is the organ concert with basilica organist Markus Ritzel and singer Katharina Flierl at the ceremony celebrating the 800th anniversary of the founding of the church. Anniversary of the municipality of Buch am Forst 2015. The concerts of the Lorenz Bach Choir from Lichtenfels and the Ahorn Trombone Choir are unforgettable.
Admission is free, donations at the exit are requested.