Conductor, Arranger, Composer, A Cappella Fan, Voice Teacher, Vocal Ensemble Teacher

Choir Conductor/Arranger

Being a choir director, vocal arranger, composer, pianist, guitarist and singer based in Hamburg, I'm doing workshops with choirs and vocal ensembles all over Germany and beyond.

I live for music that is authentic and has emotional depth. And for my family. But not necessarily always in that order…
(This will hopefully score some points with my wife and children, should they read it some day).

I'm almost completely self-taught, apart from workshops that I attend(ed) - quite often by members of TRG ;-)

I started with guitar and piano in my teens and very soon found out that I was attracted to composing, and later also theory, arranging and teaching. I played keyboards in bands and started to sing backing vocals - quickly learning that the singers complaining about the loudness of the guitar (of course NOT the keyboards) definitely had a point…
It was either covering the likes of Al Jarreau, Earth Wind & Fire, George Benson etc. - or original material which we ourselves liked to see as being in the same style.

From the age of 22 I was teaching a variety of subjects in rock/pop/jazz schools, including keyboards, ensemble, theory, composition, arranging, rhythm and eartraining.
And all of a sudden I was also a choir director - just because I agreed when some of the vocal students asked me to form a choir with them (little did I know then that that would the best part of my occupation for decades coming…).

Later I was attracted by the Hammond Organ and bought a B3, which I played a lot in bands - first rock, and then - of course - gospel. Playing with "Bridget Fogle's Gospel Experience" was ground-breaking for me. She introduced us to the Chicago Mass Choir, Kirk Franklin, Tramaine Hawkins and such - a totally new kind of gospel music for me at that time.

In 1997 I founded the GrooveChor - and tried to learn to conduct till I quit in 2008. The project in a way was quite successful, being awarded a 1st prize and a "Special Prize for the Best Groove" at the German Choir Competition (writing all the arrangements myself I could of course avoid anything that would have been a problem…).

Talking about arranging: I am sometimes told that I have a very distinct style of writing. This - if true at all - only seems to be because I try to avoid letting the basses sing "doo ts doo doo" or "dmmm dmmm" for any length of time - substituting it for a supposedly grooving but definitely endless repetition of a couple of words taken from the lyrics (like "on the dock, sssitting on the dock") or - even worse - some nonsense scat (like "fonk du, di scattn dao fonk du")…

A couple of years ago I heard about "Complete Vocal Technique" (Cathrine Sadolin/Copenhagen) from Jens Johansen, conductor of Vocal Line (they have a CVT instructor to teach the choir every 4 years or so).
Since 2008 I try to improve my knowledge and my abilities in CVT in every way I can, because I have a strong feeling that this might turn out to be the future of teaching/learning singing in popular styles (and maybe also in classical) - and thus also the foundation for vocal training in vocal groups and pop-choirs.
I have completed the 1-Year Singer Course and since 2010 am in the 3-Year Singer/Singing Teacher Course. I also translated the book "Complete Vocal Technique" to German (titled "Komplette Gesangstechnik").
In addition to that, I collaborate with Singer/Vocal Teacher Lindsay Lewis from Braunschweig in exploring the possibilities of CVT for Pop-Choirs, writing concepts how to apply elements of CVT and doing workshops.

I was introduced to The Singers Unlimited's a cappella recording "Autumn In New York" by great pianist and arrangement teacher Rainer Schnelle in 1988 - from then on I was addicted.

Below are listed some artists I was strongly influenced by…

2000-2009
One Apartment and Six Drummers
Vocal Line
Eric Clapton & Babyface
Bobby McFerrin
New York Voices

1990-1999
Keb' Mo'
The Real Group
Kirk Franklin
Dr. John
Chopin
Take 6
Michael McDonald
Billy Preston

1980-1989
Airplay - David Foster & Jay Graydon
The Singers Unlimited
Richard Page
Earth, Wind & Fire
Paul Simon & Richard Tee
Pat Metheny
George Benson & Robben Ford
Tom Scott
Keith Jarrett
Larry Carlton
Steely Dan & Donald Fagen
Donny Hathaway
Stevie Wonder
Al Jarreau
Toto

1970-1979
Supertramp
AC/DC
Status Quo
Bach - Glenn Gould
Beatles & Paul McCartney
Smokie
ABBA
Les Humphries Singers
The Beach Boys
The 5th Dimension

1965-1969
Beethoven
Prokofiev
Mozart

Perform more myself as a singer and pianist (as opposed to conducting).
Take a hiking trip to Canada, Australia or Switzerland with my family.

Cooking is my passion - if it wasn't for music, I would probably open some sort of gourmet restaurant…