Jörg Herchet

Jörg Herchet (*1943) studied 1962 – 1969 composition, cello, choral conducting and musicology in Dresden and Berlin. 1970 – 1974 he was the master student of Paul Dessau and undertook organ instruction with the organist of the Kreuzkirche, Herbert Collum. 1990 – 1993 he taught as an instructor and then until 2009 as professor for composition and analyse at the Academy for Music, Dresden. In 1993 he received the International Bodensee-Culture Prize for Music, has been a member of the Saxony Academy for the Arts since 1995. Along with chamber and organ music, concerts and orchestral composition he created three works of musical theatre (Nachtwache, Abraum and Zueinander). Since 1977 he has been working together with the songwriter Jörg Milbradt on the ecumenical cycle of cantatas DAS GEISTLICHE JAHR.He has maintained a friendship with the organist Reimund Böhmig since 1978. One year later Böhmig played the premier of composition 1 for organ II in Sinzig – as the first work by Herchet to be heard in West Germany. In 1984, and also in Sinzig, Reimund Böhmig premiered the composition 1 for organ V which was dedicated to him.