Albrecht Koch

As organist and conductor, Albrecht Koch is one of the most innovative characters of Saxon church music. As a musician as well as the artistic director of the Silbermann Festival he has an excellent track record of exciting interpretations, impressive programmes and the greatest artistic creativity.  He was born in 1976 in Dresden and comes from the tradition of the Dresden Kreuzchor. Amongst his formative teachers are Arvid Gast, Martin Schmeding and Morten Schuldt-Jensen. He also received important impulses through courses under individuals such as Roy Goodman, Ewald Kooiman, Lars-Ulrik Mortensen and Hans Fagius.  From 2008 Albrecht Koch has been working as the cathedral’s cantor and organist in Freiberg/Saxony, where he looks after one of the most important baroque organs: The Great organ from 1711/14 from the workshop of Gottfried Silbermann. At Freiberg cathedral, he conducts the cathedral choir and the carol choir. With these he does not only develop performances of the great oratorios and passions by Johann Sebastian Bach, but he is also widely renowned for his continued work in accessing and re-performing forgotten pieces of Saxon musical history. Together with the ensembles Freiberger Dom-Music and chordae freybergenses he also researches the original renaissance sound, which has been preserved in the shape burial objects from the House of Wettin at Freiberg Cathedral: the angels’ instruments from 1594.  Alongside his Freiberg activities, he is also an internationally highly regarded artist. He gave guest performances at the Bach Festival in Leipzig, the Organ Festival in Holland, the Festival Toulouse les Orgues, and the Musical Festival in the Erz Mountains. He performed at the Munich, Bremen, Speyer, Magdeburg, and Berlin cathedrals; at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig and the Frauenkirche in Dresden; all across Europe and even in Australia. Numerous broadcast, CD and film production document his work. He is a frequent judge on important European organ competitions and teaches master classes in Germany and abroad.  Since 2010 Albrecht Koch is both president of the Gottfried Silbermann Society and acts as the artistic director of the renowned Silbermann Festival and the International Gottfried Silbermann Organ Competition. He represents the town of Freiberg as Artistic Director at European Cities of Historical Organs (ECHO) conventions.