The press reviews leave no doubt, when Christoph Maria Moosmann plays, critics resort to superlatives, and his recordings have them rejoicing. Christoph Maria Moosmann has maintained a privileged rank among the internationally renowned organ virtuosi for several years now, because he plays the organ far beyond striking perfection and breath-robbing virtuosity. Thanks to his breathtaking and millimeter-exact interpretations, Moosmann has made himself known to an international audience.

„Organ music is not my religion“, Moosmann once confessed and thereby formulated his dislike of a satiated music business somewhere between academicism and sacred kitsch. In contrast, Moosmann’s interpretations are resonating confessions. No matter which piece he is playing - César Franck, Arvo Pärt or Ernst Helmuth Flammer - he approaches his music with uncompromising and meticulous care. He may spend years preparing a new piece until he finally forms the music with artistic self-assurance.
 
While still studying in Freiburg in Breisgau (Germany), Christoph Maria Moosmann served as an organist and was appointed artistic director of the university’s Music Days. Moosmann also initiated a concert series in his hometown Riedlingen. He has been supported by the German National Merit Foundation and graduated with a Masters degree in Sacred Music as well as the organ solo Diploma. Moosmann continued his studies in Basel and Zurich. Following his first position in Wil (Switzerland), Christoph Maria Moosmann lived and worked in Zurich and is now Organiste Titulaire de la Collégiale St-Germain de Moutier.
Concert tours have led Christoph Maria Moosmann around the world. He has been invited to international festivals on a regular basis. He has made recordings for all major European broadcasting companies. Among others, he has played with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Latvian State Philharmonic, the NDR Symphony Orchestra as well as the Hilliard Ensemble. He has lectured at the University of Mainz and the Music Academy in Nuremberg.

His broadly varied interests, in particular philosophy and natural sciences, plus his increasing interest in world religions and spirituality, account for Moosmann’s early contact with contemporary composers such as Ernst Flammer and Horatiu Radulescu. They influenced Moosmann significantly and soon made him a sought-after expert in contemporary music and a specialist in difficult premieres. Lending both shape and validity to still unknown music, Moosmann’s recording of Ernst Helmuth Flammer’s organ cycle „superverso“ set new standards.
In addition, Moosmann’s complete recordings of Arvo Pärt’s and César Franck’s organ compositions as well as Charles-Marie Widor’s four Organ Symphonies op. 42 harvested the highest critical praise.
Christoph Maria Moosmann’s theoretical and practical preoccupation with contemporary music also led to his composition Antiphona, a spiritual liturgy for voice and organ based on songs by Hildegard von Bingen. For a new recording, released as Antiphona Nova, Moosmann teamed up with internationally acclaimed mezzo soprano Liliana Nikiteanu.
 
Moosmann’s resolute commitment to vivid and truly new sacred music finally manifested itself in his festival religio musica nova (www.religio-musica-nova.ch), which successfully premiered in 2005 near Zurich. „The festival’s goal is to re-converge three spheres which actually belong together: spirituality, arts and institutionalized religion“, Moosmann says. As a Biennale for spiritual music, religio musica nova is intended to provide the necessary impulse for a self-confident renewal of sacred music on the highest level possible.
The high point of the most recent festival was the world premiere of the first trans-religious Latin mass entirely set to music in symphonic dimensions, the "Sollemnitas in Conceptione Immaculata Beatae Mariae Virginis" by the celebrated English composer Sir John Tavener, composed at the instigation of Christoph Maria Moosmann. The “Sollemnitas” is dedicated to Pope Benedict XVI and Sheih Abu Bakr and was premiered on December 8 2007 in the Zürich Cathedral by the Rundfunkchor Berlin, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Amar Quartet and Christoph Maria Moosmann.

 

And again Christoph Maria Moosmann is broadening the sphere of his artistic activity: starting form his recordings of Symphonic Organ Music in the nineties Moosmann is now obtaining the final touch as a conducter with Maestro Liutauras Balciunas, the former musical director of Vilnius Opera House and conducter of the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra Moscow.

On october 6, the Lugansk Philharmonic Orchestra will perform Mozart's latest symphony "Jupiter" and the symphonic poems "Don Juan" by Richard Strauss and "Romeo and Juliett" by P.I.Tchaikovsy, directed by Christoph Maria Moosman.

 

 

 

(correct as of August 2009)