Friends of Chamber Music presents a prominent German virtuoso organist Christian Schmitt in a concert on Tuesday, March 21, at 7 pm at A&M United Methodist Church on University Drive in College Station. Praised for his virtuosic, charismatic, and highly nuanced performances, Schmitt will play some of the most famous compositions by Bach, Pärt, Franck, Widor, Liszt and more. The concert will be free and open to the public. Schmitt’s concert will be also available online at the time of the event and accessible with registration at fcmtx.org.
Prior to Schmitt’s concert, at 6:15-6:45 pm, College Station High School Wind Ensemble under the direction of Michael Dixon will play a short pre-concert performance for the upcoming audience in the sanctuary of A&M United Methodist Church.
Immediately following Schmitt’s concert, audience members will have an opportunity to ask the artist their questions in a short Artist Forum in the church’s sanctuary.
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Since his debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle and at Salzburg Festival, Christian Schmitt has become one of the world’s most sought-after organists well-known for his virtuosic and charismatic performances. Last season, he was "Artist in Focus" of the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, Switzerland, where he inaugurated the new organ at the Tonhalle with Finnish conductor Paavo Järvi.
Invited by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Schmitt debuted at Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2020. Since then, the brightest highlights of his career included Schmitt’s performances with the Staatskapelle Berlin under the baton of Daniel Barenboim and his new recording of Hindemith’s Chamber Music No. 7 with conductor Christoph Eschenbach. This season, he debuts at Carnegie Hall in New York City with the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra and, in a solo recital, at Meyerson Symphony Center presented by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
Schmitt has performed as a recitalist at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Konzerthaus Berlin, Wiener Musikverein, Gewandhaus Leipzig, and Maison Symphonique Montréal. His collaborations with orchestras include working with conductors Philippe Herreweghe, Jakub Hruša, Marek Janowski, Daniel Barenboim, Paavo Järvi, and Manfred Honeck. A frequent recital collaborator, Schmitt has performed with world-renowned soloists Magdalena Kožená, Matthias Höfs, Thomas Hampson, and Matthias Goerne.
Schmitt’s recordings for a classical music label, Deutsche Grammophon, include two CDs for the “Bach 333 | Die neue Gesamtausgabe” project and an album of works for voice and organ with soprano Magdalena Kožená. In 2013, he was presented with an ECHO Klassik award for his recording of Widor's organ symphonies.
Schmitt is on the faculty at Codarts University in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and the principal organist of the Bamberger Symphony Orchestra. Schmitt studied organ in Paris, Boston, and Saarbrüken and served as a jury member at numerous organ competitions in Europe.
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For more information about this event, please contact Elena Reece at Friends of Chamber Music, info@fcmtx.org.
Courtesy of Friends of Chamber Music
