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Born: June 26, 1928 - Sedlitz, Senftenberg, Brandenburg, Germany,
Died: May 19, 2017 - Nienburg, Lower Saxony, Germany |
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The German choral conductor, music teacher and composer, Lothar Gast, studied after elementary school at the conservatories in Sondershausen, Cottbus and Bremen (violin, oboe, piano, organ, church music). He was drafted at the end of 1944/beginning of 1945 and at the age of 16 was taken prisoner by the English. After escaping from captivity, he had to repeatedly interrupt his music studies to earn money for his mother and 2 sisters by working in the coal mine. He fled East Germany for political reasons and came to the Lüneburg Heide, where he played in a jazz band, among other things, with which he got a permanent engagement in Copenhagen's Tivoli. He took private organ and composition lessons in Lüneburg from Jan Bender, a student of Hugo Distler, and passed the church music examination as an external student in Hannover.
After his exams, Lothar Gast started his first job as a church musician in Bremen-Aumund in 1955 after a short period of employment in Handorf near Winsen/Luhe. In 1963, he founded the Camerata Instrumentale Bremen. He moved to Vegesack and served as Kantor in the Kirchengemeinde Alt-Aumund there from 1964 to 1981. His passion was working with young people. At times, up to 400 children and young people between the ages of 4 and 20 were active in the Evangelischen Singschule Vegesack (which he founded in 1971). The Norddeutsche Jugendchor (which he founded in 1972), with which he traveled to many European countries, stood for the very high quality of the musical work at the head of the various choral groups.
Lothar Gast worked from 1981 to 1993 as headmaster and after his retirement until 2013 as a piano teacher at Musikschule Nienburg. He significantly shaped the music school. Under his leadership, a significant increase in the weekly teaching hours was achieved. The move from the Melissenheim to the converted current music school building at the Fresenhof, which he significantly accompanied, contributed to this. This enabled the music school to meet the demands of high-quality, modern music instruction.
Lothar Gast's musical commitment beyond his music school work is also to be commended: he made concert tours and radio recordings in Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, France and Switzerland; From 1980 to 1984, he was Youth Advisor and Deputy Chairman Musikaussch. Sängerb. Nordwestdeutschland; he worked as District Choir Director of the Sängerkreises Stolzenau from 1986 to 1994, since 1993 in Ruhestand and from 1988 as director of the Feuerwehrmusikzuges Landesbergen. Because of these connections, teachers at the music school in Nienburg took over regular further training for singers in the district choir association and the organization and implementation of wind music courses for the musicians in the Feuerwehrmusikzügen.
One of Lothar Gast's his greatest musical successes was second place in the Deutschen Orchesterwettbewerb with the Posaunenchor Langendamm in 1988 and his award as “Artist of the Year” at the Accademia Italia in 1984. He was a member of the Komponistenverband Deutschland and took on commissioned compositions from the publishers Eres and Hänssler. For the city of Nienburg he composed 59 pieces as a "wake-up call" for the carillon of the town hall. On May 19, 2017 his full life came to an end. With his inspiring power and creativity, Lothar Gast has had a decisive impact on musical life, not only in Bremen-Nord.
Compositions (selection):
Requiem auf den Tod eines Christen (premiere 1981)
Triptychon 1969
Cantata Macht hoch die Tür (1967)
Die Flötenprobe (1973)
Das Intervall (1969)
Mixed Pickles (1985)
Schlag auf Schlag (1981) |
