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The German choral conductor and organist, Stefan Kordes, studied solo organ and A-church music in Hamburg, Stuttgart and Vienna. His influential teachers included Bernhard Haas, Jon Laukvik, Burkhard Meyer-Janson and Michael Radulescu (organ), Leopold Hager, Dieter Kurz and Volker Wangenheim (conducting), Marco Antonio de Almeida, Peter-Jürgen Hofer and Renate Werner (piano) as well Jon Laukvik and Isolde Zerer (harpsichord). He received a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes and has won prizes at several international organ competitions (including Odense/Denmark and Ljubljana/Slovenia). He expanded his repertoire in numerous master-classes: with Marie-Claire Alain, Jean Boyer, Hans Fagius, André Isoir, Ewald Kooiman, Gaston Litaize, Ludger Lohmann, Andrea Marcon, Daniel Roth, Harald Vogel and Wolfgang Zerer.
After working as a church musician in Heidenheim and Wuppertal, Stefan Kordes has been Kantor and organist at St. Jacobi in Göttingen since 2001. His duties include directing the Kantorei St. Jacobi Göttingen (120 members) and the Kammerchor St. Jacobi Göttingen (40 members). He is also the Artistic Director of the "Internationalen Orgeltage St. Jacobi" and the concert series "30 Minuten Orgelmusik am Freitag Abend", which has taken place more than 1,900 times since 1968. In October 2020 he launched the Bach-Tage St. Jacobi Göttingen, dedicated mostly to perfomonces of J.S. Bach's Cantatas.
A busy concert career as an organist has taken Stefan Kordes to Denmark, France (Paris: St. Sulpice, St. Étienne-du-Mont), the UK, Croatia, Latvia (Riga: Dom), the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Russia (Archangelsk, Jaroslavl, Kirov, St. Petersburg: Philharmonie), Slovenia, South Africa and the Czech Republic as well as at various festivals in Germany (Frauenkirche Dresden, Kreuzkirche Dresden and others). In 2007 he played J.S. Bach's Die Kunst der Fuge (BWV 1080) at the invitation of the Neuen Bach-Gesellschaft as part of the festive events at the end of the Neuen Bach-Ausgabe.
In 2005, Stefan Kordes played all of J.S. Bach's organ works in 25 concerts at St. Jacobi. In addition to cycles with all the organ works by Olivier Alain, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Johannes Brahms, Nicolaus Bruhns, François Couperin, Maurice Duruflé, César Franck, Nicolas de Grigny, Jean-Adam Guilain, Felix Mendelssohn, Georg Muffat and Robert Schumann, in 2008 he gave a complete performance of the organ works of Olivier Messiaen on the occasion of his 100th birthday.
In 2001, in co-operation with the Wolga-Virtuosen, a CD was produced with Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and Songs and Dances of Death arranged for plucked string orchestra and organ. Since 2007 Stefan Kordes has made three CD recordings at St. Jacobi Göttingen. In 2007 he recorded the first CD on the renovated Ott/Schmid organ at St. Jacobi with works by J.S. Bach, Dietrich Buxtehude, Maurice Duruflé, Lindberg, Muffat and Pierné, which was received with great praise by the specialist press. In 2011 the CD "Zauber der Orgelmusik Johann Sebastian Bachs" was released, in 2012 "Zauber der französischen Orgelmusik" and in 2018 a live recording of "Johann Sebastian Bach: Die Orgelmesse". He also made radio and television recordings. In 2018 he played organ concerts in Vienna, St. Petersburg (Philharmonic), Arkhangelsk, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk and Perm, among others.
As a conductor, Stefan Kordes with his ensembles and various symphony orchestras have performed oratorios, symphonies and other works from the Renaissance to contemporary composers. These include J.S. Bach (Passions (BWV 244, BWV 245), Mass in B minor (BWV 232), Magnificat (BWV 243), cantatas), Johann Ludwig Bach (Funeral Music), L.v. Beethoven (Symphony No. 8, Choral Fantasy), Leonard Bernstein (Chichester Psalms), Blacher (The Grand Inquisitor), Lili Boulanger (Psalm 24, 129, 130), Johannes Brahms (Requiem), Benjamin Britten (War Requiem), Bruckner (Te deum), Maurice Duruflé (Requiem), Dvořák (Stabat mater, Requiem, Te deum), Eben (Jacobus (world premiere), Jeremias (opera, scenic performance)), Edward Elgar (The dream of Gerontius), Gabriel Fauré, George Frideric Handel (Carmelite Vespers, Alexander's Feast, Brockes Passion, HWV 48), Haydn, Arthur Honegger (King David), Felix Mendelssohn, Messiaen (Trois petites liturgies), Monteverdi (Vespers of Mary), Francis Poulenc (Gloria), Puccini, Sergei Rachmaninov (Vespers), Rossini, Schmidt (The Book with Seven Seals), Arnold Schoenberg (A Survivor from Warsaw), Scriabin, Igor Stravinsky (Symphony of Psalms), Verdi (Requiem, Quattro pezzi sacri), Verdi et al. (Messa per Rossini) and Zemlinsky (Psalm 23). As an orchestra conductor Stefan Kordes has appeared with works by L.v. Beethoven (Symphonies No. 2 & No. 5), Johannes Brahms (Symphony No. 2, Haydn Variations, Tragic Overture), Bruckner (Romantic Symphony), Maurice Duruflé (Dances), Dvořák (From the New World), Gustav Mahler (Kindertotenlieder), Messiaen (Les offrandes oubliées), Ravel (Daphnis et Chloë), Camille Saint-Saëns (Organ Symphony), Shostakovich (Piano Concerto No. 1), Schubert (Unfinished Symphony) and others.
Stefan Kordes also gives concerts as a pianist, chamber musician and accompanist |
