(Prof. Konrad Ragossnig, Vienna)
D’Addario artist Gerhard Reichenbach is one of the leading classical guitarists of his generation. He played his solo debut recital in 1980 in Düsseldorf (Germany) and his international debut in 1990 at the Volos Guitar Festival (Greece). Since then for over 40 years he is performing concerts as a soloist and together with orchestras being invited to many festivals as well as to concert halls like the Berliner Philharmonie or the International House of Music in Moscow. Gerhard is providing a large solistic repertoire of more than 35 different programmes and a number of guitar concertos. His transcriptions of keyboard music by Scarlatti and especially Bach received among experts and in magazines excellent reviews which put him into the first line of Bach interpreters on the guitar.
During the last decades he also premiered a number of contemporary compositions, mostly written for him such as Rossen Balkanski’s Balkanska Sonata, the 12 Concert Studies op.48 by Buck Wolters or the Cinq impasses by Atanas Ourkouzounov. Besides all other normal activities in a musical career such as teaching, judging in competitions or recording he also presented a growing number of musical editions of guitar works. His recent last edition is the edition of all Bach lute works at the german publishing house Trekel Music.
Another important field in his activities is organizing guitar events like concerts, competitions or festivals. He was artistic director of the Vissani Guitar Festival in Greece and the Bergisches Gitarrenfestival in Remscheid (Germany) and he is presently artistic director of the International Guitar Festival Wuppertal (Germany) and the Meisterkurs Michaelbeuern (Austria).
He was professor at the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Weimar, the State Conservatory in Thessaloniki (Greece) and since 2009 he is holding a position as a Professor at the Cologne Music University. A growing number of his students are successful artists, teachers or professors worldwide.
Gerhard Reichenbach is playing on instruments by Thomas Humphrey (Millenium Model) and Thomas Merz.