Grace Church welcomes Stefan Donner to play the Bach at Noon Organ Meditation on Tuesday 21 April at 12:20 p.m.
Mr. Donner will offer:
Toccata E-Dur, BWV 566
Sonate in G-Dur, BWV 530
1. Vivave
2. Lente
3. Allegro
Fugue in b-moll, BWV 579
Toccata und Fuge in d-moll, BWV 565
Stefan Donner (1987) started his education at the Conservatory for Church Music in Vienna and worked as an organist in his home parish. As a 15-year-old he began his studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with Peter Planyavsky and Martin Haselböck in concert organ and music education. After diplomas with honors in concert organ and music education, he also received a master’s degree at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam where he studied the organ with Jacques van Oortmerssen and the clavichord with Menno van Delft.
In 2012 he finished his organ piano studies with honors and received his diploma thesis “The legato playing in the keyboard music of the 19th Century”, the degree of Master of Arts. He continues his piano training with Antoinette Van Zabner at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. He also performs regularly as part of the Viennese series “Mozart Piano Sonatas.” More inspiration for his work he got from master classes with Martin Haselböck, Ludger Lohmann in Stuttgart and Olivier Latry in Paris.
Stefan Donner was the 1st price of the “Daniel Herz Organ Competition 2008” in Italy and of the “Franz Schmidt Organ Competition 2010” in Kitzbühel (Austria), where the first Prize was awarded for the first time. A great success in his career meant the 3rd Prize at the “Dublin International Organ Competition 2011”. In 2013 he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship for studying in the master´s programme organ at Eastman School of Music in Rochester (USA) with Edoardo Bellotti.
The competition successes made Stefan Donner as an internationally known organist and helped him to engagements throughout Europe. In addition to his busy schedule as a concert organist, he works in Vienna as organist at St. Leopold and at the Schönbrunn Palace Chapel. Stefan Donners attracting great interest in the Masters of the North German organ school as Dietrich Buxtehude, Nicolaus Bruhns and Vincent Lübeck.
