Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs made his debut as a conductor in 1984, with the orchestra of the Youth Music School of his native town, Hameln, where he also received his early musical education (Flute, Piano, Music Theory). During his childhood and as a teenager he also sang in choirs, in particular at the St. Nicolai Church. At the age of nineteen he founded the Youth String Orchestra of Hameln, which gave concerts under his baton until 1990.
From 1986 to 1989 he studied conducting privately with the noted Italian composer and conductor Prof. Nicola Samale (Rom); in 1988 he assisted him at the rehearsals of Bruckner's Ninth with the Polish Radio Orchestra Katowice – his first encounter with a professional orchestra. From 1989 until 1994 he studied concert conducting, voice, and flute at the Hochschule für Künste (Highschool of Arts) in Bremen. During this time he also conducted various choral and orchestral concerts and visited numerous rehearsals and projects of renowned conductors and orchestras as a guest student. His concert examination in 1994 was recorded and broadcasted by Radio Bremen, including the first Bremen performance of Vaughan Williams' Fifth Symphony. By invitation of Prof. Dr. Andrew D. McCredie, he then studied Musicology at the University of Adelaide, on a full scholarship of the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), receiving his postgraduate diploma in 1996. In 2009 he submitted his thesis in historical musicology; in 2010 he received his doctorate of the Faculty of the Arts at the University of Hamburg.
Since 1987 Cohrs has presented papers to international musicological conferences and has contributed to the daily press, scholarly and popular music magazines, radio stations, websites, concert organizers and record companies, giving interviews and writing articles, reviews, introductions to music, programme and booklet notes. In 1995 Cohrs became Co-Editor of the Bruckner Complete Edition in Vienna; there he published, amongst other things, a new critical edition of Bruckner's Ninth Symphony, its Critical Report and a separate study on its Scherzo. |
He is particularly known for his work at the completed performance version of the unfinished Finale of Bruckner's Ninth in the editorial team of Nicola Samale. (Score available from www.musikmph.de) His editions for numerous publishers include arrangements of the Sonata da Chiesa by Frank Martin (Universal Edition) and the Gymnopédies by Erik Satie, for String Orchestra (Doblinger). Cohrs also edited new completed performance editions of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony D 759, of Mozart's c minor Mass and Requiem.
Cohrs made his international conducting debut in November 2000 in the Moscow Bolshoi Hall with the Russian National Orchestra. Later he conducted various orchestras, such as the Philharmonia Hungarica, Royal Flanders Philharmonic, Sarajevo Symphony Orchestra and his own Simple String Orchestra. He is also musical advisor of the New Queen´s Hall Orchestra (London). He has a particular interest in unknown repertoire of the 19th and 20th Century. Of major concern to him is to build bridges between theory and practice of music: For instance, on 8 October 2002 he gave a concert introduction and performance of his own critical edition of Bruckner's completed Ninth for the Bruckner-Bund of Upper Austria in Gmunden, conducting the Janacek Philharmonic (Czech State Orchestra of Ostrava). With such activities he gained international reputation as a freelance musicologist, editor, publicist and conductor.
At the moment, Cohrs is preparing a book about performance practice of Bruckner's symphonies, new volumes for the Bruckner Complete Editions (including a revised edition of the Sixth and a study with transcriptions of sketches and drafts for the Ninth), as well as various concert projects, including the first performances of his recent Mozart completions.
Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs lives in Bremen, Northern Germany. In his private time he enjoys books, natural sciences, movies, theatre, active sports, coffeeshops and cooking.
Lecture:
Schubert's Unfinished:
Facts Behind the Legend
Friday, 24th September, 17:00 h
Ferenc Gál Theological College
Klebelsberg Hall |
