Gereon Krahforst

Gereon Krahforst (born 1973) is a German composer, concert organist, pianist, harpsichordist, and church musician.

He studied composition during his school years from 1990 to 1993 (junior studies with Hans Werner Henze and Günter Fork), then after his Abitur (from 1993) composition, piano (instrumental pedagogy) and church music with Clemens Ganz, Henning Frederichs, Günter Ludwig, Johannes Schild and Phillip Langshaw at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln.

He complemented his training with master classes with Marie-Claire Alain, Tomasz Adam Nowak, Jon Laukvik, Wolfgang Seifen, Peter Planyavsky, Guy Bovet and Franz Lehrndorfer.

In 1993-1997, while studying church music, he often substituted for his organ professor Clemens Ganz at Cologne Cathedral; in 1998, he was briefly organist at St. Aposteln in Frankfurt.

His piano repertoire includes The Well-Tempered Clavier (Volumes I and II), the Italian concerto, the Goldberg Variations, the Inventions and Sinfonias, the 6 Partitas, the French Overture, the Toccatas as well as some individual works by Bach, the complete piano sonatas by Mozart as well as works by Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninofff, Scriabin, Ravel and Debussy.

Already in 2007, he received the highest commendations and recognition from the American Guild of Organists for his Reger interpretations and his improvisation lessons.