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The German organist and church musician, Christian von Blohn, graduated from the Hochschule für Musik Saarbrücken in 1987 with a Master’s in church music (having studied chorus direction and orchestral conducting with Volker Hempfling and Dieter Loskant) and a teaching diploma with organ as his main subject. He also studied piano with Kurt Schmitt, piano chamber music with Walter Blankenheim and Jean Micault, harpsichord with Martin Galling, and modern composition and improvisation with Theo Brandmüller. He subsequently continued his training as a musician by attending André Luy’s master-class at the Lausanne Conservatory in Switzerland, gaining both a Premier Prix de Virtuosité (soloist’s diploma) and the Alumni Association’s prize in 1991. Further studies with Daniel Chorzempa at the Academy of Music in Basel and the Salzburg Mozarteum and with Peter Hurford and Julian Smith under the auspices of Britain’s Royal School of Church Music followed.
Since 1993, Christian von Blohn has been one of the diocese of Speyer’s deanery organists and choirmasters and is currently responsible for the music at the churches of Sankt Hildegard and Sankt Josef in the town of Sankt Ingbert. He also looks after the branch of the Episcopal Institute of Church Music that is based there. He has performed a wide variety of different types and styles of sacred music with Collegium Vocale Blieskastel, which he founded, for over 30 years. He also taught at the Universities of Karlsruhe, Trossingen and Mannheim, and a few years ago joined the staff of the Hochschule für Musik Saarbrücken. A busy concert schedule takes him across Europe, and he has made numerous radio, TV and disc recordings. Naxos has released a number of other albums featuring Christian von Blohn, namely Vols. 3–5 of the complete edition of Widor’s Organ Symphonies. He also features on Splendid Silbermann (Oehms Classics). |
