Faculty
Lecturer at Tyrolean State Conservatory

Mag.

Peter Waldner

Lektor for organ & harpsichordDepartment Music Education Innsbruck
Peter Waldner is considered a profound expert of the rich repertoire for the keyboard instruments harpsichord, organ, fortepiano and the corresponding historical performance practice. His interpretative interest is mainly in the music of the Renaissance, the Baroque, the early Classical period and in particular the compositional work of Johann Sebastian Bach. He is the artistic director of the Innsbruck concert series for early music "Abendmusic - Lebensmusik" and founder of the Tyrolean ensemble for early music "vita & anima", with which he has realized a wide variety of concert projects for many years.
The harpsichordist and organist Peter Waldner studied musicology and German at the Leopold - Franzens University in Innsbruck as well as harpsichord, organ and piano at the Tyrolean State Conservatory with Reinhard Jaud and Bojidar Noev. 1992-1995 he specialized with the help of a scholarship from the State of Tyrol and of the Federal Ministry for Education and Art in Holland, France and Switzerland on the interpretation of early music on historical instruments: he studied harpsichord with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam and William Christie in Paris, received lessons on historical organs from Hans van Nieuwkoop and Kees van Houten from Amsterdam, Haarlem, Alkmaar and Helmond and continued his education in playing the clavichord and organ with Jean-Claude Zehnder at the "Schola Cantorum" in Basel. He also attended numerous master classes throughout Europe with Gustav Leonhardt, Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, Jean- Claude Zehnder, Jesper Christensen, Kenneth Gilbert, Harald Vogel, and Pierre Han Tai and Daniel Roth.

Since 1988, Peter Waldner has been organist at the Mariahilf parish in Innsbruck. An active concert schedule has taken him to the most important countries in Europe, and he has been a guest at many festivals for early music. Numerous CD and various radio recordings (ORF, RAI, Dutch broadcaster KRO) document his versatility. Since 1994, Peter Waldner has been recording CDs with early music played on historical keyboard instruments at regular intervals, first self-published, later for ORF Tirol and Vorarlberg, the label "Extraplatte" Vienna and ORF - Edition Alte Musik was published and was very positively reviewed by the international specialist press. His two CDs "Orgellandschaft Ritten I & II" were awarded the Pasticcio Prize of the Austrian Radio Ö1.

For many years he has been working primarily on Johann Sebastian Bach's organ and harpsichord works, which he has brought to life in a large-scale cycle. He has played Bach's most important composition cycles for piano and organ several times in concert: the "Art of Fugue ", both books of the "Well-Tempered Clavier", the "Goldberg Variations", the "French Suites", the "Inventions & Symphonies", the "Musical Sacrifice", the "OrgelBüchlein", the Leipzig and the Schuebler Chorales.  ;Time and again there was cooperation with recognized ensembles for early music: La Capella Reial de Catalunya & Le Concert des Nations (Jordi Savall), Atalanta Fugiens Milano, La Venexiana, Prihsna Ensemble, Les Sacqueboutiers de Toulouse, Piccolo Concerto Vienna and Oni Wytars.

In 1989 Peter Waldner received a scholarship from the piano company Bösendorfer Vienna, in 1991 the music promotion prize of the Tyrolean savings banks and in 1994 the Jacob Stainer Prize of the State of Tyrol for his services to the interpretation of early music on historical keyboard instruments.