Gerhard Schmidt-Gaden, founder of the Tölzer Knabenchor , has died

Gerhard Schmidt-Gaden, founder and, for six decades (until 2016), director of the world-famous Tölzer Knabenchor, passed away peacefully at his home in Benediktbeuern on, 19 April, at the age of 88, following a prolonged illness. Schmidt-Gaden, who had founded the choir from a scout group, had already taken an interest in historical performance practice in the 1950s and 1960s, recording his first albums with period instruments as early as the early 1960s with the Collegium Aureum. From 1973 onwards, he astonished the music world with his fantastic boy soloists in the first complete recording of Bach’s cantatas in historical performance practice with the Concentus Musicus under Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Numerous further recordings in historical performance practice followed, featuring works by composers such as Schütz and Lasso, some of them with soloists. And so Schmidt-Gaden, who has been honoured with countless record awards and other accolades, is credited, among other things, with being the first choir director in modern times to demonstrate what is technically and musically possible with boys’ voices. And in this respect, neither he nor his choir have been equalled to date.