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The German choral conductor and composer, Uwe Gronostay, was born in Hildesheim and grew up in Braunschweig (Brunswick). He became interested in keyboard music early on and by age 15 was appointed organist at the St. Jakobi-Kirche in Braunschweig, where he founded his first choir two years later. After studying church music at the Musikschule Bremen, he worked as Kantor, teacher for virtuoso organ playing, worked for a time at Radio Bremen on the Weser and freelanced as a conductor. In Bremen he founded the Norddeutscher Figuralchor, which quickly made national reputation and also attracted the attention of Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Nikolaus Harnoncourt performed his first Messiah in 1973 with the Norddeutscher Figuralchor.
Trained as a church musician, Uwe Gronostay began his artistic career as Kantor in Bremen. From 1972 to 1986 he was Principal Conductor/Director of the RIAS-Kammerchor in Berlin, which he formed into a leading ensemble in the field of early music, with whom he also cultivated contemporary repertoire. At the same time he took over the direction of the Berliner Philharmonischer Chor in 1982, which he maintained for 20 years until the year 2002. But, arguably, his most important post was as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Nederlands Kamerkoor. He led the Amsterdam-based group for 10 years (1987-1997) and made his most acclaimed recordings there, many of them coming in the years after his departure.
With his ensembles Uwe Gronostay recorded more than 50 records and CD's on various labels, including Globe, Chandos, Kontrapunkt, and Delta, many of them were awarded international prizes. His choice of repertoire in both choral and vocal music was broad, taking in sacred works by Zoltán Kodály and Bruckner, lieder by Robert Schumann and Franz Liszt, choruses by Wolf and Paul Hindemith, and various other works by such disparate composers as J.S. Bach, W.A. Mozart, Krenek, Richard Strauss, and Julius Röntgen. He pioneered the rediscovery of lost romantic and modern repertoire (Paul Hindemith's Mass, Ernst Krenek's Lamentatio Jeremiae Prophetae, etc.), toured extensively throughout Europe and the USA. Among his more recent recordings are a pair of Globe CD's issued in 2006: both feature the Nederlands Kamerkoor, with the first containing seven motets and other works by Bruckner and the latter offering songs and choruses by Franz Liszt and the Mass in E flat by Josef Rheinberger.
In addition to his own conducting work, Uwe Gronostay was a sought-after partner of the great conductors of our time, such as Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, Riccardo Chailly, Herbert von Karajan, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Kent Nagano, or Seiji Ozawa, who preferred to entrust him with the preparation of their choral concerts. He has also collaborated with well-known singers, among them Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
While Uwe Gronostay has been busy as a conductor he has also managed a second career as a teacher, holding several posts. His university career as a professor for choral conducting led him via Berlin as the successor of Helmuth Rilling first to Frankfurt am Main, since 1989 back to Berlin again to the Hochschule der Künste Berlin (1989-2003), from where he passed on his immense artistic experience. He founded his own degree program to educate singing students with Rundfunk-/Konzertchor at the Hochschule der Künste. Aming his many pupils and/or choral conductors who attended his master-classes: Hans-Christoph Becker-Foss, Bernd Eberhardt, Andrea Effmert, Ute Engelke, Ron-Dirk Entleutner, Volker Hedtfeld, Guido Mürmann, Maria van Nieukerken, Peter Reulein, Ingo Schulz, Stefan Weiler. In mid 2000's, his health cauesed him to withdraw largely from artistic life. He died in Berlin in 2008, aged 69. |
