|
The German choral conductor, Thomas Strauß, received his first piano lessons at the age of 4 and his love of music never left him. When he graduated with distinction from the Musikhochschule in Freiburg in 1992, he had already been working as an organist for 18 years, led several choirs and gained solo experience on numerous concert tours. He studied church music at the Staatlichen Musikhochschule Freiburg.
Since 1993, Thomas Strauß has been a full-time Kantor in Oppenau and in 1997 he initiated the "Festwoche klassischer Musik" as Artistic Director with Wolfgang Schäuble as patron, which has taken place every year since then and has played an important role in the cultural life of the region and beyond. Thomas Strauß founded the Bach-Chor Ortenau in 1995 and regularly gives concerts in Europe and around the world as a conductor, soloist and chamber musician.
Concert tours have taken Thomas Strauß with the Freiburger Kammerchor as a pianist and organist to Brazil in 2000, to New Zealand in 2002 and to the South of France in 2008 and with the Wolfgang Bauer Consort as a harpsichordist to South Africa in 2010. He also regularly performs as a soloist and chamber musician and, in addition to his engagements in Germany, has accepted invitations to organ and harpsichord concerts in France, Norway, Poland, Italy, Sardinia, Switzerland, Russia, Brazil, annually to the USA, and to Hawaii.
Thomas Strauß has a long-standing friendship with the Stuttgart trumpeter Wolfgang Bauer. He played the harpsichord on the award-winning CD recording of trumpet concertos by Johann Wilhelm Hertel, for which Wolfgang Bauer received the 2009 ECHO Klassik Award in the category “Instrumentalist of the Year”.
Since 2006, Thomas Strauß has been the constant accompanist of the composer and recorder player Hans-Jürgen Hufeisen. In this context, he often appears on stage with the Benedictine Father Anselm Grün or Margot Käßmann. Since 2015, he has also performed as a duo with the Moldovan pan flute player Dorian Gheorghilas. In 2002, he was awarded the “Conservatory Medal of Excellence” by the Shenandoah University of Winchester.
The world premiere of the oratorio Johannes by Thomas Strauß, which he conceived together with the librettist Tilmann Krieg, took place in 2022. His passion for composing finds its first climax in this major work.
Thomas Strauß has participated in numerous radio and television recordings as well as live broadcasts with SWR, hr and NDR, and there are also CD productions with the Wolfgang Bauer Consort, the Datura-Posaunenquartett, hr-brass, the Württembergischen Kammerorchester Heilbronn and the recorder player Hans-Jürgen Hufeisen. |
