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The German conductor, church musician and music pedagogue, Christfried Brödel, first studied mathematics in Leipzig (1966-1971). During this study period two choirmaster were musically influential and encouraged him: the Thomaskantor and directorr of the Leipziger Universitätschor Hans-Joachim Rotzsch and Erich Schmidt, the then director of Meißner Kantorei 1961.
As an academic career as a mathematician he was denied for political reasons, Christfried Brödel worked from 1971 to 1984 in two Leipzig research institutes as a problem analyst and research associate. In parallel:he was organist from 1962. He was an assistant director of the Leipziger Universitätschor (Director: Hans-Joachim Rotzsch) and the Meißner Kantorei 1961 (Director: Dr. Erich Schmidt) and organ with Almuth Reuther (Thomaskirche Leipzig). Since 1981 he has benn director of Meißner Kantorei 1961. In 1984, he passed the exams of church musician in Dresden and Halle and joined the service of the Evangelischen Landeskirche Sachsen (Evangelical Church of Saxony). From 1984 to 1988, he worked first as Landessingwart and later as a teacher at the Kirchenmusikschule Dresden. In 1988, he was appointeed Director of the Kirchenmusikschule Dresden. From 1992 until his retirement in 2013, he was the Rector and Professor of choral conducting at the Hochschule für Kirchenmusik in Dresden.
Christfried Brödel's musical work thrives on the tension between old and contemporary sacred music: the Meißner Kantorei 1961, and since 1981 and the Ensemble Vocal Modern which he founded have performed many world premieres, including many compositions from the cantata cycle Das geistliche Jahr by the Dresden composer Jörg Herchet. Concert topurs have taken him to many European countries, South Africa, Mexico and the USA. For the dissemination of works of J.S. Bach, he is particularly active through the direction of the Bach Academies in Eastern Europe (Romania and Ukraine).
From 1991 to 2008, Christfried Brödel was Vice-Presdent of Konferenz der Leiter der kirchlichen und der staatlichen Ausbildungsstätten für Kirchenmusik und der Landeskirchenmusikdirektoren in der Evangelischen Kirche in Deutschland (EKD) (Conference of Directors of church and state schools of church music and the regional church music directors in the Evangelical Church in Germany). In 2013, he was elected as full member of the Sächsischen Akademie der Künste (Saxon Academy of Arts). In 2015, he was appointed as Chairman of the Neuen Bachgesellschaft (NBG), of which he is a board member since 1990.
Honors ans Awards: 1994: Honorary Doctorate by the Music Academy "Gh. Dima "Cluj-Napoca, Romania; 2001: Bundesverdienstkreuz (Order of Merit); 2006: Johann-Walter-Plakette des Sächsischen Musikrats (Johann-Walter-badge of the Saxon Music Council); |
