The German composer and organist, Hans Georg Bertram, studied Protestant church music and organ with Hans Arnold Metzger and composition with Johann Nepomuk David at the Staatlichen Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart. In 1963 he graduated as a student of Georg Reichert in musicology at the Universität Würzburg.
After graduaruion, Hans Georg Bertram worked as a cantor and organist in Giessen at the newly built Petruskirche. In 1978 he was appointed as a lecturer in organ literature playing, organ improvisation and music history at the Hochschule für Kirchenmusik in Esslingen, where he worked from 1988 until his retirement in 1997 as a professor (this institute has moved since 1998 and calls itself now Evangelische Hochschule für Kirchenmusik; now has its headquarters in Tübingen). From 1978 to 2007-2008, he served as organist at the Stadtkirche Esslingen.
Hans Georg Bertram’s list of works includes choral and organ works, chamber music, orchestral works, two symphonies (2nd Symphony "Canto per un altro mondo" was premiered by the Sinfonieorchester der Stadt Ludwigsburg premiered on November 23, 1996), concertos and oratorios. His most famous oratorio is Ecce homo. In recent years, Bertram puts a major emphasis on music for organ and narrator. He developed further the genre of sacred cantata for the 21st century in a new way, including: Weihnachtskantate (2001), Vaterunserkantate (2002/2003), Adventskantate (2004). |