Gabriel Dessauer

Gabriel Dessauer
Dessauer in 2022
Born (1955-12-04) 4 December 1955 (age 68)
Education
Occupations
  • Kantor
  • Concert organist
  • Academic teacher
Organizations
Websitewww.bonimusik.de/kantor-organist.html

Gabriel Dessauer (born 4 December 1955) is a German cantor, concert organist, and academic teacher. After studies with Diethard Hellmann and Franz Lehrndorfer, he was responsible for the church music at St. Bonifatius, Wiesbaden from 1981 to 2021, conducting the Chor von St. Bonifatius until 2018. Besides normal church services, he conducted them in regular masses with soloists and orchestra for Christmas and Easter and a yearly concert. In 1995 he prepared the choir for a memorial concert commemorating the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, performing Britten's War Requiem with choirs from countries involved in the war, and concerts in Wiesbaden and Macon, Georgia. Programs of choral concerts included Hermann Suter's Le Laudi in 1998, the German premiere of Rutter's Mass of the Children in 2004, and the world premiere of Colin Mawby's Bonifatiusmess in 2012 which he had commissioned for the choir's 150th anniversary. The concert of 2008, Vivaldi's Gloria and Haydn's Nelson Mass, was also performed at San Paolo dentro le Mura in Rome.

In 1985 Dessauer founded a project choir, later named Reger-Chor, dedicated to rarely performed sacred music for choir and organ. It developed into a German-Belgian collaboration, with regular concerts at the St. Salvator's Cathedral in Bruges.

Dessauer is an internationally-known organ recitalist. He has lectured at international conferences, especially about the music of Max Reger, who was a member of the St. Bonifatius parish. He was an organ teacher on the faculty of the Hochschule für Musik Mainz from 1995 to 2013.