Franz Surges (11 October 1958 – 20 September 2015) was a German

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

and musician.

Education

Surges was born in

Remagen Remagen () is a town in Germany in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, in the district of Ahrweiler (district), Ahrweiler. It is about a one-hour drive from Cologne, just south of Bonn, the former West Germany, West German seat of government. It i ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. He studied at the Episcopal School for Church Music,

Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...

, and at the

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

Conservatoire, Department

. He took the following exams: * Cantor-exam (called A-exam) * Diploma in Music Pedagogy (Organ) * Diploma of the Artistic final-exam, main subject organ * Diploma in Music Pedagogy (note-setting) He took further lessons in composition with

Tilo Medek Tilo Medek, originally Müller-Medek (22 January 1940 – 3 February 2006), was a German classical composer, musicologist and music publisher. He grew up in East Germany, but was inspired by the Darmstädter Ferienkurse. He composed radio plays and ...

. He completed international masterclasses resp. music academies, e.g. by Jean Guillou, Piet Kee, Guy Bovet, Harald Vogel, Monserrat Torrent.

Position and awards

From 1981 Franz Surges was a church musician at St. Antony, Eschweiler- Roehe (since 2006 also St. Michael,

Eschweiler Eschweiler (, Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ) is a municipality in the district of Aachen (district), Aachen in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany on the river Inde, near the German-Dutch-Belgian border, and about east of Aachen and w ...

), composer, choir director and music teacher, among others, for church-musical (so-called C-exams). Franz Surges obtained a number of prizes and awards, including: * First prize composition contest "in Furtherance of Contemporaneous Music Maintenance in Religious Services", Schwäbisch Gmuend (1991) within the framework of the festival "European Church Music" * First Prize composition contest "Mayrhofer-Prize",

Passau Passau (; ) is a city in Lower Bavaria, Germany. It is also known as the ("City of Three Rivers"), as the river Danube is joined by the Inn (river), Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north. Passau's population is about 50,000, of whom ...

, Germany, 2002 * First Prize composition contest in the town of Siegburg, 2006

Oeuvre

Surges composed works in various genres: choral (male chorus, female chorus, mixed chorus), orchestral, chamber (strings, woodwinds, brass, piano, organ), instrumental and vocal.

Literature

Anthology of information about Franz Surges

References

External links

– biography and list of works 1958 births 2015 deaths People from Ahrweiler (district) German composers {{Germany-musician-stub