Concert exam by Niklas Jahn

Contributors

Niklas Jahn → organ literature, organ improvisation
Jieru Ma → percussion

Program

Zsigmond Szathmáry → Concerto for organ and percussion "Dies Irae"
Harald Genzmer → from Concerto for organ and percussion
Improvisation → "Symphonic poem on Psalm 55" for organ and percussion
Organ improvisation for the silent film "The Enchanted House" (1921) by Buster Keaton

Niklas Jahn, organ student at the College of Music Freiburg and new organist at the Frauenkirche Dresden since December 2024, will give his final concerts in Freiburg: on April 10, 2025, he will play works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Maurice Duruflé and Max Reger in St. Martin's. On 9 April and 12 June 2025, he will take his concert exam in organ improvisation in the university's concert hall: He improvises in a variety of styles and forms on spontaneously given themes, texts or images.

Niklas Jahn, born in Fulda in 1996, has been organist at the Frauenkirche Dresden since December 2024(we reported) and is currently completing his studies at the College of Music in Freiburg. He is the first student to complete two degrees in the highest concert examination course in Freiburg: in the subjects "Artistic Organ Playing" with Prof. Matthias Maierhofer and "Organ Improvisation" with Prof. David Franke.

April 9, June 12, 2025, College of Music: Organ Improvisation

On April 9 and June 12, 2025, Niklas Jahn will give his final concerts in "Organ Improvisation" in the concert hall of the College of Music Freiburg. He will improvise, sometimes accompanied by percussion, in different styles on spontaneously given themes. This can be sheet music, but also a text or images to which he is asked to improvise. "This concert will be really exciting for the audience and also for me, because this is music that is created in the moment and I don't know what I'm going to play beforehand," says Niklas Jahn. He will have to implement the examination board's instructions in various styles: For example, in the classical tonal language or that of the baroque period, as a romantic fantasy and fugue or as modern to atonal music. "In Freiburg, students are required to be able to improvise in the tonal language of classical models. But you also learn to create something completely new of your own, freely, individually and very creatively." Niklas Jahn has already won several international awards for his improvisational artistry.