Max Beckschäfer

Max Beckschäfer (born 23 February 1952 in Münster) is a German organist, composer and academic who taught at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München and the Hochschule für Musik Augsburg-Nürnberg. He received commissions from the Munich Biennale, the concert series Klangspuren, the Dresdner Kreuzchor, the Palucca-Ballettschule Dresden and Die Singphoniker. He wrote an organ version of Reger’s Hebbel-Requiem. Life and career Beckschäfer took classes at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich in organ, piano, violin and choral conducting. He studied church music at the Musikhochschule München and continued studying composition with Wilhelm Killmayer. He was a Kantor in Munich from 1976 to 1987. On the initiative of Gabriel Dessauer, who wanted to make a performance of Reger’s Requiem possible, Beckschäfer wrote an organ version of the short work, which the composer had scored for a huge orchestra and a choir to match. The organ version was premiered in 1985 in the Marktkirche Wiesbaden by the Reger-Chor, formed for the occasion, and Beckschäfer as the organist, conducted by Dessauer. In 1987 Beckschäfer received the Rompreis for composition and a fellowship of the Villa Massi