About the artist
Specialist for organ & harpsichord
Harpsichordist and organist Peter Waldner comes from Mals in Vinschgau and studied Musicology as well as German language and literature at the Leopold-Franzens University in Innsbruck and harpsichord, organ and piano at the Tiroler Landeskonservatorium with Reinhard Jaud and Bojidar Noev.
From 1992 to 1995 he specialized in the interpretation of Early Music on historical instruments with the help of a grant from the Tyrolean Government and the Federal Ministries of Education and Arts in Holland, France and Switzerland; they enabled him to study the harpsichord with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam and with William Christie in Paris; furthermore, he was taught by Hans van Nieuwkoop and Kees van Houten on the historical organs of Amsterdam, Haarlem, Alkmaar and Helmond; finally, Jean-Claude Zehnder of the Schola Cantorum Basel was his clavichord and organ teacher.
He also attended numerous master classes all over Europe with Gustav Leonhardt, Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, Jean-Claude Zehnder, Jesper Christensen, Kenneth Gilbert, Harald Vogel, Pierre Hantaï and Daniel Roth.
Since 1988 he has acted as organist and church musician of the Pfarrkirche Mariahilf in Innsbruck.
Currently he is teaching harpsichord, organ, continuo-playing and Early Music at the Tiroler Landeskonservatorium and at the University Mozarteum in Innsbruck. At the same time, he has given many recitals in Europe and he has been a guest at many festivals of Early Music.
Numerous CDs and various radio recordings (ORF, RAI, the Dutch Radio KRO) document his versatility. Peter Waldner has been recording CDs of Early Music on historical keyboard instruments at regular intervals since 1994; they were released by ORF Tirol and Vorarlberg, on the labels Extraplatte, fra bernardo, musikmuseum and Organroxx, in the ORF-Edition Alte Musik and on his own label Tastenfreuden and were highly praised by the international press. His two CDs Orgellandschaft Ritten I & II were awarded the Pasticcio Prize of the Austrian Radio Oe 1.
Besides, Peter Waldner is the artistic director of the concert series for Early Music Innsbrucker Abendmusik (1988 - 2013: AbendMusic-Lebensmusik) and founder of the Tyrolean ensemble for Early Music vita & anima, with which he has carried out various concert projects in the course of many years. His particular interest is to give concerts on all kinds of historical keyboard instruments, on the organ, the harpsichord, the virginal, the spinet, the clavichord, the lute harpsichord, the tangentenflügel and the fortepiano.
For many years his main focus has been on Johann Sebastian Bach's organ and harpsichord works, which he has brought to life in a large-scale cycle. He has already played Bach's most important composition cycles for harpsichord and organ many times in concert: The Art of the Fugue, both books of The Well-Tempered Clavier, the Goldberg Variations, the French Suites, the Inventions & Sinfonias, the Musical Offering, the Orgelbüchlein, and the Leipziger and the Schübler Chorales.
Often he performed in collaboration with well- known ensembles for Early Music such as La Capella Reial de Catalunya & Le Concert des Nations (Jordi Savall), Atalanta Fugiens Milano, La Venexiana, Prihsna Ensemble, Les Sacqueboutiers de Toulouse, Piccolo Concerto Wien, Stimmwerck, Oni Wytars, Capella della Torre and Singer Pur.
In 1989 he received a grant from the piano company Bösendorfer Vienna, in 1991 the Music Award of the Tiroler Sparkassen and in 1994 Jacob Stainer Award of Tyrol for his contribution to the interpretation of Early Music on historical keyboard instruments.
He is known as an exceptional connoisseur of the rich repertoire for the keyboard instruments harpsichord, organ, fortepiano and the corresponding historical performance practice with an emphasis on the music of the Renaissance, Baroque, early classical music and in particular the compositional work of Johann Sebastian Bach.
