Wolfgang Kleber

Born in Idstein in the Taunus Valley of southern Germany, Wolfgang Kleber studied Church Music and Art Education at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt am Main, organ with Edgar Krapp, Fritz Werner Büchner and Karl Köhler, Choral and Orchestral Conducting with Joachim Erhard and Helmuth Rilling, and Composing with Hans Ulrich Engelmann and Heinz Werner Zimmermann. He passed his “A” Church Music Examination in 1980 and gained an organ performance degree (Künstlerische Reifeprüfung) in 1983 as well as earning an Organ Performance degree (Konzertexamen) in 1984.
In 1982 he received the Johann Pachelbel Prize at the International Organ Interpretation Competition in Nuremberg (Second Prize).
From 1981 to 1985 he was the full-time director of church music at Wiesbaden’s Kreuzkirche where he initiated the Wiesbadener Tage für Neue Musik (Wiesbaden New Music Festival).
He has been Music Director at the Darmstadt Pauluskirche since 1985. He sometimes cooperates with Darmstadt’s International Music Institute and the Hessian State Theater.
He was Professor for Organ at the Heidelberg Hochschule für Kirchenmusik from 1994 to 1998.
From 1997 to 2002 he was the Chairman of the State Association of Lutheran Church Musicians in Hesse and Nassau, Germany. In addition to his main position in Darmstadt, he also appears as an organ soloist on concert tours in Germany and abroad.
He co-founded the Trio InsolitoTogether with soprano Barbara Meszaros and bassoonist Gabor Meszaros.
Wolfgang Kleber has also composed works for a wide range of instrumental and vocal combinations, from chamber music to song settings all the way to oratorios and operas.