At the age of just 17, Christoph Mairiedl is the new organist and church musician in the parish church of St. Johann Baptist in Bergkirchen.
Bergkirchen – Christoph Mairiedl has been working as a new organist and church musician for some time in the parish church of Sankt Johann Baptist in Bergkirchen. He is at home in Vierkirchen. Pastor Albert Hack is pleased, as he says, about “the reinforcement”. The young, versatile musician plays all holy masses there on Sundays and public holidays, on request also at funerals and weddings, if time allows. For him “music is the language of angels”. For him, faith and music are “deeply connected”.
The length of his employment in Bergkirchen has not yet been determined. His musical goals include successfully completing a master’s degree in church music at the Munich University of Music. And he has his own channel on YouTube called “Christoph Mairiedl”, on which he has put examples of his own compositions in videos, for viewing and listening.
The local newspaper asked the 17-year-old thoroughbred musician, who had been teaching the piano by his father since he was four and has already performed at concerts, whether as a pianist, conductor or composer, about his new job and his love of music:
How did you get to Bergkirchen and how do you like it?
In short, the contact to Bergkirchen came about through the local deacon Hans Steiner, who is my company sponsor and a very good friend of the family. He asked me if I would be interested in accepting a position as a church musician in Bergkirchen. The Bergkirchner Church is a special place for me, because it was there as a little boy that I played an organ for the first time in my life. I can still clearly remember when, with a pounding heart, I slid onto the organ bench, pulled out all the stops and tried to play the toccata in D minor by Johann Sebastian Bach, which I had previously learned on the piano. I like it very much in St. John Baptist. The people there are very nice, friendly and helpful. The church looks very nice inside in its baroque style. Not to be forgotten is of course the good acoustics that this church creates with its round nave.
How did your love for music grow?
My love for classical music has been growing since I can remember when my dad was playing the piano and then I tried to play my own melodies and harmonies and write them down. We used to go to Munich regularly on Sundays and public holidays for the Holy Mass. Orchestra works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and other great composers were often played and sung there. That aroused so much fascination and enthusiasm in me that I wanted to write such touching music myself. At first it was a few pencil scribbles on a piece of music paper, but gradually I learned to combine the different sounds of the instruments in harmonies and to notate them. I taught myself to play the organ through great piano experience. This gave me the opportunity to develop my own style in improvisation and composition. For the most part, I developed a mixture between the great polyphony of Bach and the playfulness of Mozart.
Why do you love music?
For example, when I sit at the instrument and play, compose or conduct, I suddenly find myself in a completely different world of feelings and thoughts. In these moments, you often don’t really notice the outside anymore. Yes, it often seems to me that I am communicating with someone, but through a different way.
Ingrid Koch
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