Concert III

The organs at St. Nikolai have been fully restored, and a new concert series invites audiences to hear them. As a prelude to the performance of "Elijah" on 4 October, Mahela Reichstatt (Schleswig Cathedral), Magne Draagen (St. Michaelis Hamburg) and Volkmar Zehner will perform the major organ works of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: the three Preludes and Fugues op. 37 and the six Sonatas op. 65 - alongside organ works by J. S. Bach, Norwegian Romantic masters, and Olivier Messiaen.

Magne H. Draagen, born in 1974, has been cantor and organist at the main church of Sankt Michaelis in Hamburg since September 2021. He studied church music at the Oslo Academy of Music and completed his soloist diploma in organ performance in 2002. From 2003 to 2012 he served as cathedral cantor and organist at the cathedrals in Oslo and Stavanger; from 2012 to 2021 he held the same position at Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim - Norway's national shrine and principal church.

There he was entrusted with the 1741 Baroque organ built by Joachim Wagner, a pupil of Silbermann, as well as the 1930 Steinmeyer organ renovated in 2014, one of the largest church organs in northern Europe. He has also taught at NTNU Trondheim, the Oslo Academy of Music, and the University of Stavanger, including as a lecturer in choral conducting, improvisation, and organ playing. Alongside numerous recordings and concerts at home and abroad, he is also active as a composer, writing liturgical works for choir and organ as well as various instrumental combinations.