Kurt Suttner
Kurt Suttner ( born August 8, 1936 in Regensburg ) is a German music teacher and choir director. He is the founder of Via Nova Choir, with which he was awarded in numerous international competitions with prizes.
Career
Suttner studied music and singing at the State Academy of Music in Munich. While still a student, he was co-founder of Capella antiqua Konrad Ruhland. Following his education, he worked as a music teacher at various schools in Munich. Later he joined as a music teacher at the German school in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and served as music consultant at the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Madagascar.
After his return to Germany, he took over 1967/68 and 1972 to 1974 at the Munich Academy of Music a teaching position for choral conducting. In 1975 he accepted an appointment to the Chair of Music Education at the University of Augsburg, which he held until 1998. With the Chamber Choir of the University he made numerous concert tours abroad. From 1989 to 1999 Suttner was also director of the Bavarian Academy of Music, where he devoted himself to the training of young singers.
In 1972, he exclaimed in Munich the via-nova - chor Munich to life, with which he in particular the interpretation of contemporary choral music devoted himself. From the amateur choir he formed an ensemble of professional quality. In close contact with composers such as Peter Michael Hamel, Robert Helmschrott, Max Beckschäfer, Moritz Eggert, Kay Westermann, Killmayer, Harald Genzmer or Günter Bialas created numerous first and world premieres. With numerous international competitions, he won with the choir prizes and awards, as the Culture Prize of the Bavarian State Foundation, the grant from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, prizes at international choral competitions in Tours, The Hague, Cork, Budapest, Tolosa, and the special prize for contemporary choral music in the German Choir Competition in Fulda. In early 2008 he gave up the direction of the choir to Florian Helgath.
He is co-editor of the anthologies choir date, current junior choir, choir date base as well as editor of the series carus novus by Carus -Verlag Stuttgart.