Jürgen Geise  († 09.01.2011)

On Sunday, the 9th January 2011, the founder of the Mühldorfer Summer Academy Prof. Jürgen Geise has died after a long illness.

Jürgen Geise studied at the Vienna Academy with R. Odnoposoff and with Franz Samohyl, whose assistant he became later. He continued his studies with Max Rostal and Sandor Vegh. He was a founding member of the “Vienna Soloists”, the “Austrian string quartet” and the “String Quintet Mozarteum.” From 1973 to 2007 Jürgen Geise was a professor of violin, viola and chamber music at the University of Music and Dramatic Arts “Mozarteum” in Salzburg. About many years he led the chamber orchestra “Collegium Iuvenale Salisburgense” (CIS), which exercises regularly performs with its own chamber music series in Salzburg. Jürgen Geise promoted talented young artists; a large number of his former students occupied senior positions in international elite orchestras or is teaching at conservatories. Jürgen Geise worked as a jury member at numerous international competitions.

In 2003 he founded together with his former student, the Mühldorfer music headmaster Thomas Breitsameter the Mühldorfer Summer Academy, which has evolved as an internationally renowned master course for strings and chamber music, where every year 40 to 50 participants from all over Europe and Asia participate.

The Mühldorfer Summer Academy loses  with Prof. Jürgen Geise an outstanding artistic personality, whose tireless work has significantly contributed to the success of the overall project “master classes for music in Mühldorf”.