Introduction

Biography

Grahl joined the child­ren’s class at the Fe­lix Men­dels­sohn-Bar­thol­dy Uni­ver­si­ty of Mu­sic in Leip­zig in 1962. From 1964–69, he stu­died church mu­sic.

In 1968, he took part in the 3rd In­ter­na­tion­al Jo­hann Se­bas­ti­an Bach Com­pe­ti­tion, and won a prize in the sub­ject Free Im­pro­vi­sa­tion.

In 1969, he fol­lowed the steps of his teacher Ge­org Trex­ler as can­tor, or­gan­ist and choir di­rect­or in the Ca­tho­lic pro­vost par­ish of St. Tri­ni­ta­tis in Leip­zig. In 1980, he became the church’s young­est ev­er mu­sic di­rect­or.

Works

In his ser­vice as a church mu­si­cian in a con­gre­ga­tion, Grahl has com­posed ov­er 1,000 works so far: songs for child­ren, young peo­ple and con­gre­ga­tions; can­ta­tas for dif­fer­ent choirs and en­sem­bles, cho­ral works, so­lo con­certs, and sac­red in­stru­ment­al mu­sic. Al­most all these works arose out of dai­ly in­ter­act­ion with the li­tur­gy.