By Denver Catholic Register

The board of the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra recently announced the appointment of Horst Buchholz, former music director at Denver’s Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception and professor at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary, as conductor laureate following his distinguished, decade-long tenure as the orchestra’s music director. In the 61-year history of the orchestra, he is the first conductor awarded this prestigious title.

Highlights of his tenure with the DPO include a dramatic improvement in the artistic quality of the orchestra, original and rarely heard programming, and increased visibility of the orchestra throughout the community.
Buchholz said he is honored by the appointment.

“I think the greatest challenge over the years has been working with the extremely heterogeneous mixture of players in the orchestra—from very talented amateurs to highly trained and experienced professionals,” he said. “To craft those musicians into a homogeneous ensemble that responds as one musical instrument has been a wonderful achievement that I view with great pride, as should all who are a part of it.”

For its 2009-2010 season, Buchholz serves as artistic advisor of the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted its first concert of the season, which was held at St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral on Oct. 23. A ceremony celebrating his conductor laureate appointment took place at the concert.

Buchholz is currently canon for music at Cleveland’s historic Trinity Cathedral and conductor of the Trinity Chamber Orchestra. He is also a member of the organ faculty at Cleveland State University.

From 2003 to 2008, Buchholz joined the Lamont School of Music of the University of Denver as organ faculty and curator of the William K. Coors organ. He served as associate conductor with Opera Colorado and as music director of Denver’s Young Artists Orchestra.

Buchholz received his early musical training in a boy’s choir in his native Germany and started conducting at age 16. When he was 21, he had his Berlin Philharmonic debut as organ soloist, and shortly thereafter he founded the Berlin Chamber Orchestra. Buchholz holds two terminal degrees, one in church music from the University of Arts in Berlin, and one in orchestral conducting from Indiana University in Bloomington.