The German organist’s masterful performance at the ninth concert of the Third International “Organs of St Anastasia” Festival

Willibald Guggenmos performed to a full house at St Anastasia’s Cathedral in Zadar on 5 September 2026. His varied programme on the cathedral’s Eisenbarth organ allowed him to show the full range of his artistry, from quiet, expressive passages to a powerful sound that filled the cathedral. Guggenmos played with exceptional assurance and mastery. His virtuosity and musical sensitivity captivated the audience, who listened attentively and rewarded him with warm applause.

Improvisation on the Hymn to St Anastasia

A special moment of the evening was Guggenmos’s improvisation on the theme of the Hymn to St Anastasia. The familiar melody dedicated to the patron saint of Zadar’s cathedral became the starting point for his own musical creation. He performed the improvisation as the penultimate piece, before the concluding Finale from Louis Vierne’s Sixth Symphony.

A Conversation Before the Concert

As this was Willibald Guggenmos’s first visit to Zadar, an interview was filmed at Hotel Bastion before the concert, giving us and our audience a chance to get to know him better. Speaking with Damir Granić, he discussed his early musical experiences, performances around the world and encounters with different organs, as well as his experience directing the International Organ Festival in Augsburg. They also talked about the programme he had prepared for Zadar and his improvisation on the theme of the Hymn to St Anastasia. You can watch the interview in the video accompanying this article.

Concert programme

Charles Tournemire   (1870-1939)     

Choral-Improvisation sur le Victimae Paschali

Tomaso Albinoni   (1671-1751)

Adagio g-moll

Petr Eben       (1929-2007)                           

Moto ostinato from Sunday-Music

Kurt Wiklander     (*1950)

Scherzo ostinato op.3/3

Jacques Vogt     (1810-1869)                          Fantaisie-Orage

Willibald Guggenmos    (*1957)              

Improvisation on St. Anastasia’s Hymn

Louis Vierne         (1870-1937)                          

Final from 6. Symphony op.59

About Willibald Guggenmos

http://www.willibald-guggenmos.de/

Willibald Guggenmos took up his first post as an organist at the age of ten. He began his musical studies at the Augsburg Conservatory and continued at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, earning master’s degrees in piano, conducting and organ. From 1984 to 2001, he served as organist at St Martin’s Church in Wangen, in the Allgäu region. There he directed an extensive music programme and, in 1985, performed the complete organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach in a series of fourteen recitals.

From 2001 to 2004, he was organist, assistant conductor and music coordinator at Munich’s Liebfrauendom Cathedral. For almost two decades, from 2004 to 2023, he was principal organist of St Gallen Cathedral in Switzerland. Today, he directs the International Organ Festival in Augsburg.

An artist on the world’s stages

Guggenmos’s concert career has taken him throughout Europe, North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, Asia and the Middle East. Among the venues where he has performed are Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, St Paul’s Cathedral in London, the Munich Philharmonie and Sydney Town Hall.

His wide-ranging repertoire includes works by Bach, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Franck, Liszt and Brahms, as well as compositions by Reger, Dupré, Messiaen and contemporary composers. The Zadar audience also had the opportunity to experience his gift for improvisation: the art of shaping music in the very moment of performance.