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A veritable shooting star of his discipline plays a solo recital on Groton Hill's Hauptwerk virtual pipe organ. With more than 80,000 followers on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, 29-year-old Austrian organist Lukas Hasler is one of the world’s most successful organists on social media and is gaining recognition for his colorful and passionate musicality. Named “rising star” by the Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung in 2020, The 2019 Gran Prix winner at the International Organ Competition and a two-time Prima la Musica music competition winner has a thriving international concert career, which has taken him to Europe, Asia, and Australia as well as to some of the largest cathedrals in the United States. In 2022, he was the first classical musician to perform in Ukraine after the start of the war and played two benefit concerts in the Lviv Concert Hall for the victims of the war. In 2014 at age 18 he won the “Bärenreiter-Special” prize for his interpretation of a work by J.S. Bach. A year later, “Jugend komponiert,” a competition for young composers, named Lukas as a finalist for his piano and violin suites. The young organist and composer has attended master classes with Jean Guillou, Ton Koopman, Ludger Lohmann and Skip Sempé. Lukas completed his studies in cultural and media management at the University of Hamburg, Germany, where he finished in 2019 with a Master’s degree. In 2020 he spent a year abroad at the Académie Supérieure de Musique de Strasbourg in France under the tutelage of Johann Vexo. Hasler graduated with distinction in 2022 from his organ studies under Ulrich Walther at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, Austria. In addition to his concert tours, Lukas has appeared as choirmaster and arranger of transcriptions for organ. A Portrait, which was released in the summer of 2019, is the title of his first solo CD with organ music by Bach, Liszt, Dupré and his own improvisations. He currently lives and works as a doctoral student at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles where he studies with Cherry Rhodes. Program: Martinikerk, Doesburg, Netherlands (Walker) Sonata in A Major Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847) Con moto maestoso Andante tranquillo Bachorgel, Arnstadt, Germany (Wender) Prelude and Fugue in F Major Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707) Oakland, CA (Skinner) Symphony 0 Scherzo Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) (arr. Erwin Horn) St. Etienne, Caen, France (Cavaillé-Coll) Fantaisie in Eb Major Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921) Con moto Allegro di molto e con fuoco Fanfare in D Major Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens (1823-1881) Bolero de Concert op. 166 Alfred Lefebure-Wely (1817-1869) Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Portland, OR (Rosales) Prelude and Fugue on BACH Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
