BIOGRAPHY

Christof Harr studied music education in Stuttgart (principal instrument: cello) while also receiving private tuition in orchestra conducting from Anton Zapf and Christoph Adt. While still a student, he organized and conducted numerous concerts with fellow musicians and founded the “ Ostfildern Chamber Orchestra”, later to be renamed “Filderharmonie”. For several years he focussed on historically informed performance practice and was playing as a principal cellist in many baroque concerts on both modern and period instruments. After graduating in music, he studied history and was music director of the “Ostfildern Chamber Choir” and the “Chamber Symphony Calw”.

Since 1992, Christof Harr has been teaching music and history at the Christophorus-Gymnasium, a secondary school in Altensteig. He founded the “Altensteig Youth Orchestra” – a cooperation between the secondary and the music school – which he directed until 1998. Subsequently, he was appointed music director of the “Altensteig Chamber Orchestra”. Over the last years there have been many communal concerts featuring both orchestras.

Since 1996 he has been artistic director of the symphony orchestra of one of the most influential German charities, the “Christliches-Jugenddorfwerk-Deutschlands (CJD)”. This orchestra is comprised of students, graduates, employees and friends of the charity. Christof Harr regularly conducts concerts of the “CJD Orchestra” at the chamber music hall at Philharmonie Berlin, as well as at many other venues, such as Kassel, Braunschweig, Celle, Gera, Schloss Oppurg in Thuringia, Sangerhausen, Altensteig, Rostock, Stuttgart, Erfurt, Chemnitz, Dortmund and Mainz.

From 2004 till 2007 he was Artistic Director of Altensteig Music Academy and was also appointed Artistic Director for the 2006/2007 season of the “Altensteiger Meisterkonzerte”, having held the introductory lectures for these concerts for many years.

Christof Harr has been a student of Achim Holub.

Since 2007 he regularly attends concerts in the European music centres of London, Berlin, Vienna, Munich and Amsterdam in order to become more familiar with the work of renowned conductors.

Since 2006 he has witnessed among others: John Eliot Gardiner, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Roger Norrington, Claudio Abbado, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Colin Davis, Simon Rattle, David Zinman, Joos van Immerseel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Daniel Harding, Kent Nagano, Seiji Ozawa, Kurt Masur, Herbert Blomstedt, Andris Nelsons, Semyon Bychkow, Gustavo Dudamel, Thomas Hengelbrock, Franz Welser-Möst, Christian Thielemann and Fabio Liusi with orchestras like the “Berliner Philharmoniker”, “Wiener Philharmoniker”, Wiener Symphoniker, Concentus musicus Wien, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonia Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Freiburger Barockorchester, “Münchner Philharmoniker”, “Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks”, Staatskapelle Dresden, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Bamberger Symphoniker, WDR Symphonieorchester Köln, NDR Symphonieorchester, Orchestre National de France, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the RSO Stuttgart.

Since 2009 Christof Harr continues his position with the Christliches-Jugenddorfwerk-Orchestra with a new artistic concept, aiming at the explicit support of young instrumentalists.

From 2009 to 2015 he was one of the teachers for the conducting masterclasses at Graz (Austria) and London and conducted there the “Kammerphilharmonie Graz”, the “Orpheus Sinfonia London” and the “London Classical Soloists”.

In January 2011 he was invited by „El Sistema“ to visit Venezuela for a week to get to know “El Sistema” and his founder Maestro Abreu.

In Ocober 2013 the Social Project “CJD Panorama” started to help young children to get an individual personality by playing their instruments in a classical orchestra, starting with 4 year old children in a day-care centre in Berlin.