The position of University Music Director at the University of Greifswald is based on a long musical tradition.The academic cultivation of music has been documented since the University was founded in 1456.When the first academic music teacher, Balzer Christoffer, was appointed in 1793, this signalled the beginning of a continuous academic and practical involvement with music.The position of university music director is currently held by Harald Braun.
University Music Director (UMD) Harald Braun
Harald Braun was born in Braunschweig in 1972 and studied school music, violoncello and conducting at the University of Music and Theatre in Hanover until 2000.
His teachers included Prof. Heinz Hennig, Prof. Wolfram Wehnert and Prof. Martin Brauß. While still a student, he trained choral conductors for the choral associations and the Lower Saxony State Music Council, and conducted his first oratorio and music theatre performances in addition to choral and orchestral concerts. Participation in masterclasses with Prof. Frieder Bernius, Prof. Eric Ericson and Prof. Kurt Hofbauer completed his training.
From 1999 to 2004, Harald Braun taught choral and orchestral conducting at the Institute for Music and Musicology at the University of Hildesheim and was head of the choral department at the Kreismusikschule Cloppenburg. Concert tours at home and abroad have taken him to Germany, Poland, France, Kenya, Greece, Russia and South Africa. Since 2004, Harald Braun has been the university music director of the choir, symphony orchestra and Collegium Musicum at the University of Greifswald and trains music students in conducting and music theory at the Department for Sacred Music and Musicology. In addition, he is involved in the German Choral Association and its Mecklenburg-Vorpommern regional association, of which he was elected president in 2007.