Lukas Hasler: A Portrait
organist
“This master of the keys, who currently studies in Strasbourg, is certainly innovative: during his concerts, he makes sure that his audiences get to follow his movements and keystrokes visually by using live video showing him at the organ. Or he plays a potpourri of Johann Strauß pieces next to his own improvisations, as he does towards the end of his CD, thus offering a charmingly Austrian organ sound.”
Kronen-Zeitung
Austrian organist Lukas Hasler, 28 years young, stays true to his reputation: a veritable shooting star of his discipline, he plays on organs in cathedrals all around the world. At the same time, he has reached an unprecedented number of young people by consistently making his concerts visible on his YouTube channel, and he was crowned ‘Newcomer of the Year’ in his home country of Austria. His calendar is always fully booked, keeping the socially engaged musician, who spends his time between Los Angeles and Graz, busy with performances across the globe. Now, his debut CD Ein Portrait (A Portrait) offers a glimpse into his own musical DNA. “My great admiration for Johann Sebastian Bach, father of the instrumental genres prelude and fugue, is reflected in the program of this recording,” Lukas Hasler explains. Bach’s imprint also lives on in the works of countless other composers, especially in the organ repertoire. The album opens with a taste of the French school, Marcel Dupré’s ‘Prélude et Fugue en Si majeur.’ This is followed by Bach’s artistically edited choral ‘Trio super Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr, BWV 664.’ Franz Liszt’s monumental ‘Prelude and Fugue about B-A-C-H’ is a glowing example for how following generations actively valued Bach’s oeuvre. Bach’s ‘Fantasie in G minor, BWV 542,’ his ‘Fugue in G minor, BWV 524,’ and the ‘Prelude in E flat major BWV 552’ follow. Finally, Hasler completes the program with a lively adaption for organ of Johann Strauß’s ‘From Austria with Love.’ An important element which sets the organ genre apart from other genres within the realm of ‘serious’ or classical music is the space it allows for improvisation. Of course, this becomes clear in the program of Lukas Hasler’s debut CD at hand. Hasler’s evocations place personal, improvised accents that reach from the baroque over the romantic period and into the present.
Hasler, at the young age of 28, has been working consistently to successfully establish an international reputation that reaches well beyond professional circles. He has shown great talent in ‘de-dusting’ the church organ’s image: Thanks to his activity in social networks, his Instagram followership has grown to 80.000 – providing joyful evidence for young people’s continued fascination with classical music, if only the ways of communicating keep up with modern media of the day. But Lukas Hasler’s dedication to bringing music where it is needed is even more far-reaching. In a brave act of support, Lukas Hasler was one of the first international musicians to give two beneficiary concerts in Lviv concert hall for victims of the war, shortly after the beginning of the current war in Ukraine, thus offering a glimmer of hope among the pain and suffering. This was repeated in 2023 in a church near Kiev. Lukas Hasler keeps coming up with good ideas for unconventional projects to make sure his popularity can be used for good. For example, he auctioned off a pair of organ shoes to raise money for a UNICEF project that helps provide drinking water for a village in need.
Lukas Hasler was born in Rottenmann (Steiermark) in 1996. When he was 16, he joined the organ preparation class at the Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Graz, where he completed his instrumental studies in 2022 with a Master of Arts. Master classes with Jean Guillou, Ton Koopman, Ludger Lohmann, and Skip Sempé followed. Furthermore, he studied culture and media management at the University of Hamburg. For a while, he was living in New York and Strasbourg, where he studied organ and improvision at the Académie Supérieure de Musique de Strasbourg.
He currently lives in Los Angeles and Graz and regularly gives concerts in Europe, Asia, Australia, and the United States. In addition, he leads the PaltenKlang-Chor in his home region. Lukas Hasler has performed at the opening of the Salzburger Festspiele, Tiroler Festspiele Erl, Orgelsommer at the St. Florian Brucknerorgel, Internationales Orgelfestival Düsseldorf, and the Russian Music Festival of the Philharmonics in Volgograd. He also gives international master classes, among others at the conservatory in Madrid. Lukas Hasler currently works as a Ph.D. student at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where Cherry Rhodes is one of his mentors. Living in California, he appreciates the proximity to the movie industry, and has participated in the recording of film scores. At the moment, he is working on recording Saint-Saëns’s famous organ symphony together with the ORF Radiosinfonieorchester. That CD will be coming out under the label Deutsche Grammophon in the following year.
“By performing a concert in Lviv during the war, Lukas Hasler honored the musical heritage of Lviv, which includes the Mozart family, and he pointed towards the lively cultural future of this city, which is fed from multiple sources. Known for his glistening dexterity, which allows him to master the most complex scores and densely structured compositions with ease, Hasler has provided lessons well beyond the world of music during his June concerts in a city that is redefining itself during times of war.” – Wilson-Center, Lviv, UA