History of VPO

1971: learned to play a Hohner Melodica.

1973: began to learn playing Cello, taught by Bernd Schuch.

1975: began to take piano lessons, taught by Inge Schuch.

1977: composition of a small music piece for piano, in style of Haydn.

1978: String orchestra of Johannes-Butzbach Gymnasium (JBG) was founded. Director and conductor: Bernd Schuch and Bertram Müller. I played Cello (until 1982).

Summer 1979: Got a Yamaha upright piano.

January 1980: participated in Jugend Musiziert with piano in Würzburg.

January 1980: began to record on cassette tape live improvisations on piano. A total of about thirty 90-min tapes were created until 1990.

1980: won Jugend-Kultur-Preis der Stadt Miltenberg with string quartet performance (played piano).
Announcer: "And here the JBG string quartet plays some piece by Haydn". I: "To be exact: Hoboken # ..." Announcer: "Ok, not a Haydn, a Hoboken then."

1982: bought first electronic instrument: Casio portable synthesizer.

1982-1984: Member of the classic music ensemble of Kaserne Donauwörth, Director: Günther Ruckriegel.

1983: Atari 600XL computer: created 4-voice sequences of German Christmas Carols.

1984: Considered the idea of becoming a sound engineer, but decided to study physics instead. Pause in the music activities.

1988: Bought a small Yamaha PSR keyboard.

1993: Bought Yamaha SQ-16 sequencer keyboard. Began to record classical orchestra music in MIDI.

1994: Created MIDI sequences:

• Borodin: 1st movement from "Polovtsian Dances"
• Smetana: "Vltava" (Moldau).
• Dvorak: 2nd movement of Symphony #9 ("New World"), Largo.

1995: Upgraded Windows 3.1 PC with General MIDI soundcard and PowerTracks sequencer.

1995: Created MIDI sequences:

• Janacek: 1st movement of String Quartet #2 ("Intimate Letters")
• Janacek: 1st movement of "Sinfonietta".
• Mahler: 3rd movement of Symphony #1.

1995: Began experiments with using MIDI for my own music compositions.

1996: Bought Yamaha MU-80 synthesizer module.

1996: Created MIDI sequences:

• Dvorak: 1st movement from "Serenade for Wind Instruments".
• Kodaly: 1st and 2nd movement from "Hary Janos Suite".
• Ravel: "Pavane pour une Infante Defunte".

1997: Founded "Virtual Philharmonic Orchestra" and set up website. Company officially registered as business.

1997: Created MIDI sequence:

• Sibelius: "Valse Triste".

1997: Began to record live improvisations on MIDI keyboard.

1998: Created MIDI sequences:

• Grieg: "Holberg Suite" (complete)
• Ravel: "Le Tombeau de Couperin" (complete).
• Prokoffjev: "Symphony Classique" (complete)

1998: Member artist of MP3.COM. Began creating MP3 recordings.

1999: Release of MP3 recordings:

• Grieg: "In the Hall of the Mountain King" (used in short film The Spooky House
• Strauss J.: "At the Blue Danube".

1999: Composition "Tristan and Siegfried meet Isolde".

2000: Founded "Virtual Opera Company". Collaboration with tenor George Everett Swails and soprano Louisiane Philip.

2000: Release of MP3 recordings:

• Kodaly: "Dances of Galanta".
• Mahler: 3rd movement of Symphony #4.
• Puccini: "Mario, Mario, Mario" (from Toska).
• Puccini: "O soave fanciulla" (from La Boheme).
• Strauss R.: "Arie des Tenor" (from Rosenkavalier)
• Strauss J.: "Emperor's Waltz".

2001: Began to create my own music compositions, based on fragments from my live keyboard improvisations.

2001: Release of MP3 recordings:

• Dimoff: "Largo".
• Behringer: "Romantical Suite".

2001: Bought GigaSampler software and Garritan GigaStrings.

2002: Release of MP3 recordings:

• Arrangement of "Im Maerzen der Bauer"
• Behringer: "Elegia".
• Behringer: "Classical-Romantical Clichees"

2002> Bought first version of Garritan Personal Orchestra. Created revision of some earlier recordings.

2003:Composition "Song of David".

2003-2005: Pause of music activities, due to US DARPA Grand Challenge involvement.

September 2005: Began working as Professor of Creative Technology at Leeds Metropolitan University. Working at cross section of computer music, computer graphics, and artificial intelligence. Developed initial idea for visual conducting a machine orchestra. Investigated the morphology of Western music tonality.

December 2009: Building of the MAESTRO-2 Music PC. Resuming of digital recordings. Revisions of most previous recordings, now arranging them for the Garritan Personal Orchestra 4.