Vita
„Ohne Musik wäre das Leben ein Irrtum.“ ( “Without music, life would be a mistake.”) Friedrich Nietzsche
The organist Ute Gremmel-Geuchen has been giving concerts for many years with an extensive, varied repertoire ranging from the earliest organ music to works from the Baroque and Romantic periods and contemporary works. Her concerts have taken her to important historical organs throughout Europe. She has performed in the famous Sint Bavo Church in Haarlem, the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam, the Domkirke in Roskilde, the German Church in Stockholm, San Alessandro in Milan, Brussels Cathedral, the Cathedral and Saint Thomas in Strasbourg, Berlin Cathedral, the Kaiserdom in Königslutter, St Catherine’s Church in Hamburg and Bamberg Cathedral.
She can be heard as a soloist on numerous radio and CD recordings. In 2012, she was involved in a complete recording of Bach’s organ works in Alsace for the Aeolus label with five of a total of 19 CDs. This recording was honoured with the prestigious ECHO KLASSIK record award. Since then, Ute Gremmel-Geuchen has frequently been invited to perform Bach recitals exclusively with music by Johann Sebastian Bach.
In addition to solo organ programmes, she has a broad chamber music repertoire. Her musical partners are the baroque violinist Annegret Siedel, the cellist Emanuel Wehse, the trumpeter Ferenc Mausz, the singers Dorothee Wohlgemuth and Inga Schäfer, the countertenor Franz Vitzthum and others.
Since 2000, Ute Gremmel-Geuchen has been the titular organist of the organ built by Ludwig König in 1752 at the Paterskirche in Kempen on the Lower Rhine and artistic director of the international concert series Kempener Orgelkonzerte. (https://www.kempener-orgelkonzerte.de/) It is largely thanks to her that the valuable instrument in the Paterskirche was extensively restored and reconstructed with private donations and has since become one of the most important historical organs in the Rhineland.
And if there’s still time besides music…
Ute Gremmel-Geuchen is a volunteer in her home community of Kempen:
In 2017, she founded the town’s school maintenance committee, which she chaired until 2019. She has been a member of Kempen City Council since 2020. Her political focus is on climate protection, schools and, of course, culture.
Since 2014, she has been the spokesperson for the ‘Project Stumbling Stones’ initiative (https://stolpersteine-kempen.de/) and organises the laying of memorial stones in Kempen, particularly in cooperation with Kempen secondary schools. She is also a member of the ‘Demokratie gerade jetzt’ (https://demokratie-gerade-jetzt.de/) movement, which opposes all forms of extremism.
In 2019, she received the Thomas Prize from the Lion’s Club Kempen for her voluntary work and the Thomaeer Prize from the Thomaeum secondary school in Kempen in 2020.
In July 2022, she was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, which was presented to her in February 2023 by the District Administrator of the district of Viersen.
In March 2024, she and 15 other female politicians were honoured with the Helene Weber Prize by the Federal Minister for Family Affairs in Berlin. The Helene Weber Prize honours women for their political commitment in memory of Helene Weber and her fellow campaigners, the so-called ‘Mütter des Grundgesetzes’. As a prizewinner, Ute Gremmel-Geuchen is a member of the Helene Weber Network.
She finds stability and support…
in her large family. Ute Gremmel-Geuchen has been married to the Kempen paediatrician Dr. Karl Geuchen since 1987. Together they have seven children who are now grown up. The cohesion in the family forms the foundation for her many tasks and activities.