Pfaffenberger, Jürgen 01/11/1951

Jürgen Pfaffenberger was born in Leipzig in January 1951. His interest in music was awakened when he was given a small accordion along with some music books. While still a child, he taught himself the basic skills for playing various types of accordions and bandoneons. In much the same way he acquired a substantial knowledge of reading and writing music. In the late 1960s he took part in an open competition for contemporary dance music held by the city of Leipzig where he was among the award winners.

While training to become a primary school teacher with music as a third subject, Pfaffenberger composed and arranged music that he played together with a group of fellow students at public performances. In his teaching job, he taught all grades right from the beginning. Besides that, he directed various choirs and an instrumental group at his school. His compositional work at that time consisted primarily of songs. The group participated in a number of concerts for schoolchildren where Hans Sandig’s “Besuch im Zoo” (A Visit to the Zoo) was performed.

From 1980, when he graduated from the conservatory as a certified music teacher, until his retirement in 2012 Pfaffenberger concentrated on his teaching job. While there was not much time left for composing he wrote various “Gebrauchsmusik“ pieces and contributed music to a number of children's theater projects.

In recent years, Pfaffenberger has started dedicating more of his time to composing, creating music for amateur theater groups and social dance clubs. As an exercise in orchestral composition, he wrote a symphonic piece in three movements. In 2013, he contributed leitmotif-based musical episodes for an adaptation of Charles Dickens‘ “A Christmas Carol”. In 2014, Pfaffenberger composed a cycle titled “Musikalische Geschichten” (Musical Tales). It comprises ten program music pieces (e.g. “A Picture”, “The Old Castle”, “Stranded”, …) for orchestra that are meant to catch the audience with sophisticated, fanciful music.