Einsiedeln Organ Summer with Fr. Theo Flury

Transitions determine life in time and space, they shape history on a large and small scale.

For Einsiedeln Abbey, the year 1526 marked an important transition. The Benedictine community had shrunk to just a few confreres, mainly because it only accepted candidates from the nobility into its ranks. The Schwyz government watched this development with concern and finally decided to intervene. On August 14, 1526, it brought Ludwig Blarer, then prior of the monastery of St. Gallen, to Einsiedeln, where he was immediately solemnly installed as abbot and subsequently gave the abbey a new lease of life, also by dropping the aforementioned rule of only accepting nobles.

The concert on August 25, 2026 will mark another milestone on the way through this commemorative year. The three compositions to be premiered by Fr. Theo are all about transitus, or transition. This transition has two particular meanings for Einsiedeln Abbey on this evening. For with this concert, Fr. Theo Flury, after 32 years in office as Abbey Organist and Artistic Director of the Einsiedeln Organ Summer, is placing this task in younger hands and thanking the loyal concert audience for their decades of loyalty.

Father Theo Flury OSB

After a philosophical and theological education in Einsiedeln, Salzburg and Rome, he studied music at the Pontificio Istituto di Musica Sacra in Rome. He received his first improvisation lessons from Jan Raas, Amsterdam. Father Theo is a monastery organist and taught at the Lucerne School of Music from 1997-2010. He is a professor of organ and organ improvisation at the Pontificio Istituto di Musica Sacra in Rome.

He is also in charge of the Einsiedeln organ concert cycle. He himself performs concerts in Switzerland and abroad and has recorded several albums. A particular focus of his work lies in the field of composition. His catalog of works includes organ compositions, vocal music, concertos, symphonic works, masses and oratorios. He is an honorary member of the Vienna Franz Liszt Society, a member of the Bavarian Benedictine Academy (sectio artium) and a prizewinner of the Cultural Commission of the Canton of Schwyz (recognition award 2013).

P. Theo Flury OSB, organ

Stefano Bertoni, organ

Christoph Schönfelder, organ

Mirjam Wagner-Meister, organ

Swiss Vocal Consort

Marco Amherd, Conductor

Program: TRANSITUS - Transition

Father Theo Flury OSB (*1955)

Transitus

for two organs and mixed choir

Hymn "Ut Queant Laxis"

for mixed choir a cappella

Praises

Concert piece in two movements for three organs, choir and winds

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