This year 2025 brought me a bouquet full of new experiences and adventures. The year was filled with travel experiences and encounters with interesting personalities, a few new compositions, some arrangements for my beloved chamber music ensemble Amicelli, and interesting experiences and progress with social media.
Meeting in Person – Just Another Level!
He writes I music I wish I had written it. Additionally being a great and famous composer he also is a great conductor. And an even better mentor: Eric Whitacre.
I had the wonderful chance to meet him in Barcelona this year, in the unbelievably beautiful Palau de la Musica Barcelona. I took part in the singalong with Eric. Together with my wife and my daughter we enjoyed the singing with Eric. This were wonderful days in Barcelona.
A Beautiful Mess
I learnt so much from him, Eric Whitacre, in his Online Master Class in Composition and Creativity, which he names “The beautiful Mess” (I love this title and his humor!). From 2021 to 2024 I studied all those wonderful online courses about the creative process, and we discussed those topics with the class in the quarterly live sessions. It was a great community and a extraordinary experience.
And finally, I could meet Eric in live. Such a great joy.
One key learning I take away from this master class was the “Emotional Architecture”. This means, before composing any note it is useful to build graphical architectures of the piece. It is not only a creativity boost but also a perfect guideline for the complete composing process. Since it takes a long time to compose a piece, it happens that the original idea gets into the background or even is forgotten while writing. The graphical architecture helps to always keep the kernel of the composition idea alive all the time.
Here, you see my Emotional Architecture of “Blessed” a 12-part motette for double choir, which I am currently composing.
This basic Emotional Architecture shows the musical development of the complete motette with all its 12 parts. I already named the parts and even mapped a general story-telling scheme over it (top text line). This gives me a overall orientation for the character of each part, and I hope that, in this way, the whole motette has a pre-defined atmosphere. Be curious about the final result! I am.
New Compositions
Still unfinished: a motette for double choir
“Blessed“, a work on Psalm 41 resumed. Motette for Double Choir, idea started some years ago. Big challenge to pursue this format which was already more then mastered by the great J S Bach himself. I have too much respect of this planned 12-movement a-cappella work, but I feel an inner destiny that I have to do it! I want to compose the complete psalm in 12 parts. Above you already saw the emotional architecture. I will try out and play around some new formats, atmospheres and techniques.
Psalm 41:
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
Blessed are those who have regard for the weak.
…
Piano Quintet – Ruhiger Satz
On partial piece I finished is one movement “Ruhiger Satz” (temporary name) of my piano quintet.
Originally, I started the idea some years ago, when the war in Ukraine started. It was a shock for me and how cruel people and polititians can be. Is it not the task of politicians to care for their people and their country? Instead they bring sorrow and death to the world. So I tried to express my hope for better humans in this movement. It covers the sorrow and the hope I carry in my heart.
This year, we got to play the final version of this movement for piano quintet. It is a slow movement. Original working title was “Hymn”, a sad hymn with some hope. Later I re-named it to “Hope”, and now I released the final version just under “Ruhiger Satz”. We could play and test it with Amicelli, my chamber music ensemble I play the viola in. Thanks to my friends, it is so valuable to have the possibilty to do such things!
Here is the demo version of the complete movement:
It was a great pleasure to have tested it with Amicelli. And this year I defined the current version as the final release. Although I always tend to continuously improve and change, I just had to say: “That’s it now, Thaddäus!”.
Small Choir Piece “Es flüstert der Wind” (When the wind whistles softly)
Best Success at the End of the Year. I finished a piece fast! Christin Gerhards, a friend from LinkedIn, published a very nice small poem. I read it just before christmas time and was immediately inspired for a simple choir piece. It is about nature staying always at your side. “Es flüstert der Wind” is a short piece for four voices, in a simple way, although it resulted in 5/8 time. It was a try of finishing fast. The advantage of a fast written piece is that the spirit pertains and does not change while the composition period and the original idea stays. I like the result! May be I will release it combined with another nature-near choir piece sketch I did several years ago.
Whitacre Arrangement
Singing this year with Eric Whitacre gave me a lot of musical motivation. One beloved piece we sang in Barcelona with him was the last part of his “The Sacred Veil”. Eric set 5 movements for piano quintet (“Salastina” just released a recording), but unfortunately not the last movement. So I had to set it myself: “Child of Wonder”, a comforting but still sad piece.. I left the piano part like in the original and adapted the choir to the strings. My Amicelli friends loved it.
Bach is Genius
In christmas time 2023 I again heard “Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ”, BWV 639. This is a contemplative and wonderfully set 3-voices tune from Bach’s Orgelbüchlein. In its original Bach only plays the melody, a 16th-moving second voice and a slowly 8th-pulsing bass. But the atmospheric expression is tremendous, unbelievably genius.
I played it with Violin, Horn and Piano in my youth. Hearing it again, I immediately wanted to play this work with my chamber music ensemble Amicelli, with piano, string quartet and optional flute. I just had to do this arrangement! Without any purpose. The challenge was to expand this simple setting to more instruments including a piano. And, of course, I wanted to keep and push Bach’s original intention.
Our former cello player Hans-Otto died at the beginning of the year, and I just had the arrangement ready – for him. How wonderful. Everything happens for a reason!
Listen to the Demo-Version here (click on the video to play):
Meeting Composer Alfred Huber
I met Alfred Huber, an Austrian-German composer living in the Allgäu near Kempten, Germany. He started a very interesting and exciting podcast, and I have had the honour to be his guest twice! The podcast gains a lot from the partnership with Johannes Huber, Alfred’s son, who is a film maker.
Alfred is sypathically refreshing and has so a deep knowledge in a lot of things. Music, medicine, politics, history. It is great to having got knowing him! On his Instagram page he calls himself:
Composer out of rebelliousness,
Doctor out of common sense,
Podcaster out of therapeutic self-interest.
I love this!
“Religion in der Musik”- Being Guest in the Podcast “Schallwelten”
Alfred invited me to his German podcast “Schallwelten” on Spotify as a guest. We talked about “Religion and Music” twice. An inspiring talk with a lot of special music-historical (and also political) facts.
Listen here to the German podcast “Schallwelten”, which I recommend also for “only music-interested (non-)musicians” 😉: Episodes 11: Religion in der Musik Teil 1; 12: Religion in der Musik Teil 2
Singing G major Mass by Franz Schubert
Personally enriching was the fact to return back as a singer in a choir, singing bass. In my younger years I sang a lot in many choirs, but in the meantime it got much less. This year I participated in the project of my local parish choir. We rehearsed the G major mass by Franz Schubert. The performance was in the catholic service at easter. It is so great that in my region (as well as in many other German regions) there is a habbit of performing masses of the great classical and romantic composers in the festive days. That is just continuing the original purpose of this music. Actually, everyone can visit the service and listen to the music for free. Until some years ago, I thought this is normal, but I heard from friends from other countries that this is not everywhere like that. I think, we here in Germany have the obligation to continue the tradition and to pay tribute to the composers of our country. We have so many like Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, Bach, Schütz, Brahms, Mahler, Bruckner, ..
My Plans for 2026
Work together with me in 2026!
I am looking forward to making music projects together with You, Your choir or ensemble. So just write a short note via contact@thaddi.de. You are always welcome!
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I want to write several guest articles on new sacred music in 2026. If you have a blog that fits this theme and are looking for guest authors, please contact me at contact@thaddi.de!
(Of course, You find me on Instagram, and LinkedIn)
My 2026 Goals
- I move my music marketing the next step to a first professional level
- I finish my motette “Blessed” (Psalm 41)
- I create some real live contacts with other musicians
- I have some concerts with my music
- publish several music videos (score and concerts) on YouTube, (about 3 to 6)
- write newsletters (2 to 6 for this year) and improve my social media presence
Composition Statistics
- composed and finished pieces in 2025: 2
- “Langsamer Satz” for piano quintet
- “Es flüstert der Wind” for choir (SATB)
My Social Media 2025 in Numbers
Music is Sacred – LinkedIN friends
This year I challenged myself to connect to people more directly and keep contact on LinkedIn. This resulted in very nice online friendships and connections. I think it is important that artists work together, and not only in their ensembles or practise rooms. I know that might be not so easy to do, especially this is true for me. I am used to sit alone in a room (I even need the stillness sometimes) and thinking and writing notes for myself. But it is essiential – I know – to connect to the “outer” world. There is almost no use I we stay for ourselves.
Here are some statistics of my social media activities (please forgive me: yes, there are really some interesting facts, but mainly it is here for my personal overview 😉)
But…..
What happened on 12th oct 2025 on my website thaddi.de?
Usually, on my website I have not much traffic, about 10 visitors per week. but on Sunday, 12th Oct 2025 I had almost 600 visitors! The subsequent weeks It was around 200. I saw that when I checked my Google Analytics for this review. There was no special post on that day. I suspect that there was some action triggered after my visit with Eric Whitacre in Barcelona, which was 4 weeks before. But in worst case it was some random event and triggered by a web search robot – never mind.
- Blogs & Newsletter: None 😮 in 2025
-> Do you like to receive such email information? => Answer here or follow here!
Here are some listed numbers of social media for 2025:
Youtube:
I released one new video on YouTube this year, a composer’s talk about conducting (in German), “Dirigiertechnik”):
Top 3 videos of 2025 were:
- “Mond” op.28 (SSAA) with 59 views;
- “Abend” (SSAA) wird es wieder op.29 with 29 views,
- “Dirigiertechnik” in (Composer’s Talk and Insides) with 16 views.
- published: in total 5, this year 1.
- 2 videos in preparation (Interview with Maru Fedele and memesdelconservatorio, music video “Wasser”).
- 8 subscribers, 2.9 h played.
LinkedIn:
LinkedIn had my greatest focus this year. I want to get back more into the music community again. I found a lot of interesting people there – so thankful for that 🙏🏻.
- LinkedIn Followers: 775.
- Connections: 747.
- Over 40 posts with an average reach of 150 to 700. (2024: I had just started and had very low numbers)
Instagram:
Lower action compared to 2024, some LinkedIn posts shared here.
- 497 followers. -> I am close to 500 since years 🤣, without crossing the “magic 500”. We will see when this happens (no hurry. When people like it they may join)
- 4,3K views, 901 reach, 82 content interactions, 747 connections
Facebook:
- 44 Followers (+2), 1.4K views, 87 content interactions, 178 visits
Here, there was a pretty low activity in 2025. Some posts from LinkedIn were shared here.
Note, that I have also another older FB page, more for privat use: thaddaus.dorsch private (254 followers)
Thank You
Thank You for being with me.
It is so great to be an artist and to excite and inspire other people.
If we all artists come together and show the people that we are one world through our works, then we will achieve peace on earth. Thank You for being part of this movement.
