Only eight months later, September 1993, he took his first organ lesson. Already in spring 1994, just 7 months after his first organ lesson, he participated in the Federal German competition for young musicians "Jugend musiziert", and received two First Prizes in organ playing.

On Easter 1994, still eight years old, he was on duty in his first service as a liturgical organist, playing the organ at a Roman Catholic High Mass.

The following years Felix Hell continued to take First Prizes in the German competition "Jugend musiziert": 1996 two First Prizes in piano playing, 1997 two First Prizes in organ playing and in 1999 again two First Prizes in piano playing.

Felix pursued his organ studies, after initial studies with Eckard Mayer, at the Evangelical Academy of Church Music in Heidelberg/Germany with Johannes Michel (organ literature) and Prof. Christiane Michel (Improvisation). Additional coaching Felix Hell received in courses with Prof. Martin Luecker, Frankfurt, Prof. Pieter van Dijk, Amsterdam, Prof. Oleg Yantchenko (+), Moscow, Prof. Wolfgang Ruebsam, Chicago, Prof. Leo Kraemer, Speyer, Prof. Franz Lehrndorfer, Munich, and Prof. Robert Griffith, Delaware/Ohio. From the very beginning, Felix Hell's piano teacher has been Prof. Siegbert Panzer, German State Academy of Music, Mannheim.

In September 1999 Felix Hell enrolled at the Juilliard School, New York, where he had been awarded a merit-based full tuition scholarship. Since September 2001 Felix has been studying, again under full tuition scholarship, at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia under the tutelage of Dr. John Weaver, until his retirement in September 2002. After a short period of studying with Alan Morrison, Felix's current organ teachers are Martin Jean (Yale University) and Don Sutherland (Peabody Conservatory).

From the very beginning Felix maintained a very busy recital schedule. His first solo appearance dates back to March 1994, and his first solo concert abroad the almost-9-year old Felix gave in August 1994 in the Great Hall of the Saratov Conservatory, Russia. Meanwhile Felix Hell has performed more than 300 recitals in Germany and abroad: Canada, Australia, Russia, Korea, Spain, France, Italy, Latvia, Iceland, Norway, Jamaica, and the USA, where he had given more than 200 concerts in 35 states. He was privileged to perform in such prestigious places as:

• Passau Cathedral, Germany
• Ulm Cathedral, Germany
• Cathedral of Hildesheim, Germany
• Cathedral of Magdeburg, Germany
• Cathedral of Worms, Germany
• University of Bochum, Germany
• Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York
• National Cathedral, Washington D.C.
• Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington D.C.
• First Congregational Church, Los Angeles
• Broadway Baptist Church, Ft. Worth, Texas
• Spivey Hall, Atlanta
• Spreckels Organ at Balboa Park, San Diego
• Lincoln Center of the Performing Arts (Allice Tully Hall), New York
• Methuen Memorial Music Hall, Methuen, Massachusetts
• Tschaikovskiy Concert Hall, St. Petersburg
• Great Philharmonic Hall, St. Petersburg, Russia
• Dome Cathedral, Riga, Latvia
• Melbourne Town Hall, Australia
• Sydney Opera House, Australia
• Nidaros Cathedral, Trondheim, Norway
• Bergen Cathedral, Norway

Orchestra performances comprise concerts with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, USA, and the National Academy Orchestra of Canada under Boris Brott.

Felix Hell is member of the American Guild of Organists, the Organ Historical Society and the German Gesellschaft der Orgelfreunde He is Organ Scholar and Assistant organist at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in New York City. He had recorded five CDs, critically acclaimed by the public as well as by experts. His music has been broadcast several times by PIPEDREAM of Minnesota Public Radio (host: Michael Barone), as well as by radio stations of Germany, The Netherlands, Australia, and by the BBC in Great Britain. He was featured on TV at ABC and NBC, and the German TV stations ARD, ZDF, SWR, RTL, DW, SAT1, and 3SAT.

Contact details and further information

E-mail Felix Hell

For further details, see Felix Hell's website