Harald Oberlechner
Harald Oberlechner teaches zither at Mozarteum University Salzburg and the Tyrolean State Conservatory. Alongside his teaching and his work as a performer, he is committed to establishing the zither as a classical concert instrument through concerts, new commissions and publications.
Born in St. Johann in Tyrol, Oberlechner studied zither with Peter Suitner at the Innsbruck Conservatory. As a soloist and chamber musician, he performs a repertoire spanning classical music, jazz and Alpine folk music, appearing at festivals and concert series throughout Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Lithuania. His collaborators have included Isolde Jordan, Kristi Mühling, Peter Lefor, Brigitte Karg, Martin Senfter, Alice Okoh, Florian Bramböck, Trio Unicum, Ensemble Psalteria, ensemble plus, the Tyrolean Chamber Orchestra InnStrumenti and the Austrian Ensemble for New Music.
Oberlechner has composed and arranged works in the fields of folk music, contemporary music and jazz, and has produced numerous transcriptions of early music for the zither, including works by Johann Sebastian Bach, William Byrd, John Dowland, Luis de Milán, Gaspar Sanz and Silvius Leopold Weiss. He has also premiered works by composers including Günter Andrich, Eduard Giuliani, Vladimir Rosinskij, Manuela Kerer, Gunter Schneider, Franz Baur, Herbert Grassl and Regina Alfery.
He regularly publishes music through his own publishing house, Psalteria – Musik für Zither. His work also includes music for documentary films such as Magische Ostern, Die Salzstraße, 1945 – trotzdem Kind and Maria Stromberger – Kann man nach Auschwitz noch glauben? In addition, he has released the recordings Zithermusig (with Duo Oberlechner–Jordan, 2000) and Puzzle (with Trio Psalteria, 2002).