The adaptor

Cord Garben studied piano and conducting at the State Music Academy in Hanover. Having specialized in Lied accompaniment, he performed with singers Brigitte Fassbaender, Edith Mathis, Anne-Sophie von Otter, Peter Schreier, Kurt Moll and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

Garben performed in complete recordings of the Lieder of Alexander Zemlinsky, Hector Berlioz and Carl Loewe. His distinctions include the German Record Prize and, in 1989, the prize for "Best Cultural Initiative" awarded by the French Minister of Culture.

A record producer for the Deutsche Grammophon label for over two decades, he has produced artists of the stature of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Herbert von Karajan, Mstislav Rostropovich and Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. In the U.S., his recordings have earned seven Grammies, four of them for the production of Wagner's "Ring" at the MET with conductor James Levine.

The renowned orchestras Cord Garben has conducted include the NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hanover Radio Philharmonic and the Warsaw Radio Symphony Orchestra. He's led new productions at opera houses in Copenhagen (a single-act work by Kurt Weill) and in Tokyo (Wagner's "Tannhäuser"). His Hindemith CD won the German Record Prize.

His adaptations of major concert works include Brahms' Cello Concerto, the "Concerto Arpeggione" based on a composition by Schubert and Mahler's “Song of the Earth.“

Cord Garben is the president of the Johannes Brahms Society in Hamburg and honorary member of the International Carl Loewe Society.