Iris was born in Schwäbisch Gmünd.
She studied to become a schoolteacher of Music and church Music, organ with harpsichord as additional subject in Stuttgart and Detmold. She also studied organ in Paris, with outstanding grades in the finals and with Distinction in improvisation.
She was recipient of awards from the DAAD and the Socrates Programme, which enabled her to further studies with Olivier Latry and Michel Bouvard at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris.
She has won prizes in international organ competitions in Kortrijk/Belgium, Linz/Autriche (Bruckner’s organ), Brixen/Italy (organ by Daniel Herz), Fürth and Laubach/Germany. She has made numerous recordings for CD and Radio.
She is a teacher for the Archbishopric of Cologne, has given many courses in improvisation for the Lutheran Church in Schlüchtern, and was active in chamber music with the heckelphonist Albrecht Bode, and many singers like bass Franz-Josef Selig, baritone Thomas Laske and alto Adriana Bastidas-Gamboa.
She has taken part in collaborative projects with the Orchester der Neuen Philharmonie Frankfurt, the Europäischer Kammerchor, Oratorienchor Köln, Kölner Domchor, Vokalensemble Kölner Dom, Domchor Altenberg, Domchor Trier, Symphonic orchestra Bochum, Symphonic orchestra Wuppertal, WADOKYO and many more.
She also composes her own music. Several composers created organ works for her:
Harald Weiss: Gebet
Ludger Vollmer:
Toccata
Martin Torp:
Morgenglanz der Ewigkeit
Steven Lloyd-Gonzalez: Preludio and ballad
From 2006-10 she was employed as an organist and conductor at various churches in Cologne, and since 2011 she has been self-employed.
She has given concerts in Germany and abroad as in cathedrals in Altenberg, Bamberg, Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Luxemburg, Blackburn, Brixen, Brüssel, Coventry, Cremona, Dresden, Edinburgh, Folkestone, Fulda, Hamburg, Hildesheim, Köln, Linz, London, Lüneburg, Meldorf, Madeleine de Paris, Notre Dame de Paris, Potsdam, Riga, Rottenburg, Schleswig, Schwerin, Soest, Trier, Ulm and many more.
She teaches organ, improvisation and piano at the Archbishop`s School of Music for the Cologne Cathedral Choir.
She has also two teaching positions at the University of Cologne.
Her children’s musical Die Pferde auf dem Turme was recorded on CD by the Domsingschule Köln under the direction of Domkapellmeister Eberhard Metternich.
Her works have been edited by Butz and Kistner&Siegel.
In autumn 2020 two volumes of her school of improvisation for organ The Colours of Fire will be published in German and English by Bärenreiter-Verlag.
Reviews concert
Organsummer concert with Iris Rieg
Imaginatively testing the full palette of tonal colours to the limits…
She masters the path through the music brilliantly. She gives us contemplative moments of peace. Then she marches on, at first briskly, then with seriousness. Her faultless execution is rich in contrast…
Imaginative abilities of registration of the organist
(Peter Buske, Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten, 7.8.2015, S.20)
New CD-review Today…Organ Works again with highest accolades in all categories
Imaginative composer…
Gripping, overwhelming listening experience…
Brilliance and a wealth of overtones are
puristically apportioned on this technically inspired recording. The acoustic
image is relieved of all artificial intrusiveness, allowing us to find the
depths of the music more lastingly and effectively. The whole physical entity
becomes available to us, from the deepest sounds to the brightest heights, from
smothering immediacy to far off mystical tones, all of which Iris Rieg
liberates from the console…
Iris Rieg knows how to keep the static sounds of the organ moving as fluidly as
possible, driving them forward with accents and dynamic momentum…
Iris Rieg’s playing is always plausible, deeply
felt and overflowing with courageous tonal imagination, without ever becoming
merely superficial or showy.
(CD Today…Organ Works, Klassik Heute recommendation, 20.03.15)
CD-review Orgeltanz with highest accolades in all categories
An album brilliant in conception and execution..
The art of making music, natural, melodious and breathing, succeeds here splendidly…
The controlled agility of Iris Rieg’s playing is
exemplary…
(Christoph Schlüren, nmz-online, 24.4.14)
More reviews in German:
www.klassik-heute.com/4daction/www_medien_einzeln?id=21096
https://www.nmz.de/…/orgeltanz-iris-riegs-vielseitiges-orgelrecital-mit-franzoesischem…