Dieterich Buxtehude (c.1637-1707) was a German-Danish organist and composer, and one of the towering figures of the North German Baroque. His exact birthplace remains uncertain, but his mature career centred on Lübeck, where he served at the Marienkirche.

Buxtehude wrote organ music, sacred vocal works, chamber music and keyboard pieces. His celebrated Abendmusiken concerts in Lübeck became an important public musical institution and attracted wide attention.

His organ works are bold, improvisatory and architecturally imaginative, moving between free fantasy and strict counterpoint with great dramatic flair. They helped define the style that would later feed into the art of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Bach’s famous journey to hear Buxtehude in Lübeck has become part of musical legend, but it reflects a real artistic inheritance. Buxtehude stands as one of the essential pre-Bach masters, a composer of fire, fantasy and spiritual gravity.