Lothar Wilhelm Bandermann  Born 1936 in into a coal miner’s family of seven children near Dortmund, Germany, his love of music became apparent while living with foster parents, having been evacuated (because of Allied bombing in the West) from Dortmund to Eastern Germany.  He studied piano throughout high school but decided to become a physicist. After a couple of semesters at the university, he emigrated to Canada in 1958, then to the USA in 1960 where he continued his studies at UC Berkeley, thereafter at the Univ. of  Maryland, where he received his Ph. D. in Physics in 1968. He did astronomy research and taught physics at University of Hawaii for 10 years, then worked for 20 years at Lockheed Martin Corporation designing, among other systems, telescopes for the detection of planets around other stars. Since his retirement in 1998, he has devoted himself fully to music, his “first love,” playing the organ in church (which he had begun in Germany at age 14) and composing music, mostly sacred, for organ, choir, piano, solo voice, including a highly regarded Requiem for solo, chorus, organ and orchestra.  Since 1999 he has been parish organist at St. Joseph of Cupertino, Cupertino, CA, Catholic Church.  Lothar is married to Billie Reeves Bandermann, who is a voice teacher at De Anza College and a choir director, and they have three children and six grand children together.