German conductor Volker Schmidt-Gertenbach has died at the age of 84.

Born on Dec. 28, 1941, Schmidt-Gertenbach received his first violin and piano lessons at the age of six and after graduating from high school, he began to study music and mathematics.

He gained his first orchestral experience with a student orchestra he founded in Göttingen and later studied with Rudolf Kempe and Wolfgang Sawallisch. At the end of the 1960s he led the orchestra of the StMV Blaue Sänger Göttingen.

In 1965, the Staatstheater Kassel engaged him as Repetitor.

In 1968, he started his relationship with the Göttinger Symphonie Orchester as deputy music director and then from 1974 to 1989 he became the General Music Director and Chief Conductor.

From 1981 to 1984, Schmidt-Gertenbach became the permanent conductor of the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Stavanger.

He went on to perform around the world with his orchestras and as guest conductor in Italy, the US, Spain and Japan  as well as in Vienna, Berlin, Rome, Chicago and Washington.

Throughout his career, he recorded over 100 works for various broadcasters including works by Litolff, Liszt, Mozart, Haydn, Holst, Schumann, Schubert, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Chopin.