Lothar Wilhelm Bandermann was born June 25, 1936 into a coal miner's family of seven children near Dortmund, Germany. After elementary and high school education, he began studying Physics in Göttingen, Germany.
He emigrated to Canada in 1958 and worked in Montreal as a lab technician in pharmaceutical research for two years. He then emigrated to the United States in 1960 and continued the study of Physics at the University of California at Berkeley, obtaining his BA in 1963. He received the PhD degree from the University of Maryland in 1967.
He conducted research and taught at the U. of Hawaii until 1978, then worked as an aerospace scientist at Lockheed Martin in the San Francisco Bay area until retirement in 1998. He is married with three grown children.
Bandermann began piano studies at age 9 and organ studies at age 15. Later he studied music while at the University of Hawaii. He has held various organist posts since then, and is currently parish organist at St. Joseph of Cupertino Catholic Church (Cupertino, California)
and subdean of the San Jose chapter of the American Guild of Organists. He has composed numerous sacred works for organ, piano, solo voice and accompanied choir.
Bandermann's piano compositions received international attention when a selection was presented at a special, competitive performance event during the 2005 International Russian Music Piano Competition in San Jose, California.