Composer
Biography:
"In music, the composer must be highly intellectual and at the same time emotional." Wolfgang Rihm, born in Karlsruhe in 1952, initially because of a lack of understanding. The first works that the student of Eugen Werner Velte, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Wolfgang Fortner and Klaus Huber presented at the Donaueschinger Musiktage in the 1970s generated heated and controversial discussions. At the same time, however, Rihm was also recognized and encouraged as an outstanding talent. In 1978 he received the Kranichstein Music Prize, followed a year later by a grant from the Villa Massimo in Rome. With the two chamber operas Faust and Yorick ( 1976) and Jacob Lenz ( 1977–78), the stage works The Hamlet Machine (1983 – 86), Oedipus (1986–87), The conquest of Mexico (1987-91) and Seraph (1994), Rihm advanced to become one of the most important composers of contemporary music theatre. In addition, he wrote more than 200 orchestral and chamber music works.
Wolfgang Rihm has been teaching regularly at the Darmstadt Summer Courses since 1978 and has been a professor of composition at the Karlsruhe Music Academy since 1985, where he also directs the Institute for New Music. His most famous students include Vykintas Baltakas, Rebecca Saunders and Jörg Widmann. Wolfgang Rihm has received numerous prizes for his compositional work, including the City of Bonn’s Beethoven Prize (1981), the Rolf Liebermann Prize (1986), the City of Hamburg’s Bach Prize (1999), the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award (2000), and the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize (2003), Grand Cross of Merit with Star (2014) and Decoration of Honor of the State of Salzburg (2015). Inspired by the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, he wrote four works for the four symphonies by Johannes Brahms as part of the Lucerne »Brahms/Rihm Cycle«, which were first performed as an integral version at the Lucerne Festival in August 2012. In the summer of 2016 he took over the overall artistic direction of the Lucerne Festival Academy. In January 2016 his orchestral work was performed at the opening of the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg Reminiscence/triptych and saying in memoriam Hans Henny Jahnn Premiered.
Wolfgang Rihm lives in Karlsruhe and Berlin.
Albums:
musica viva vol. 32 – Requiem stanzas:
Donaueschingen Music Days 2014:
Donaueschingen Music Days 2011:
Concerto in one movement – Concerto for cello and chamber orchestra:
Donaueschingen Music Days 2006 Vol. 1:
