Johannes Kalitzke

peter-admin — Sat, 07 Feb 2015 07:30:05 +0000

Johannes Kalitzke, born in 1959 in Cologne, studied church music there from 1974 until 1976. After passing his school-leaving examinations, he studied piano with Aloys Kontarsky, conducting with Wolfgang von der Nahmer and composition with York Höller at the Cologne Music Academy. A stipend of the Study Foundation of the German People made it possible for him to study at IRCAM in Paris, where he was a pupil of Vinko Globokar, and simultaneously in Cologne with Hans Ulrich Humpert (electronic music).

His first engagement as a conductor was in 1984, at the Gelsenkirchen Music Theatre in the Revier, where he was principal conductor from 1988 to 1990. In 1991 he became artistic director and conductor of the Ensemble MusikFabrik, of which he was a co-founder.

Since then he has been a regular guest conductor with ensembles (Klangforum Wien, Collegium Novum Zürich, Ensemble Modern) and with numerous symphony orchestras (including the NDR Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BR Symphony Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic). There have also been opera productions (including the State Opera Unter den Linden Berlin, the Stuttgart Opera, the Vienna Festival, the Munich Biennial and the Salzburg Festival).

He has toured Russia, Japan and the USA. Numerous CD recordings complete his activities as an interpreter of classical and contemporary music.

As a composer he has received several commissions for the Donaueschinger Musiktage and Ultraschall Berlin, among others. Orchestral pieces were written for the Festival Eclat in Stuttgart, the RSO Vienna and the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra. His first musical theatre piece, “Bericht vom Tod des Musikers Jack Tiergarten” was premiered at the 1996 Munich Biennale, his second opera “Molière oder die Henker des Komödianten”, a commissioned work for the State of Schleswig-Holstein, as well as his third opera, “Inferno” after Peter Weiss, were premiered at the Bremen Opera. An opera based on the novel “The Obsessed” by W. Gombrowicz was commissioned by Theater an der Wien for 2010. The Augsburg Philharmonic commissioned a silent film orchestra music for the film “Die Weber” (1927) in 2011, followed by the opera “Pym” after E.A.Poe for the Theater Heidelberg. Currently, he continues to focus on orchestral music for Expressionist silent film, among others as commission for the Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik and the Carinthian Summer 2019.

His teaching activities include ensemble seminars at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen and at the Hannover Academy, the directorship of the ensemble forum at the Darmstadt Summer Courses, the directorship of the conducting forum for ensemble music of the German Music Council as well as conducting courses at the Salzburg Summer Academy. Since 2015 he is professor for conducting at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg and taught as a guest at the Reina Sophia Music School Madrid and the Zurich Conservatory of Music.

Johannes Kalitzke has received numerous awards including the Bernd Alois Zimmermann Prize of the City of Cologne and a stipend for the Villa Massimo in Rome (2003). He has been a member of the Berlin Academy of the Arts since 2009 and since 2015 he is a member of the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste, München.

The post Johannes Kalitzke first appeared on Puskas International.

Martyn Harry

peter-admin — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 18:34:08 +0000

Professor Martyn Harry is a contemporary classical composer, and music lecturer at Oxford University. He is Annie Barnes Fellow in Music at St Anne’s College Oxford and Lecturer in Music at St Hilda’s College, where he also serves as artistic director of the Jacqueline Du Pre Music Building.

Martyn studied composition with Alexander Goehr at King´s College, Cambridge and music theatre composition with Mauricio Kagel at Musikhochschule Köln on a DAAD Scholarship. His works have been performed by, among others, the London Sinfonietta, Northern Sinfonia, Broomhill Opera, Eos, the Allegri Quartet, Piano Circus, the Reg Vardy Band, the New Music Players and the BBC Singers. They have also been broadcast many times on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM, NDR 3 and WDR 3.

Martyn Harry’s most frequently-performed works include his early Heimat for double mixed chorus which was premiered by the BBC Singers under Stephen Jackson and later broadcast on BBC Radio 3´s “Music in Our Time”; Still Life for ensemble, which has been broadcast by Eos under Charles Hazlewood on Classic FM, BBC Radio 3, NDR 3 and WDR 3; Regenstimmen for solo harp, premiered in the Purcell Room as part of the PLG Young Artists Series and performed since throughout Europe; Fantasy Unbuttoned, which since its official world première from the London Sinfonietta under Markus Stenz at the State of the Nation has been broadcast numerous times on BBC Radio 3’s “Here and Now” programme; Digging Deeper, performed countless times and all over the world by Piano Circus; The Enigma Of Arrival, a powerful orchestral piece commissioned by Northern Sinfonia and premiered in the Sinfonia’s “Late Mix” series; Thugs Mansion for string quartet and muted brass band; George Meets Arnie For Tennis, which was recorded by The New Music Players for release on CD and received its English premiere at The Sage Gateshead; and Empress Quartet, which was premiered and toured throughout the Northern Arts throughout Great Britain by the Allegri Quartet.

He has also worked extensively in film and multi-media settings. His ‘instrumental theatre’ works include The End of the Line for three singers and four instrumentalists, which was premiered at the Huddersfield Festival; Keep The Plates Spinning for two percussionists, actors, ghetto blasters and applauding audience, performed by Three Strange Angels at BMIC Cutting Edge; Signal Failure for actors, ensemble and computer graphics, which has been performed many times in England, Holland and Germany, and revised at The Sage Gateshead in 2003; and the now infamous Restraint for Handcuffed Pianist and pre-recorded tape, which has been broadcast twice on BBC Radio 3’s “Here and Now” programme, and performed throughout Britain.

Martyn is particularly known for his vocal music, most notably his two song cycles, The Spell and Chamber Intimacy, both of which have were premiered in Northern Sinfonia concerts at The Sage Gateshead. His ensemble operas Scratch Card Number Opera and Icarus Drowning [Flight] join a long line of ‘avant-garde’ operas for performance to children, as well as a number of other instrumental pieces. A longstanding collaboration with the children’s theatre company Theatre Hullabaloo culminated in two national tours of his children’s opera My Mother Told Me Not To Stare in schools and theatres across the UK in 2010 and 2012.

MARTYN HARRYOFFICIAL WEBSITE

The post Martyn Harry first appeared on Puskas International.

Composer - Puskas International

Johannes Kalitzke

Martyn Harry