2024-07-27 11:06:32
Perhaps the most important German composer of his generation, Wolfgang Rihm has died in Ettlingen at the age of 72. Rihm had an engagement with the Berlin Philharmonic for the coming season.
The composer Wolfgang Rihm died last night in Ettlingen near Karlsruhe at the age of 72. His wife confirmed this. The Karlsruhe native is one of Europe’s most frequent contemporary composers. Rihm should be “Composer in Residence” of the Berlin Philharmonic in the upcoming 2024/25 season.
Rihm is a member of the executive board of the German Composers Association, the German Music Council, a member of the board of trustees of the Heinrich Strobel Foundation and a member of the board of trustees of GEMA. He also acts as music consultant for the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Center for Art and Media Technology Karlsruhe.
Rihm, born in Karlsruhe in 1952, was interested in painting, literature and music at an early age. He studied from 1968 to 1972 at the Karlsruhe Academy of Music with Eugen Werner Velte and completed his studies in composition and music theory at the same time as his high school diploma. Further studies led him to Karlheinz Stockhausen in Cologne and to the University of Music in Freiburg, where he studied music and music. This was followed by his own teaching positions in Karlsruhe, at the Munich University of Music and at the Darmstadt retreats. In 1985, Rihm received a professorship for composition at the Karlsruhe University of Music.
The importance of “Jakob Lenz”
Rihm celebrated his success in 1974 at the Donaueschinger Musiktage with the premiere of the orchestral piece “Morphonie”. Wolfgang Rihm’s most important works include the operas “The Conquest of Mexico”, “Hamlet’s Machine”, “Dionysus”, “Jakob Lenz”, “Proserpina” and “Das Gehege” as works from his orchestral repertoire.
Rihm is a member of the executive board of the German Composers Association, the German Music Council, a member of the board of trustees of the Heinrich Strobel Foundation and a member of the board of trustees of GEMA. He also acts as music consultant for the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Center for Art and Media Technology Karlsruhe.
“Wolfgang Rihm will be remembered as a composer of musical works with countless layers of meaning,” Astrid Koblanck, CEO of Universal Edition, paid tribute to him. With Rihm, not only Universal but the entire modern music world is losing an important key figure.
dpa/sos/krö
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