Jörg Widmann
Encyclopedia
Jörg Widmann is a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 and clarinetist. He lives and works in Munich and Freiburg.

Education and career

Widmann first took clarinet lessons in 1980. A year later he became a composition student of Kay Westermann (born 1958), subsequently also studying with Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...

, Wilfried Hiller, Heiner Goebbels
Heiner Goebbels
Heiner Goebbels is a German composer, music director and professor at Justus-Liebig-University in Gießen and at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland....

 and Wolfgang Rihm
Wolfgang Rihm
Wolfgang Rihm is a German composer.Rihm is Head of the Institute of Modern Music at the Karlsruhe Conservatory of Music and has been composer in residence at the Lucerne Festival and the Salzburg Festival...

. As a clarinettist, he graduated from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München
Hochschule für Musik und Theater München
The Hochschule für Musik und Theater München is one of the most respected traditional vocational universities in Germany specialising in music and the performing arts. The seat of the Hochschule is the former Führerbau of the NSDAP, located at Arcisstraße 12, on the eastern side of the Königsplatz...

 and from the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...

 in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. After graduating with a Master's from Munich in 1997, he furthered his studies at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe
Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe's University of Music is a college of music in Karlsruhe, Germany.-Studies:The Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe offers tuition in voice, orchestral instruments, piano, composition and music journalism. The academic degrees go from Bachelors to Artists Diplomas.- External links:*...

. Since 2001 he has taught the clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...

 as a Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 at the Freiburg Music College. In January 2008 Widmann signed a contract as a demi-Professor of Composition, succeeding Mathias Spahlingers, at the Institute for New Music at the Freiburg Music College.

Musical works

Jörg Widmann has achieved success both as a clarinettist and as a composer. As a soloist, he has performed with major orchestras both in Germany and abroad, under such conductors as Christoph von Dohnányi
Christoph von Dohnányi
Christoph von Dohnányi is a German conductor of Hungarian ancestry.- Youth and World War II :Dohnányi was born in Berlin, Germany to jurist Hans von Dohnányi and Christine Bonhoeffer. His uncle on his mother's side was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor and theologian/ethicist...

, Sylvain Cambreling
Sylvain Cambreling
Sylvain Cambreling is a French conductor. Trained as a trombone player, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire. He joined l'Orchestre Symphonique de Lyon as a trombonist in 1971. In 1974, he took second prize in the International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors...

 and Kent Nagano
Kent Nagano
__FORCETOC__Kent George Nagano is an American conductor and opera administrator. He is currently the music director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and the Bavarian State Opera.-Biography:...

. Several clarinet concerti have been dedicated to Widmann and premiered by him: in 1999 through "musica viva", he played Music for Clarinets and Orchestra by Wolfgang Rihm
Wolfgang Rihm
Wolfgang Rihm is a German composer.Rihm is Head of the Institute of Modern Music at the Karlsruhe Conservatory of Music and has been composer in residence at the Lucerne Festival and the Salzburg Festival...

, and in 2006 with the WDR Symphony Orchestra, Cantus by Aribert Reimann
Aribert Reimann
Aribert Reimann is a German opera composer, pianist and accompanist, known especially for his literary operas. His version of King Lear was written at the suggestion of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau who sang the title role....

.

Jörg Widmann's compositions draw on different musical genres. He has composed, for example, a Trilogy for orchestra examining the projection of vocal forms of instrumental ensembles. The Trilogy consists of Lied (premiered in 2003 and recorded on CD by the Bamberg Symphony with Jonathan Nott
Jonathan Nott
Jonathan Nott is an English conductor, the son of a priest at Worcester Cathedral. He was a music student and choral scholar at the University of Cambridge, and also studied singing and flute in Manchester at the Royal Northern College of Music. Nott was also a conducting student in London...

), Chor (premiered in 2004 by the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
The Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin is an orchestra based in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in 1946 by American occupation forces as the RIAS-Symphonie-Orchester . It was also known as the American Sector Symphony Orchestra...

 with Kent Nagano
Kent Nagano
__FORCETOC__Kent George Nagano is an American conductor and opera administrator. He is currently the music director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and the Bavarian State Opera.-Biography:...

) and Messe, which was premiered in June 2005 by the Munich Philharmonic under Christian Thielemann
Christian Thielemann
-Career:Thielemann studied viola and piano at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin and took private lessons in composition and conducting before becoming répétiteur aged 19 at the Deutsche Oper Berlin with Heinrich Hollreiser and working as Herbert von Karajan's assistant...

. In 2007 Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...

 and the Vienna Philharmonic premiered his orchestral work Armonica.

His string quartets are of particular note among his chamber music works: First String Quartet (1997), followed by Choral Quartet and Hunting Quartet, which was premiered in 2003 with the Arditti Quartet
Arditti Quartet
The Arditti Quartet is a string quartet founded in 1974. The quartet is associated particularly with contemporary music.-Early history:The quartet was founded in 1974 by violinist Irvine Arditti together with John Senter, Levine Andrade and Lenox Mackenzie...

. 2005 saw the first performances of Fourth String Quartet and of Experiment on a Fugue (Fifth String Quartet with soprano), with Juliane Banse
Juliane Banse
Juliane Banse is a German soprano and noted lieder singer. She received her vocal training at the Zürich Opera, and with Brigitte Fassbaender in Munich. She won First Prize in the singing competition of the Kulturforum in Munich in 1989. In 1989, she made her operatic debut as Pamina in Mozart's...

 and the Artemis Quartet. Together, this series of quartets forms a great cycle.

His études IV-VI for violin (2004–10) were premiered by Carolin Widmann at the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik
Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik
The Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik is a music festival for contemporary chamber music, jointly organised by the town Witten in the Ruhr Area and the broadcasting station Westdeutscher Rundfunk...

 on 23 April 2010. He performed his Fantasie for clarinet (1993) to celebrate the 80th birthday of Walter Fink
Walter Fink
Walter Fink is a German retired executive and a patron of Contemporary music. He is mostly known for being a founding member, Executive Committee member and sponsor of the Rheingau Musik Festival.- Biography :...

 at the Rheingau Musik Festival
Rheingau Musik Festival
The Rheingau Musik Festival is an international summer music festival in Germany, founded in 1987. It is mostly for classical music, but includes other genres...

 on 16 July 2010.

Awards

  • 1996 Kulturförderpreis der Landeshauptstadt München
  • 1997 Bayerischer Staatspreis für junge Künstler
  • 2002 Paul Hindemith Prize of the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival
    Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival
    The Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival is a classical music festival held every year in summer time all over the state of Schleswig-Holstein in Northern Germany....

  • 2003 Ernst von Siemens Music Composers' Prize
    Ernst von Siemens Music Prize
    The international Ernst von Siemens Music Prize is an annual music prize given by the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste on behalf of the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung , established in 1972. The foundation was established by Ernst von Siemens...

  • 2003/04 award of the magazine Opernwelt: "most important premiere of the season: Das Gesicht im Spiegel"
  • 2004 Arnold Schönberg Prize
    Arnold Schönberg Prize
    The International Arnold-Schönberg-Prize was established in 2001, and named after the Austrian composer Arnold Schönberg, thanks to the initiative of Kent Nagano, the former principal conductor and musical director of the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester in Berlin, together with Deutschlandradio...

  • 2006 Kompositionspreis of the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg for Zweites Labyrinth
  • 2006 Claudio Abbado-Preis of the Orchester-Akademie of the Berlin Philharmonic
  • 2009 Stoeger Prize of the New York Chamber Music Society

Selected works

  • Absences Schuloper (1990)
  • Kreisleriana concert piece for violin
    Violin
    The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

     and chamber orchestra (1993)
  • First String Quartet
    String quartet
    A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...

    (1997)
  • Five Fragments for clarinet and piano
    Piano
    The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

     (1997)
  • Nocturne for piano, clarinet and violoncello (1998)
  • Fever Fantasy for piano, string quartet and clarinet (with bass clarinet) (1999)
  • Implosion for orchestra
    Orchestra
    An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

     (2001)
  • Light Study I for orchestra (2001)
  • Free Pieces for ensemble (2002)
  • Second String Quartet (Choral Quartet) (2003)
  • Hall Study for Piano (2003)
  • The Face in the Mirror opera
    Opera
    Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

     in 16 scenes, libretto
    Libretto
    A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

     by Roland Schimmelpfennig (2003)
  • Third String Quartet (Hunting Quartet) (2003)
  • Lied for orchestra (2003)
  • Chor for orchestra (2004)
  • Skeleton for percussion (2004)
  • Light Studies (I-VI) for violin, viola, accordion, clarinet, piano and orchestra (2004)
  • Fourth String Quartet (2005)
  • Experiment on a Fugue (Fifth String Quartet with soprano
    Soprano
    A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...

    ) (2005)
  • Messe for full orchestra (2005)
  • Air for horn solo (2005)
  • Labyrinth for 48 chordophone
    Chordophone
    A chordophone is any musical instrument that makes sound by way of a vibrating string or strings stretched between two points. It is one of the four main divisions of instruments in the original Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification....

    s (2005)
  • Elegy for clarinet and orchestra (2006)
  • Echo-Fragments for clarinet and orchestral group (2006)
  • Second Labyrinth for orchestral group (2006)
  • Armonica for glass harmonica
    Glass harmonica
    The glass harmonica, also known as the glass armonica, bowl organ, hydrocrystalophone, or simply the armonica , is a type of musical instrument that uses a series of glass bowls or goblets graduated in size to produce musical tones by means of friction The glass harmonica, also known as the glass...

     and orchestra (2007)
  • Violin Concerto
    Violin concerto
    A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin and instrumental ensemble, customarily orchestra. Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up through the present day...

    (2007)
  • Con brio for orchestra (2008)
  • Antiphon for orchestral group (2008)
  • Concerto for Oboe (2009)


Widmann's works are published exclusively by Schott Music
Schott Music
Schott Music is one of the oldest German music publishers. It is also one of the largest music publishing houses in Europe and is currently the second oldest music publishing house. The company headquarters of Schott Music was founded by Bernhard Schott in Mainz, Germany in 1770.Established in...

.

Discography

  • String Quartets, Leipzig String Quartet (MDG 2008)

External links

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