The Munich Biennale is an opera festival in the city of Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

. The full German name is Internationales Festival für neues Musiktheater, literally: International Festival for New Music Theater. The biennial festival was created in 1988 by 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"...

 and is held in even-numbered years over 2–3 weeks in the late spring. The festival concentrates on world premieres of theater-related contemporary music, with a particular focus on commissioning first operas from young composers.

The first four festivals, under Henze

Henze, himself a prolific composer of operas, described the genesis of the festival like this:
Henze curated the first four festivals, from 1988 to 1994, and established the general format of most of the festivals that followed. Short runs of the premiered operas are preceded by talks and additional concerts from the featured composers, to introduce the audiences to their ideas and music.

The later festivals, under Peter Ruzicka

Peter Ruzicka

Peter Ruzicka

Peter Ruzicka is a German composer and conductor of classical music.Peter Ruzicka was born in Düsseldorf on July 3, 1948. He received his early musical training at the Hamburg Conservatory. He studied composition with Hans Werner Henze and Hans Otte...

 took over as artistic director ("one of the most influential administrative/ artistic positions in the European music-theatre scene") in 1996, with that year's biennale being jointly curated by Henze. Ruzicka broadened the scope of the works presented, with more emphasis on works using multimedia, and moving away from the text-based sources that characterised the period curated by Henze.

Operas given at the Munich Biennale

World premieres are marked as WP

Premiere		Composer	Title	Libretto and source
29 May 1988	WP	Detlev Glanert Detlev Glanert Detlev Glanert is a German opera composer, who has also composed numerous works for chamber and full orchestra, including three symphonies.-Biography:Detlev Glanert was born in Hamburg in 1960...	Leyla und Medjnun	Aras Ören and Peter Schneider Peter Schneider (writer) Peter Schneider is a German novelist.-Life:Peter Schneider is the son of a conductor and composer. He spent his early childhood in Königsberg and Saxony; from 1945 to 1950 he lived in Grainau near Garmisch-Partenkirchen and from 1950 in Freiburg im Breisgau... , after the epic poem Layla and Majnun Layla and Majnun, also known as The Madman and Layla – in Arabic مجنون ليلى or قيس وليلى , in , Leyli və Məcnun in Azeri, Leyla ile Mecnun in Turkish, in Urdu and Hindi – is a classical Arab story, popularized by Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi's...  by Nizami
03 Jun 1988	WP	Gerd Kühr Gerd Kühr Gerd Kühr, also Gerd Kuhr, is an Austrian conductor, composer of classical music and academic teacher....	Stallerhof	Franz Xaver Kroetz Franz Xaver Kroetz Franz Xaver Kroetz is a German author, playwright, actor and film director. His plays have been translated and performed internationally.-Life:Kroetz attended an acting school in Munich and the Max-Reinhardt-Seminar in Vienna... , after his own play
04 Jun 1988	WP	Adriana Hölszky Adriana Hölszky Adriana Hölszky is an Romanian-born German music educator, composer and pianist who has been living in Germany since 1976.-Biography:...	Bremer Freiheit	Thomas Körner, after the play by Rainer Werner Fassbinder Rainer Werner Fassbinder Rainer Werner Maria Fassbinder was a German movie director, screenwriter and actor. He is considered one of the most important representatives of the New German Cinema.He maintained a frenetic pace in film-making...
17 Jun 1988	WP	Mark-Anthony Turnage Mark-Anthony Turnage Mark-Anthony Turnage is a prolific English composer of classical music. His initial musical studies were with Oliver Knussen, John Lambert, and later with Gunther Schuller...	Greek Greek (opera) Greek is an opera in two acts composed by Mark-Anthony Turnage to a libretto adapted by Turnage and Jonathan Moore from Steven Berkoff's 1980 verse play Greek. The play and the opera are a re-telling of Sophocles's Greek tragedy Oedipus the King with the setting changed to the East End of London in...	the composer and Jonathan Moore, after the play Greek (play) Greek is a play by Steven Berkoff.It was first performed at the Half Moon Theatre in London on 11 February 1980, in a production directed by the author. The cast was:*Eddy & Fortune-teller: Barry Philips*Dad & Manager of cafe: Matthew Scurfield...  by Steven Berkoff Steven Berkoff Steven Berkoff is an English actor, writer and director. Best known for his performance as General Orlov in the James Bond film Octopussy, he is typically cast in villanous roles, such as Lt...
26 Apr 1990	WP	András Hamary	Seid still	José Vera Morales, after the play Tóték by István Örkény István Örkény István Örkény was a Hungarian writer. A typical feature of his plays and novels is satiric view and creation of grotesque situations.- Life :...
28 Apr 1990	WP	Wolfgang von Schweinitz Wolfgang von Schweinitz Wolfgang von Schweinitz is a German composer of classical music.Schweinitz studied composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, from 1971 to 1973 with Gernot Klussmann and from 1973 to 1975 with György Ligeti. He continued his studies at the Stanford University with John Chowning...	Patmos	D. E. Sattler (de), after the Apocalypse of St John in Martin Luther Martin Luther Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517... 's translation
06 May 1990	WP	Hans-Jürgen von Bose Hans-Jürgen von Bose Hans-Jürgen von Bose is a German Composer.-Life:After an unsettled adolescence, Bose entered the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt in 1969, where he received instruction in piano and music theory...	63: Dream Palace	the composer, after the novella by James Purdy James Purdy James Otis Purdy was a controversial American novelist, short story-writer, poet, and playwright who, since his debut in 1956, published over a dozen novels, and many collections of poetry, short stories, and plays. His work has been translated into more than 30 languages. He has been praised by...
14 May 1990	WP	Michèle Reverdy Michèle Reverdy Michèle Reverdy is a French composer.-Biography:Michèle Reverdy was born in Alexandria, Egypt, and began piano lessons at age six...	Le Précepteur	Hans-Ulrich Treichel Hans-Ulrich Treichel Hans-Ulrich Treichel is a Germanist, novelist and poet. His earliest published books were collections of poetry, but prose writing has become a larger part of his output since the critical and commercial success of his first novel Der Verlorene...  (de), after the play Der Hofmeister The Tutor The Tutor is an 18th-century German play by Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz. It has the subtitle "Or The Benefits of a Private Education". In the 20th century, it was adapted by Bertolt Brecht — see The Tutor .... by Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz was a Baltic German writer of the Sturm und Drang movement.-Life:...
07 May 1992		Violeta Dinescu Violeta Dinescu Violeta Dinescu is a Romanian composer, pianist and professor, living in Germany since 1982.-Romania:Violeta Dinescu began her studies of music in 1972 at the conservatory Ciprian Porumbescu in Bucharest, composition with Myriam Marbe. In 1978 she received her master's degree, with distinction...	Eréndira	Monika Rothmaier, after the story The Unbelievable and Tragic Story of Simple Eréndira and her Heartless Grandmother by Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in...
29 Apr 1992	WP	Jorge Liderman Jorge Liderman Jorge Mario Liderman was an American composer. He was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in 2003 and taught composition at the University of California, Berkeley.- Life :...	Antigona Furiosa	the composer, after the drama by Griselda Gambaro Griselda Gambaro Griselda Gambaro is an Argentine writer, whose novels, plays, short stories, story tales, essays and novels for teenagers often concern the political violence in her home country that would develop into the Dirty War. One recurring theme is the desaparecidos and the attempts to recover their...
27 May 1992		Giorgio Battistelli Giorgio Battistelli Giorgio Battistelli is an Italian composer of contemporary classical music. A native of Albano Laziale , he studied at the conservatory in L'Aquila and is a former student of Stockhausen and Kagel, Battistelli has written nearly 20 operas on subjects ranging from Diderot and d'Alembert's...	Teorema	the composer, loosely after the film by Pier Paolo Pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini was an Italian film director, poet, writer, and intellectual. Pasolini distinguished himself as a poet, journalist, philosopher, linguist, novelist, playwright, filmmaker, newspaper and magazine columnist, actor, painter and political figure...
16 May 1992	WP	Gerhard Stäbler Gerhard Stäbler Gerhard Stäbler is a German contemporary composer.In 1968 he enrolled in the composition program at the Nordwestdeutsche Musikakademie in Detmold and continued his education at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, where he studied with Nicolaus A. Huber and Gerd Zacher...	Sünde.Fall.Beil	Andreas Lechner (de), after the drama Catherine Howard by Alexandre Dumas père
22 May 1992		Param Vir Param Vir Param Vir is a British composer originally from India.Born in Delhi, Param Vir read philosophy at Delhi University and studied composition in England with Peter Maxwell Davies and Oliver Knussen....	Broken Strings	David Rudkin David Rudkin James David Rudkin is an English playwright of Northern Irish descent. Coming from a family of strict evangelical Christians, Rudkin was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham and read Mods and Greats at St Catherine's College, Oxford... , after the Buddhist story Guttil Jatak
22 May 1992		Param Vir Param Vir Param Vir is a British composer originally from India.Born in Delhi, Param Vir read philosophy at Delhi University and studied composition in England with Peter Maxwell Davies and Oliver Knussen....	Snatched by the Gods	William Radice William Radice William Radice is a Poet, Writer and Translator.He is the Senior Lecturer in Bengali in the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.His research area is in Bengali language and literature.... , after the poem Debatar Gras by Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature...
01 May 1994	WP	Tania León Tania Leon Tania León is a Cuban composer and conductor who has been recognized as an educator and advisor to arts organizations.-León's Music:...	Scourge of Hyacinths	the composer, after the radio play by Wole Soyinka Wole Soyinka Akinwande Oluwole "Wole" Soyinka is a Nigerian writer, poet and playwright. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, where he was recognised as a man "who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence", and became the first African in Africa and...
19 May 1994	WP	Benedict Mason Benedict Mason Benedict Mason, born on 23 February 1954, is a British composer.Mason was educated at King's College Cambridge and took a degree in film-making at the Royal College of Art . He did not turn to composition until his early 30s, but his first acknowledged work, Hinterstoisser Traverse , attracted...	Playing Away	Howard Brenton Howard Brenton -Early years:Brenton was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, son of Methodist minister Donald Henry Brenton and his wife Rose Lilian . He was educated at Chichester High School For Boys and read English Literature at St Catharine's College, Cambridge. In 1964 he was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal...
04 Dec 1996	WP	Michael Obst Michael Obst (composer) Michael Obst is a German composer and pianist.-Life:At first Obst studied music education from 1973 to 1978 in Mainz, and from 1977 to 1982 studied piano with Alfons Kontarsky and Aloys Kontarsky at the Hochschule für Musik Köln, where he sat his piano examination in 1982...	Solaris	the composer, after the novel Solaris (novel) Solaris is a 1961 Polish science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem. It is about the ultimate inadequacy of communication between human and non-human species....  by Stanislaw Lem Stanislaw Lem Stanisław Lem was a Polish writer of science fiction, philosophy and satire. He was named a Knight of the Order of the White Eagle. His books have been translated into 41 languages and have sold over 27 million copies. He is perhaps best known as the author of the 1961 novel Solaris, which has...
09 Dec 1996	WP	Hanna Kulenty Hanna Kulenty Hanna Kulenty is a Polish composer of contemporary classical music. Since 1992, she has worked and lived both in Warsaw and in Arnhem .- Musical education :...	The Mother of Black-Winged Dreams	Paul Goodwin
14 Apr 1997	WP	Roderick Watkins Roderick Watkins Roderick Watkins is a composer and Professor of Composition and Contemporary Music at Canterbury Christ Church University, Kent, England....	The Juniper Tree	Patricia Debney, after the folk tale by the Brothers Grimm Brothers Grimm The Brothers Grimm , Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who collected folklore and published several collections of it as Grimm's Fairy Tales, which became very popular...
19 Apr 1998	WP	Toshio Hosokawa Toshio Hosokawa is a Japanese composer of contemporary classical music.-Biography:Hosokawa studied with Yun Isang at the Berlin University of the Arts. Since 1998, Hosokawa has served as Composer-in-Residence at the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. In 2004, Hosokawa became a guest professor at Tokyo College of Music...	Vision of Lear	Tadashi Suzuki Tadashi Suzuki Tadashi Suzuki is a theatre director, writer and philosopher working out of Toga, Toyama, Japan. Suzuki is the founder and director of the Suzuki Company of Toga , organizer of Japan’s first international theatre festival , co-founder of the Saratoga International Theatre Institute in Saratoga... , after his stage play The Tale of Lear
21 Apr 1998	WP	Sandeep Bhagwati Sandeep Bhagwati Sandeep Bhagwati is an Indian composer of western classical music and an academic teacher.Sandeep Bhagwati was born in Bombay, now Mumbai, as the son of a German mother and an Indian father. He has lived in Germany since age five...	Ramanujan	the composer, after the life of Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan Srinivasa Ramanujan Srīnivāsa Aiyangār Rāmānujan FRS, better known as Srinivasa Iyengar Ramanujan was a Indian mathematician and autodidact who, with almost no formal training in pure mathematics, made extraordinary contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series and continued fractions...  (1887-1920)
25 Apr 1998	WP	Jan Müller-Wieland Jan Müller-Wieland Jan Müller-Wieland is a German composer and conductor of classical music and an academic teacher. He is known for his operas.-Professional career:...		the composer, after the drama by Federico García Lorca Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...
19 Apr 1999	WP	Mauricio Sotelo Mauricio Sotelo Mauricio Sotelo , is a Spanish composer.He started his musical studies at the conservatory of Madrid, before moving to Vienna to study composition with Francis Burt at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst, Wien...	De Amore	Peter Mussbach (de)
10 May 2000	WP	Chaya Czernowin Chaya Czernowin Chaya Czernowin is an Israeli composer, and Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music at Harvard University....	Pnima ... ins Innere
27 Apr 2002	WP	André Werner André Werner André Werner is a German composer of classical music.André Werner studied classical guitar and oboe at the Musikhochschule Bremen from 1980 to 1986, composition from 1986 to 1992 at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin with Frank Michael Beyer...	Marlowe: Der Jude von Malta	the composer, after the play The Jew of Malta The Jew of Malta The Jew of Malta is a play by Christopher Marlowe, probably written in 1589 or 1590. Its plot is an original story of religious conflict, intrigue, and revenge, set against a backdrop of the struggle for supremacy between Spain and the Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean that takes place on the... by Christopher Marlowe Christopher Marlowe Christopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedian, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May...
12 May 2004	WP	Johannes Maria Staud Johannes Maria Staud - Biography :Staud studied with, amongst others, Brian Ferneyhough and Michael Jarrell. He gained a publishing contract with Universal Edition in 2000, and since then has won numerous prizes, including a special music prize of the Austrian Republic , the composition award of the Salzburg Easter...	Berenice	Durs Grünbein Durs Grünbein Durs Grünbein is a German poet, living in Berlin since 1985.Grünbein is hailed as the most significant and successful poet to emerge from the former East Germany, and his work has been awarded many major German literary prizes, including the highest, the Georg-Büchner-Preis, which he won in 1995... , after Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
25 May 2004	WP	Brian Ferneyhough Brian Ferneyhough Brian John Peter Ferneyhough is an English composer. His music is characterized by the extensive use of complex rhythmic tuplet notation which features in all his works...	Shadowtime Shadowtime (opera) Shadowtime is the first opera by Brian Ferneyhough written to an English libretto by Charles Bernstein. It was written in 1999-2004 and was premiered on May 25, 2004 at the Prinzregententheater in Munich. The City of Munich commissioned the composition and libretto in 1999 for the Munich Biennale...	Charles Bernstein Charles Bernstein Charles Bernstein is an American poet, theorist, editor, and literary scholar. Bernstein holds the Donald T. Regan Chair in the Department of English at the University of Pennsylvania. He is one of the most prominent members of the Language poets . In 2006 he was elected a Fellow of the American...
09 May 2006	WP	Aureliano Cattaneo	La Philosophie dans le labyrinthe	Edoardo Sanguineti Edoardo Sanguineti Edoardo Sanguineti was an Italian writer who was born in Genoa.-Biography:During the 1960s he was a leader of the neo avant-garde Gruppo 63 movement, founded in 1963 at Solunto.... , after the Greek myth of the Minotaur
18 May 2006	WP	José María Sánchez-Verdú José María Sánchez-Verdú José María Sánchez-Verdú is a Spanish composer.He studied composition, conducting, and musicology at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música in Madrid, graduating in 1991, and was a lecturer there from 1991 to 1995. He later undertook postgraduate study in direction and composition...	GRAMMA	the composer
17 Apr 2008	WP	Enno Poppe Enno Poppe Enno Poppe is a German composer and conductor of classical music and an academic teacher.-Professional career:...	Arbeit Nahrung Wohnung	Marcel Beyer Marcel Beyer Marcel Beyer is a German writer.-Life:Marcel Beyer grew up in Kiel and Neuss. From 1987 to 1991 he studied German language and literature, English studies and Literary studies at the University of Siegen; in 1992 he obtained a Magister degree with a work on Friederike Mayröcker. Since 1987 he has... , loosely after the novel Robinson Crusoe Robinson Crusoe Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe that was first published in 1719. Epistolary, confessional, and didactic in form, the book is a fictional autobiography of the title character—a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and... by Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe , born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and along with others such as Richardson,...
18 Apr 2008	WP	Klaus Lang Klaus Lang Klaus Lang is an Austrian composer, concert organist and academic teacher.His opera Die Architektur des Regens after the Noh play Shiga by Zeami was premiered at the Munich Biennale in 2008....	Die Architektur des Regens	after the Noh play Shiga by Zeami (c1363–c1443)
23 Apr 2008	WP	Carola Bauckholt Carola Bauckholt Carola Bauckholt is a German composer. She was born in Krefeld, Germany, She worked at the theater at the Marienplatz in Krefeld and studied music with Mauricio Kagel the Cologne Musikhochschule from 1978-84....	hellhörig	(none)
30 Apr 2008	WP	Jens Joneleit Jens Joneleit Jens Gerd Joneleit is a German composer, known for his operas.-Early life and education:Jens Gerd Joneleit was born on 17 September 1968 in Offenbach am Main in Germany. His parents both played piano, and he learned music theory when he was only seven years old...	Piero – Ende der Nacht	Michael Herrschel, loosely after the novel Die Rote by Alfred Andersch Alfred Andersch Alfred Hellmuth Andersch was a German writer, publisher, and radio editor. The son of a conservative East Prussian army officer, he was born in Munich, Germany and died in Berzona, Ticino, Switzerland...
27 Apr 2010	WP	Philipp Maintz Philipp Maintz -Professional career:Maintz studied composition with Michael Reudenbach and Robert HP Platz, and electronic music with Karlheinz Essl. He studied further at the CRFMW of the University of Liège and the IRCAM . He received the Ernst von Siemens Composer' Prize in 2005...	Maldoror	Thomas Fiedler, after Les Chants de Maldoror Les Chants de Maldoror Les Chants de Maldoror is a poetic novel consisting of six cantos. It was written between 1868 and 1869 by the Comte de Lautréamont, the pseudonym of Isidore Lucien Ducasse... by Comte de Lautréamont Comte de Lautréamont Comte de Lautréamont was the pseudonym of Isidore Lucien Ducasse , an Uruguayan-born French poet....
28 Apr 2010	WP	Márton Illés Márton Illés Márton Illés , is a Hungarian composer and pianist.Illés received musical training in piano, composition and percussion in Győr from 1981 to 1994. In 1993 he spent one academical term at the conservatory of Zurich wit pianist Hadassa Schwimmer. He studied the piano with László Gyimesi at the...	Die weiße Fürstin	after the first draft of the dramatic poem by Rainer Maria Rilke Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke , better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language...
05 May 2010	WP	Klaus Schedl Klaus Schedl Klaus Schedl is a German composer.Klaus Schedl studied from 1991 to 1996 composition with Hans-Jürgen von Bose at the Salzburg Mozarteum and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München. In 1993 he founded the piano possibile ensemble for contemporary music. From 1998 he taught at the...	Tilt	Roland Quitt, after the diary of Sir Walter Raleigh Walter Raleigh Sir Walter Raleigh was an English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer. He is also well known for popularising tobacco in England....
05 May 2010	WP	Tato Taborda	Der Einsturz des Himmels	Roland Quitt, after the book La Chute du Ciel by Davi Kopenawa and Bruce Albert
05 May 2010	WP	Ludger Brummer (web)	In Erwartung	Peter Weibel Peter Weibel Peter Weibel is an artist, curator and theoretician.Raised in Upper Austria he started to study French and cinematography in Paris...
09 May 2010	WP	Lin Wang	Die Quelle	the composer and Can Xue, after a story by Can Xue
03 May 2012	WP	Sarah Nemtsov Sarah Nemtsov Sarah Nemstov is a German composer.Nemtsov was born in Oldenburg and started her music lessons and composing aged eight. She started playing the oboe aged 14....	L'Absence	the composer, after Livre des Questions by Edmond Jabès Edmond Jabes ----Edmond Jabès was a Jewish writer and poet, and one of the best known literary figures to write in French after World War II.- Life :...
05 May 2012	WP	Eunyoung Esther Kim (web)	Mama Dolorosa	Yona Kim
16 May 2012	WP	Arnulf Herrmann Arnulf Herrmann Arnulf Herrmann is a German composer.After studying piano with Gernot Sieber at the Richard Strauss Conservatorium Munich he enrolled at the Musikhochschule Dresden, where he studied composition with Wilfried Krätzschmar and piano with Arkadi Zenzipér...	Wasser	Nico Bleutge (lyrics)

Significance

The Munich Biennale has provided first or early commissions for stage works from many composers now established as opera composers, such as Mark-Anthony Turnage

Mark-Anthony Turnage

Mark-Anthony Turnage is a prolific English composer of classical music. His initial musical studies were with Oliver Knussen, John Lambert, and later with Gunther Schuller...

, Detlev Glanert

Detlev Glanert

Detlev Glanert is a German opera composer, who has also composed numerous works for chamber and full orchestra, including three symphonies.-Biography:Detlev Glanert was born in Hamburg in 1960...

, Gerd Kühr

Gerd Kühr

Gerd Kühr, also Gerd Kuhr, is an Austrian conductor, composer of classical music and academic teacher....

, Hans-Jürgen von Bose

Hans-Jürgen von Bose

Hans-Jürgen von Bose is a German Composer.-Life:After an unsettled adolescence, Bose entered the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt in 1969, where he received instruction in piano and music theory...

, Param Vir

Param Vir

Param Vir is a British composer originally from India.Born in Delhi, Param Vir read philosophy at Delhi University and studied composition in England with Peter Maxwell Davies and Oliver Knussen....

, Toshio Hosokawa

Toshio Hosokawa

is a Japanese composer of contemporary classical music.-Biography:Hosokawa studied with Yun Isang at the Berlin University of the Arts. Since 1998, Hosokawa has served as Composer-in-Residence at the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. In 2004, Hosokawa became a guest professor at Tokyo College of Music...

 and Violeta Dinescu

Violeta Dinescu

Violeta Dinescu is a Romanian composer, pianist and professor, living in Germany since 1982.-Romania:Violeta Dinescu began her studies of music in 1972 at the conservatory Ciprian Porumbescu in Bucharest, composition with Myriam Marbe. In 1978 she received her master's degree, with distinction...

.

The strongly international scope of the festival has meant that it has been able to offer opportunities missing at a national level.

External links

• Peter & Alexa Woolf: Munich Biennale 2000 (Contemporary Music Festival) 4-19 May 2000 (PGW & AW) musicweb-international.com 2000
• John Warnaby: Tenth Münchener Biennale musicweb-international.com 20 May 2006
• Komponieren für die reine Natur Münchener Merkur 23 April 2010
• Münchener Biennale / Urwald-Symphonie und surrealer Seelentrip Bayerischer Rundfunk
  Bayerischer Rundfunk
  Bayerischer Rundfunk [Bavarian Broadcasting] is the public broadcasting authority for the German Freistaat of Bavaria, with its main offices located in Munich. BR is a member of ARD.- Legal foundation :...
  
   14 May 2010
• Gerhard Rohde: Münchener Biennale / Wozu der ganze Aufwand? FAZ
  Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
  The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , short F.A.Z., also known as the FAZ, is a national German newspaper, founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt am Main. The Sunday edition is the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung .F.A.Z...
  
  12 May 2010