Heiner Goebbels

Heiner Goebbels (born 17 August 1952) is a German composer, director and professor at Justus-Liebig-University in Gießen and artistic director of the International Festival of the Arts Ruhrtriennale 2012 - 2014.

Biography

Goebbels, who studied sociology and music in Frankfurt/Main,[1] is a composer of ensemble works and compositions for large orchestra, he created several prize-winning radio plays, staged concerts, and since the early 90's music theatre works, which are invited to the most important theatre- and music festivals worldwide.

Goebbels co-founded the "Sogenanntes Linksradikales Blasorchester" (1976-1981) and avant-rock group Cassiber (1982–1992) with Alfred Harth, Chris Cutler and Christoph Anders. They toured extensively across Europe, Asia and North America, and made five albums. In October 1983 Cassiber (minus Anders) joined Duck and Cover, a commission from the Berlin Jazz Festival, for a performance in West Berlin, followed by another in February 1984 in East Berlin.

Some of his better-known work originated from his close collaboration with the East German writer Heiner Müller, resulting in stage compositions as well as shorter pieces (concerts as well as audio plays) based on Müller texts,[1] such as Verkommenes Ufer (Waste Shore, 1984), Die Befreiung des Prometheus (The Liberation of Prometheus, 1985), or Wolokolamsker Chaussee (Volokolamsk Highway, 1989). Goebbels' attempts to fill the space between theatre and opera left blank due to traditional genre borderline drawing has led to projects such as "Ou bien le débarquement désastreux" (Paris 1993), Schwarz auf Weiss (Black on White, 1996)[1] and Die Wiederholung (The Repetition, 1995). The political nature of his work is often referred to by critics. His interest in Heiner Müller can partly be explained by the political character of Müller's texts, as may be the case with his interest in Bertolt Brecht and Hanns Eisler, works by the latter he used in composing his staged concert Eislermaterial (1998). 1998 he also created the music theatre play "Max Black" with words by Paul Valery and others, in 2000 "Hashirigaki" after Gertrude Stein, 2002 his first opera "Landscape with distant relatives", 2004 the price winning "Eraritjaritjaka" with words by Elias Canetti, followed 2007 by the performative installation "Stifters Dinge" which has been performed more than 300 times in four continents. 2007 followed the staged concert "Songs of Wars I have seen" with words by Gertrude Stein - a commission by the London Sinfonietta and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, 2008 "I went to the House but did not enter" with the Hilliard Ensemble and words by Maurice Blanchot, Samuel Beckett a.o. In 2012 he created "When the Mountain changed its clothing" with the Choir Carmina Slovenica, and staged John Cage's "Europeras 1&2" 2012 and Harry Partch's Delusion of the Fury 2013 and Louis Andriessen's De Materie for the Ruhrtriennale International Festival of the Arts.

Goebbels' work is being increasingly acknowledged as he is being played and staged around the world and as his recordings are being published. He collaborated with the finest ensembles and orchestras - Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble musikFabrik, Asko/Schönberg, Berg Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Bochumer Symphoniker, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Brooklyn Philharmonic and many others and worked with conductors like Sir Simon Rattle, Peter Eotvos, Lothar Zagrosek, Peter Rundel, Steven Sloane and many others. In 2000 he collaborated with Piano Circus and composer Richard Harris to produce Scutigeras, which received a live BBC radio premiere in the UK. His Surrogate Cities, a work for big orchestra dating from 1994 and featuring texts from Paul Auster, Heiner Müller, and Hugo Hamilton, has been performed widely in Europe, the US and Australia and was nominated for a Grammy in the category Best Classical Contemporary Composition at the 43rd Grammy Awards in 2001.[2] His Eislermaterial won him another Grammy nomination at the 46th Grammy Awards in 2004, this time in the category Best Small Ensemble Performance (with or without conductor).[3]

His installative artwork "Stifters Dinge - the Unguided Tour" has been presented by Artangel in London (2012) and at the Ruhrtriennale in Duisburg (2013), "Genko-An" in Berlin (2008), Darmstadt Artists' Colony/Mathildenhöhe (2012) and Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon (2014). For the Centre Pompidou Paris he created the soundinstallations "Fin de Soleil" and "Timée"(2000) which was also exhibited at the ZKM Karlsruhe, the MACBA Barcelona, in Brugge and in Palazzo delle Esposizioni/Rome. He also closely collaborated on several videoinstallations with visual artist Michal Rovner. 1982, 1987 and 1997 he participated with concerts, installative works and performing arts at the documenta in Kassel

Goebbels is a professor at Justus-Liebig-University in Gießen, Institute for Applied Theater Studies, and at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.[2] Since 2006 he is the President of the Theater Academy of Hesse. In recent years Goebbels enjoyed the privilege of several guest professorships and nominations for composer-in-residence.,[1] he is member of several academies of arts (Berlin, Bensheim, Düsseldorf, Mainz, Munich), Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Berlin, Honorable Fellow at the Dartington College of the Arts and the Central School of Speech and Drama, London. In 2012 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Birmingham City University.

He received numerous awards and honours, such as Prix Italia, Europe Theatre Prize, and 2012 the International Ibsen Award, one of the world's most prestigious theatre awards, for bringing "new artistic dimensions to the world of drama or theatre.".

In September 2010, it was announced that Goebbels was the artistic director designate for the 2012-14 seasons of the Ruhrtriennale.[4]

As artistic director of this Festival Heiner Goebbels curated, produced and presented several new works by the artists Robert Wilson, Romeo Castellucci, Michal Rovner, Boris Charmatz, Robert Lepage, Jan Lauwers, Ryoji Ikeda, Douglas Gordon, William Forsythe, Lemi Ponifasio, Mathilde Monnier, Saburo Teshigawara, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Rimini Protokoll, Tim Etchells, Gregor Schneider and many others.

Works (Selection)

Stage works

Orchestra works

Ensemble works

Chamber music

Installative works

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 Program for Pacific Musicworks / Seattle Chamber Players performance of Heiner Goebbels Songs of Wars I Have Seen, On the Boards, Seattle, March 4–6, 2010.
  2. 1 2 "Heiner Goebbels Faculty Page at European Graduate School (Biography, bibliography and video lectures)". European Graduate School. Retrieved 2010-09-25.
  3. ↑ ECM and its artists received eight nominations for the 46th Grammy Awards. All about jazz, 2003-12-19.
  4. ↑ "Heiner Goebbels is Artistic Director designate". Ruhrtriennale. Retrieved 2011-03-10.
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