Wolfgang Rihm

Wolfgang Rihm, Germany - member of the composition jury 2015

Born in 1952 in Karlsruhe, Wolfgang Rihm studied at the Karlsruhe Music Academy with Eugen Werner Velte, Wolfgang Fortner and Humphrey Searle, then with Karlheinz Stockhausen in Cologne and Klaus Huber in Fribourg. Professor at the Karlsruhe Music Academy since 1985, he sits on a number of committees, including the Heinrich Strobel Institute and the radio SWR Baden-Baden.

Wolfgang Rihm’s compositions now outnumber 400 works. He is recipient of a great number of awards, including the Stuttgart Prize (1974), the City of Mannheim Prize (1975), the Ernst von Siemens Prize (2003), the Medal of Merit of the state of Baden-Württemberg (2008), the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale (2010) and the German Order of Merit (2011).

Rihm is gifted with extraordinary knowledge in all domains and holds a true passion for painting and literature. He has composed a series of operas including Jakob Lenz (1978) after Büchner, Die Hamletmaschine with Heiner Müller, Oedipus (1987), after Sophocle, Hölderlin, Nietzsche and Müller, Die Eroberung von Mexico (1991) after Artaud and Dionysos Eine Opernphantasie (2009-2010) after Nietzsch. His work is often articulated in cycles: Chiffre (1982-1988), Séraphin (1992-2011) and covers chamber music, concertos for ensemble or orchestra and even theatre works. In 2012, he completed the cycle for orchestra Nähe fern 1-4. His Quartets (12 of them) are performed around the world.

Long biography (Universal Editions)