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Johannes Kalitzke

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Johannes Kalitzke is a German composer and conductor, born in Cologne in 1959. He had piano lessons from 1967 to 1977, studied church music from 1974 to 1976 and then at the Musikhochschule Köln, with piano under Aloys Kontarsky, conducting under Wolfgang von der Nahmer and composition under York Höller, among others. Later he worked at IRCAM in Paris.

Music and breakthrough

From 1984 to 1990 he was first Kapellmeister and then chief conductor at the Musiktheater im Revier in Gelsenkirchen, and from 1986 director of the Forum für Neue Musik. From 1991 he was artistic director of the ensemble musikFabrik. Since 1996 he has taught at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, and since 2015 he has been professor of conducting contemporary music at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

Influence

He wrote five operas. The first, Bericht über den Tod des Musikers Jack Tiergarten, premiered in 1996 at the Munich Biennale. Molière oder die Henker der Komödianten followed in 1998 and Inferno in 2004. His fifth opera, Pym, based on the novel by Edgar Allan Poe, premiered in Heidelberg in 2016. There are also recordings of his orchestral works, symphonies and chamber music, and of Lost Highway, based on the film by David Lynch. Kalitzke stands for contemporary art music in Germany, as a writer and as a conductor who makes new works performable.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to an excerpt by Kalitzke and notice the way the orchestra and the soloists set unexpected, sharp tone colours side by side.

Discography

Studio albums

Categories: Artists