Composer, conductor, music manager, educator: in Oliver Knussen, who died on 8 July 2018, the music world has lost one of its giants.

Beat Furrer is to be awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize 2018 for his life’s work. The award ceremony takes place on 3 May 2018 in the Prinzregententheater Munich.

His work as a composer, organist, musicologist and culture manager makes Thomas Daniel Schlee one of the most versatile personalities in musical life today. Olivier Messiaen gave his former pupil a brilliant endorsement: “Thomas Daniel Schlee is an open spirit and a cultured man. He loves music passionately. He is an outstanding organist and an extremely gifted composer. His works reflect a high intellectual striving and a true originality with regard to their ‘écriture’ and sound colours.” His forthcoming 60th birthday on 26 october is marked by numerous performances of his compositions, including the Austrian premiere of  Spes unica op. 72 by the RSO Vienna under Cornelius Meister on 19.10.2017 in the Konzerthaus Wien, and the first performance of his Suite op. 82 on 24.10.2017 in the Musikverein Vienna as well as Bis by the Bamberg Symphony under Manfred Honeck on 18. and 19.11.2017.

“Krenek has an insatiable musical curiosity and, with regard to exterior influences, he is perfectly capable of adopting the attitude:  ‘I have to try everything once’  ... His work tends to be lyrical, elegiac and euphonic: qualities that characterize this uniquely generous, self-possessed, peaceable personality. He is truly the opposite of an  ‘artist as egotist’.” No lesser than Glenn Gould formulated this wonderful homage. Although his name is widely known, Ernst Krenek is one of those classics of the 20th century whose oeuvre still contains much to be discovered. Gladys Krenek, his wife and faithful companion, died on 5 July 2016 in Palm Springs, a few days after she had answered these questions.

The Bamberg Symphony conducted by Manfred Honeck perform Thomas Daniel Schlee’s Rufe zu mir for orchestra and solo organ with Christian Schmitt as soloist. Schlee describes his concertante music as a “symphonic scene”. It begins with an invocation, a “De profundis” in the orchestra, which symbolizes mankind, the world. Its eloquent title reveals the sacred allusion which acts “as a magical power” in the imposing work. Performances take place on 16 and 17 January 2016. – (Photo: Herbert Lehmann)

Miloslav Kabeláč is one of the most important Czech composers of the 20th century. He can indisputably be described as the greatest symphonist of the generation after Bohuslav Martinů..

(1.10.2014) Manfred Trojahn’s highly-acclaimed music theatre work Orest receives its Austrian premiere. Trojahn, who celebrates his 65th birthday on 22 October 2014, was acclaimed in the press for his work, premiered at the Nederlandse Opera in 2011; it was described in reviews as a “burningly intense” piece on the myth of matricide. The music theatre work will be staged by Neue Oper Wien, the amadeus ensemble-wien and the Vienna Chamber Choir in a production by Philipp M. Krenn. The conductor is Walter Kobéra.