Johannes Wolfgang Zender (22 November 1936 – 22 October 2019) was a German conductor and composer. He was the chief conductor of several opera houses, and his compositions, many of them vocal music, have been performed at international festivals. As a conductor, he worked at the Theater Freiburg,

Theater Bonn Theater Bonn (also known as the Stadttheater Bonn) is the municipal theatre company of Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is an organization that produces operas, musicals, ballets, plays, and concerts. It operates several performance venu ...

Opernhaus Kiel Opernhaus Kiel (Kiel Opera House) is the major venue for opera, ballet, and orchestral performances in Kiel, and home to Theater Kiel. It is a Grade II listed building. History After an architectural competition, the Kiel City Council commi ...

and

Hamburg State Opera The Hamburg State Opera (in German: Staatsoper Hamburg) is a German opera company based in Hamburg. Its theatre is near the square of Gänsemarkt. Since 2015, the current ''Intendant'' of the company is Georges Delnon, and the current ''Gener ...

, and led the radio orchestra

Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern The Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern (German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern) is a German radio orchestra. Its administrative headquarters is in Saarbrücken, at the ''Funkhaus Halberg''. The orc ...

. He taught at the

Musikhochschule Frankfurt The Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts (german: Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main, italic=no, link=no, HfMDK) is a state Hochschule for music, theatre and dance in Frankfurt and is the only one of its ...

. His opera '' Stephen Climax'' premiered in 1986 at the

Oper Frankfurt The Oper Frankfurt (Frankfurt Opera) is a German opera company based in Frankfurt. Opera in Frankfurt am Main has a long tradition, with many world premieres such as Franz Shrek's ''Der ferne Klang'' in 1912, '' Fennimore und Gerda'' by Frede ...

, and his third opera, ''Chief Joseph'', premiered in 2005 at the

Staatsoper Unter den Linden The (), also known as the Berlin State Opera (german: Staatsoper Berlin), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic center of Berlin, Germany. The opera house was built by order of Prussian king Frederick the Great from ...

Career

Born in

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

, Zender attended the Maifestspiele at age 13, listening to concerts conducted by

Carl Schuricht Carl Adolph Schuricht (; 3 July 18807 January 1967) was a German conductor. Life and career Schuricht was born in Danzig (Gdańsk), German Empire; his father's family had been respected organ-builders. His mother, Amanda Wusinowska, a widow soo ...

, Karl Böhm and

Günter Wand Günter Wand (7 January 1912, in Elberfeld, Germany – 14 February 2002, in Ulmiz near Bern, Switzerland) was a German orchestra conductor and composer. Wand studied in Wuppertal, Allenstein and Detmold. At the Cologne Conservatory, he was a co ...

, among others. He took piano lessons and learned to play the

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

. From 1949, he went each year to the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, where he got to know trends in new music by

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groundb ...

Olivier Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithology, ornithologist who was one of the major composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th century. His m ...

and

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading f ...

. He studied piano, conducting, and composition (the latter with

Wolfgang Fortner Wolfgang Fortner (12 October 1907 – 5 September 1987) was a German composer, composition teacher and conductor. Life Fortner was born in Leipzig. From his parents, who were both singers, Fortner very early on had intense contact with music. ...

) at the Hochschule für Musik Frankfurt and the

Hochschule für Musik Freiburg ' (, plural: ') is the generic term in German for institutions of higher education, corresponding to ''universities'' and ''colleges'' in English. The term ''Universität'' (plural: ''Universitäten'') is reserved for institutions with the right to ...

from 1956 to 1959. He was trained as a concert pianist by

Edith Picht-Axenfeld Edith Picht-Axenfeld (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1 January 1914 – Hinterzarten, 19 April 2001) was a German pianist and harpsichordist. Career She started her concert career in 1935, and took part two years later in the III International Chopin Pian ...

. From 1959 to 1963 Zender was

Kapellmeister (, also , ) from German ''Kapelle'' (chapel) and ''Meister'' (master)'','' literally "master of the chapel choir" designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians. Originally used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel, the term ha ...

of the Theater Freiburg, then principal conductor at the

from 1964 to 1968. In 1964–65 he attended the Second Cologne Courses for New Music at the Rheinische Musikhochschule, under the artistic direction of Stockhausen. In 1968 he was called to

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...

, where he was

Generalmusikdirektor A music(al) director or director of music is the person responsible for the musical aspects of a performance, production, or organization. This would include the artistic director and usually chief conductor of an orchestra or concert band, the di ...

(GMD) of the

until 1972. From 1971, he also was principal conductor of the

Radio Symphony Orchestra The Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (German: ''Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR'') was a German radio orchestra based in Stuttgart in Germany. History The ensemble was founded in 1945 by American occupation authorities as the orches ...

Saarbrücken Saarbrücken (; french: link=no, Sarrebruck ; Rhine Franconian: ''Saarbrigge'' ; lb, Saarbrécken ; lat, Saravipons, lit=The Bridge(s) across the Saar river) is the capital and largest city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken is ...

. In 1984, Zender became head of the

and GMD of the orchestra there. From 1987 to 1990, he was chief conductor of the Chamber Orchestra of Radio Netherlands in

Hilversum Hilversum () is a city and municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the heart of the Gooi, it is the largest urban centre in that area. It is surrounded by heathland, woods, meadows, lakes, and smaller towns. Hilver ...

. From 1999 to 2011, he was the permanent guest conductor and a member of the artistic board of the SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg, now part of the

SWR Symphonieorchester The SWR Symphonieorchester (Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra) is a radio orchestra affiliated with the '' Südwestrundfunk'' (Southwest German Radio) public broadcasting network. Formed in 2016, the orchestra is administratively based in ...

. Zender's opera '' Stephen Climax'', with his own

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major li ...

based on

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the Modernism, modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important ...

and

Hugo Ball Hugo Ball (; 22 February 1886 – 14 September 1927) was a German author, poet, and essentially the founder of the Dada movement in European art in Zürich in 1916. Among other accomplishments, he was a pioneer in the development of sound poetry. ...

, was premiered on 15 June 1986 at the

, staged by Alfred Kirchner and conducted by Peter Hirsch. His third opera, ''Chief Joseph'', based on

Chief Joseph ''Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt'' (or ''Hinmatóowyalahtq̓it'' in Americanist orthography), popularly known as Chief Joseph, Young Joseph, or Joseph the Younger (March 3, 1840 – September 21, 1904), was a leader of the Wal-lam-wat-kain (Wallowa ...

, was premiered in June 2005 at the

, staged by and conducted by

Johannes Kalitzke Johannes Kalitzke (born 12 February 1959) is a German composer and conductor. After studying in Cologne and at the IRCAM in Paris, he was chief conductor at the Musiktheater im Revier in Gelsenkirchen for several years, then led the ensemble musi ...

. From 1988 until 2000, Zender taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt. Among his students was

Isabel Mundry Isabel Mundry (born 20 April 1963) is a German composer. Life and work Isabel Mundry was born in Schlüchtern (Germany) in 1963 and studied composition at the Hochschule der Künste and electronic music, musicology and history at the Berlin Tec ...

. Invited by

Walter Fink Walter Fink (16 August 1930 – 13 April 2018) was a German entrepreneur and a patron of contemporary classical music. He is known for being a founding member, executive committee member and sponsor of the Rheingau Musik Festival, where he initi ...

, he was in 2011 the 21st composer featured in the annual Komponistenporträt of the Rheingau Musik Festival. Music in a chamber concert included ''denn wiederkommen (Hölderlin lesen III)'' for string quartet and speaking voice (1991) and ''Mnemosyne (Hölderlin lesen IV)'' for female voice, string quartet, and tape (2000), performed by

Salome Kammer Salome Kammer (born 17 January 1959 in Nidda, Hesse, West Germany) is a German actress, singer and cellist. Professional career Kammer was the fourth of six children. Her father was a Protestant pastor. Although born in Nidda, she grew up in ...

and the Athena Quartet. A symphony concert was given by the

SWR Vokalensemble SWR Vokalensemble is the vocal ensemble of the broadcaster Südwestrundfunk (SWR), based in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1946 as Südfunk-Chor Stuttgart in 1946 to perform studio work for Süddeutscher Rundfunk (SDR) which merged in 199 ...

and SWR Symphonieorchester conducted by , including ''Schubert-Chöre'', featuring Zender's adaptations of four Schubert choral works with orchestral rather than the original piano accompaniment, written in the 1980s. Zender died on 22 October 2019 in

Meersburg Meersburg () is a town in Baden-Württemberg in the southwest of Germany. It is on Lake Constance. It is known for its medieval city. The lower town ("Unterstadt") and upper town ("Oberstadt") are reserved for pedestrians only, and connected by t ...

, Germany.

Compositions

Many of Zender's works were published by

Breitkopf & Härtel Breitkopf & Härtel is the world's oldest music publishing house. The firm was founded in 1719 in Leipzig by Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf. The catalogue currently contains over 1,000 composers, 8,000 works and 15,000 music editions or books on ...

. The published works are held by the

German National Library The German National Library (DNB; german: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to colle ...

, including: * ''Canto I–VI'' for various forces ** I: for choir, flute, piano, strings and percussion (1965) ** II: for soprano, choir and orchestra on a text by

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

(1967) ** III: for soprano, tenor, baritone, ten instruments and live-electronics on texts by

Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-emin ...

(1968) ** IV: for 16 voices and 16 instruments (1969/72) ** V: for voices with optional percussion (1972/74) ** VI: for bass-baritone, a capella mixed choir, and optional tape (1988) * ''3 Rondels nach Mallarmé'' (3 Rondels after Mallarmé) for alto, flute and viola (1966); words by

Stéphane Mallarmé Stéphane Mallarmé ( , ; 18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), pen name of Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of ...

* ''Modelle'' for variable forces (1971–73) * ''Zeitströme'' for orchestra (1974) * ''Elemente'', tape montage for two loudspeaker groups (1976) * ''Hölderlin lesen I'' for string quartet with sprechstimme (1979); words by

Friedrich Hölderlin Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin (, ; ; 20 March 1770 – 7 June 1843) was a German poet and philosopher. Described by Norbert von Hellingrath as "the most German of Germans", Hölderlin was a key figure of German Romanticism. Part ...

* ''Hölderlin lesen II'' for sprechstimme, viola, and live-electronics (1987); words by Friedrich Hölderlin * ''"denn wiederkommen" (Hölderlin lesen III)'' for string quartet and sprechstimme (1991) * ''Mnemosyne (Hölderlin lesen IV)'' for female voice, string quartet, and tape (2000) * ''Fünf Haiku (LO-SHU IV)'' for flute and strings (1982) * ''Dialog mit Haydn'' for two pianos and three orchestral groups (1982) * '' Stephen Climax'', opera (1979–84, premiered in 1986) * ''Don Quijote de la Mancha'', opera (1989–91, premiered in 1993; new version 1994, premiered in 1999) * ''Schuberts "Winterreise" — Eine komponierte Interpretation'' for tenor and small orchestra (1993) * ''Shir Hashirim—Lied der Lieder (Canto VIII)'', oratorio for soli, choir, orchestra, and live-electronics (1992/96, complete première in 1998) * ''Schumann-Fantasie'' for large orchestra (1997) * ''Chief Joseph'', on the life of

, musical theatre in three acts (premiered in 2005)

Writings

* Zender, Hans. 2004. ''Die Sinne denken. Texte zur Musik 1975-2003''. Edited by

Jörn Peter Hiekel Jörn Peter Hiekel (born 1963) is a German musicologist. Life Born in Göttingen, Hiekel first studied musicology, art history and history at the universities of Cologne and Bonn before he completed his double bass studies at the Musikhochsch ...

. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel. (a nearly complete edition of Zender's writings) * ———.1999. "A Road Map for Orpheus?" In ''Theory into Practice: Composition, Performance, and the Listening Experience''. Collected writings of the Orpheus Institute 2. Edited by Peter Dejans. Leuven: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. * ———. 1991. ''Happy New Ears. Das Abenteuer, Musik zu hören''. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder. * ———. 1998. ''Wir steigen niemals in denselben Fluß. Wie Musikhören sich wandelt''. Second edition. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder.

Awards

Zender's awards include: * 1963/64:

Villa Massimo Villa Massimo, short for Deutsche Akademie Rom Villa Massimo ( it, Accademia Tedesca Roma Villa Massimo), is a German cultural institution in Rome, established in 1910 and located in the Villa Massimo. The fellowship of the German Academy in Rom ...

scholarship * 1968/69: Villa Massimo second scholarship * 1980: * 1997: Frankfurter Musikpreis * 1997: Goethe Prize of Frankfurt * 2002:

Hessian Cultural Prize The Hessian Cultural Prize (german: link=no, Hessischer Kulturpreis) is an annual German culture prize awarded by the Government of Hesse. The prize was established in 1982. With a trophy of 60,000 German marks, now 45,000 Euro, it is currently t ...

* 2011: Preis der Europäischen KirchenmusikDer Komponist Hans Zender erhält den Preis der Europäischen Kirchenmusik 2011

Schwäbisch Gmünd Schwäbisch Gmünd (, until 1934: Gmünd; Swabian: ''Gmẽẽd'' or ''Gmend'') is a city in the eastern part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. With a population of around 60,000, the city is the second largest in the Ostalb district and ...

, 20 January 2011

Career

Compositions

Writings

Awards

Further reading

References

External links