Matthias Pintscher (born 29 January 1971) is a German

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...

and conductor. As a youth, he studied the violin and conducting.

Life and career

Pintscher was born in Marl, North Rhine-Westphalia. He began his music studies with

Giselher Klebe Giselher Wolfgang Klebe (28 June 19255 October 2009) was a German composer, and an academic teacher. He composed more than 140 works, among them 14 operas, all based on literary works, eight symphonies, 15 solo concerts, chamber music, piano work ...

in 1988 at the

Hochschule für Musik Detmold The Hochschule für Musik Detmold is a university-level music school situated in Detmold, Germany. Academics The Hochschule offers performance degrees in composition, all orchestral instruments, piano, voice, opera, art-song, conducting, as we ...

, in

Detmold Detmold () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with a population of . It was the capital of the small Principality of Lippe from 1468 until 1918 and then of the Free State of Lippe until 1947. Today it is the administrative center of t ...

. In 1990, he met

Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large oeuvre of works is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as ...

, and in 1991 and 1992, he was invited to Henze's summer school in Montepulciano,

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. He later studied with German composer and flutist

Manfred Trojahn Manfred Trojahn (born 22 October 1949) is a German composer, flautist, conductor and writer. Career Trojahn was born Cremlingen in Lower Saxony and began his musical studies in 1966 in orchestra music at the music school of Braunschweig. After grad ...

. He held a Daniel R Lewis Young Composer Fellowship with the

Cleveland Orchestra The Cleveland Orchestra, based in Cleveland, is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the " Big Five". Founded in 1918 by the pianist and impresario Adella Prentiss Hughes, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Se ...

from 2000 to 2002. In October 2010, Pintscher became the first Artist-in-Association with the

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBC SSO) is a Scottish broadcasting symphony orchestra based in Glasgow. One of five full-time orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation ( BBC), it is the oldest full-time professional r ...

. In June 2012, the Ensemble intercontemporain announced the appointment of Pintscher as its next music director, beginning in the September 2013–14 season, with an initial contract of three years. Since the 2014/15 season, Pintscher was appointed artist in residence with the Danish Radio for a period of three years. He serves as a professor of composition at the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely ...

. For the 2014/15 season, he is the artist in residence at the Cologne Philharmonie. Several of his

orchestral An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, ce ...

and

vocal The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production ...

works have been performed at such venues as

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th and 57th Streets. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built ...

and the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...

. His 2012 double trumpet concerto "Chute d'Étoiles – Hommage à Anselm Kiefer" was inspired by the work of

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...

. It was first performed by the Cleveland Orchestra at Lucerne Festival in 2012. The US premiere was at Carnegie Hall, also with the Cleveland Orchestra. The UK premier was performed at

Glasgow City Halls Glasgow's City Halls and Old Fruitmarket is a concert hall and former market located on Candleriggs, in the Merchant City, Glasgow, Scotland. History The City Halls are part of a market complex designed by John Carrick in 1882, but the grand ha ...

by the

on 16 May 2013. Pintscher has lived in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

since 2008. On 21 August 2016, Pintscher conducted his own piece ''Reflections on Narcissus'' and

Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include sym ...

's ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' in the

BBC Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...

48.

Published works

Piano

*''Monumento I'' (1991) *''Tableau / Miroir'' (1992) *''Nacht. Mondschein'' (1994) *''on a clear day'' (2004) *''whirling tissue of light'' (2013)

Chamber music

*''2° quartetto d’archi'' (1990) *''Partita'' for solo cello (1991) *''Omaggio a Giovanni Paisiello'' for violin (1991, revised 1995) *''4° quartetto d’archi "Ritratto di Gesualdo"'' (1992) *''Sieben Bagatellen mit Apotheose der Glasharmonika'' for bass clarinet (1993, revised 2001) or for clarinet (1994, revised 2001) *''Départ (Monumento III)'' for ensemble (1993, revised 1995) *''dernier espace avec introspecteur'' for accordion and cello (1994) *''Figura II / Frammento'' for string quartet (1997) *''Figura I'' for accordion and string quartet (1998) *''in nomine'' for solo viola (1999) *''Figura IV / Passaggio'' for string quartet (1999) *''Figura III'' for accordion (2000) *''Figura V / Assonanza'' for cello (2000) *''Janusgesicht'' for viola and cello (2001) *''Study I for Treatise on the Veil'' for violin and cello (2004) *''Study II for Treatise on the Veil'' for violin, viola and cello (2006)

Orchestral music

*''Invocazioni'' (1991) *''Devant une neige (Monumento II)'' (1993) *''Dunkles Feld – Berückung'' (1993, revised 1998) *''Choc (Monumento IV)'' (1996) *''Five Orchestral Pieces'' (1997) *''sur "Départ"'' (2000) *''with lilies white'' (2001–02) *''Towards Osiris'' (2005) *''Verzeichnete Spur'' (2006) *''Osiris'' (2008) *''Mar'eh'' (2011)National Symphony Orchestra Playbill February 2015 *''Ex Nihilo'' (2011) *''idyll'' (2014)

Concertos

*''La Metamorfosi di Narciso'' for cello and ensemble (1992) *''tenebrae'' for viola and small ensemble with live electronics (2000–2001) *''en sourdine'' for violin and orchestra (2003) *''Reflections on Narcissus'' for cello and orchestra (2005) *''Transir'' for flute and chamber orchestra (2006) *''Sonic Eclipse'' for solo trumpet, solo horn and ensemble (2009–2010) *''Chute d'Etoiles'' for 2 trumpets and orchestra (2012) *''Un despertar'' for cello and orchestra (2017)

Theatrical music

*''Gesprungene Glocken'' (1993-1994, revised 2000) *''Thomas Chatterton'', opera (1994–1998) *''L’espace dernier'' (2002–2003)

Voice

*''Gesprungene Glocken'' for soprano and orchestra (1996) *''a twilight's song'' for soprano and seven instruments (1997) *''Music from "Thomas Chatterton"'' for baritone an orchestra (1998) *''Monumento V'' for eight voices, 3 cellos and ensemble (1998) *''Hérodiade Fragmente'' for soprano and orchestra (1999) *''Lieder und Schneebilder'' for soprano and piano (2000) *''Vers quelque part ... – façons de partir'' for women's voices and percussion (2000) or for women's voices, percussion, three cellos and live electronics (2001) *''She-Cholat Ahavah Ani (Shir ha-Shirim V)'' for mixed chorus a cappella (2008) *''songs from Solomon's Garden'' for baritone and chamber orchestra (2009)

References

External links

Publisher's biography, discography and bibliography, (German, Englishwebsite of the composer
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pintscher, Matthias 1971 births Living people People from Marl, North Rhine-Westphalia German classical composers Studienstiftung alumni 20th-century classical composers 21st-century classical composers German expatriates in the United States Musicians from New York City Hochschule für Musik Detmold alumni 20th-century conductors (music) 21st-century American composers German male classical composers 20th-century German composers 20th-century American composers 21st-century German composers 21st-century conductors (music) 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians