York Höller

Born in 1944 in Leverkusen (Germany), he completed his studies in the years 1963­1970. As a composer he is a pupil of Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Herbert Eimert (electronic music); he has also studied piano and conducting in the Musikhochschule in Cologne, as well as musicology and philosophy at the Cologne University. In 1965 he participated in the International Summer Courses of New Music in Darmstadt. He was invited by Karlheinz Stockhausen to work at the electronic studio of the Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne (1971­1972). In 1990 he was appointed Director of the studio as a successor to Stockhausen.
At the end of the 1970s Höller made his appearance at the new music scene in France, thanks to the success of his Arcus, commissioned by Ensemble InterContemporain (1978) and performed by the ensemble in many countries of Europe, as well as in the United States. The next commission resulted in Résonance; and the whole series of works with both acoustic and electronic sounds followed.
In 1980­81 Höller worked in ircam, invited there by Pierre Boulez. Also some other of his compositions had their premieres in Paris, e.g. Piano Concerto (written for Peter Donohoe and the bbc Orchestra; premiered in Paris with Daniel Barenboim as a soloist) and the opera Der Meister and Margarita based on Bulghakov1s novel (premiered in 1989 in the Paris Opera, produced by Hans Neuenfels and conducted by Lothar Zagrosek).
His work Magische Klanggestalt for orchestra was taken to the repertoire of the Berlin Philharmonic; also the Hamburg Philharmonic under Hans Zender has performed this work extensively throughout Europe, including tours to Scandinavia, Poland and Russia.

Selected works: Topic for large orchestra (1967), Horizont, electronic music (1971­72), Chroma for large orchestra and live electronics (1972­74), Tangens for cello, electric guitar, piano, electronic organ and two synthesizers (1973), Klanggitter for cello, piano, synthesizer and tape (1976/77/84), Antiphon for string quartet and tape (1976/84), Arcus for 15 instruments, percussion and tape (1978), Umbra for large orchestra and tape (1979/80/83), Mythos for 13 instruments, percussion and electronic sounds (1979/80/83), Moments musicaux for flute and piano (1979), Résonance for orchestra and computer (1981­82), Pas de trois for viola, cello and double-bass (1982), Schwarze Halbinseln for large orchestra and electronic sounds (1982), Traumspiel to a text by Strindberg for soprano, large orchestra and electronic sounds (1983), Piano Concerto No. 1 (1983­84), Klanggestalt for large orchestra (1984), Improvisation sur le nom de Pierre Boulez for 15 instruments (1984­85), Der Meister und Margarita, opera based on a novel by Bulghakov (1984­89), Fanal for trumpet and orchestra (1989­90), Pensées. Piano Concerto No. 2 for piano, orchestra and live electronics (1990­91), Aura for orchestra (1995), Aufbruch for orchestra (1999, written to mark the departure of the German parliament from Bonn to Berlin), Gegenklänge for ensemble (2000), Widerspiel: Concerto for Two Pianos (2000), Der ewige Tag for choir and orchestra (2001), Ex tempore for nine players (2001). Current projects include Klangzeichen for piano and winds and ongoing series of piano preludes.