Born in Neustadt in 1952, he has lived in Frankfurt am Main since 1972. In addition to music, he studied sociology. In 1976–81 he performed and made recordings with the ‘Sogenannten Linksradikalen Blasorchester’; in later years he was a member of the Duo Goebbels/
Harth (1976–88) and of the ‘Cassiber’ art-rock trio (1982–92). He was a co-founder of all these groups. At the same time he wrote incidental music for the theatre, film and ballet (for, among others, Hans Neuenfels, Claus Peymann, Matthias Langhoff and Ruth Berghaus). Since the mid-1980s he has directed and written music for radio plays and concerts, mainly to texts by Heiner Müller (Verkommenes Ufer, Die Befreiung des Prometheus, Der Mann im Fahrstuhl, Wolokolamsker Chaussee I–V, Schliemanns Radio, Der Horatier, Roman Dogs). In 1988 he started to compose chamber music for Ensemble Modern and Ensemble InterContemporain (Red Run, Befreiung, La Jalousie, Herakles 2). In 1994 he wrote his first 90-minute work for large orchestra, Surrogate Cities. Commissioned by the Alte Oper Frankfurt, it was premiered by the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie under Peter Rundel. Two years later, he composed Industry & Idleness, a commission from the Donaueschinger Musiktage, premiered during that event by the Radiokammerorkest Hilversum under Peter Eötvös.
Heiner Goebbels is regularly invited by all prestigious international festivals of new theatre and new music, jazz and the performing arts. He has visited more than 30 countries with his ensembles and to introduce his music at concerts. His works have been recently recorded on 10 cds.
In 1993, he himself directed his music theatre piece Ou bien le débar-quement désastreux. Two years later he staged Die Wiederholung based on motifs from Kierkegaard, Robbe-Grillet and Prince at the Theater am Thurm in Frankfurt. In 1996, he directed in the same theatre Schwarz auf Weiß (with 18 musicians of Ensemble Modern). Filmed for Arte and recorded for bmg and swf, the production has been shown in many countries.
In 1997, Heiner Goebbels presented Landscape with a man being killed by a snake at the Documenta X in Kassel. In 2000 he worked at the Centre Pompidou on two sound installations: timeios and fin de soleil and wrote a music theatre piece Hashirigaki for ThéČtre Vidy in Lausanne.
His orchestral output includes ...mźme soir, composed specially for Les Percussions de Strasbourg. Almost all his music theatre works have had numerous presentations in the United States, Japan, Australia and Singapore.
His first opera, Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten (Landscape with Distant Relatives) was premiered in Geneva in 2002 by Ensemble Modern, the Geneva Opera Chorus, David Bennent (actor) and Georg Nigl (baritone).
In 2003 Heiner Goebbels composed From a Diary, a commission from the Berlin Philharmonic and Simon Rattle, who have given ten concerts of his music in Germany and other European countries, as well as in New York and San Francisco.
Goebbels’s latest work for music theatre, Eraritjaritjaka – musée des phrases to texts by Elias Canetti, with the actor André Wilms and the Mondriaan Strijkkvartet of Amsterdam, has been produced at the ThéČtre Vidy in Lausanne.
Goebbels has received numerous awards and honours including the Prix Italia, a Grammy nomination, the Hörspiel Preis der Kriegsblinden, the Karl Sczuka Award, and the opus award in the theatre direction category for Eraritjaritjaka – musée des phrases (2005). He is a member of the Akademie der darstellende Künste in Frankfurt and Berlin and an honorary fellow of Dartington College of the Arts as a mark of recognition for his contribution to the development of the arts.
Heiner Goebbels is the author of Komposition als Inszenierung, a selection of texts, librettos and photo documentation of his productions (Henschel Publishers, 2002). Since 1999 he is a professor at the Justus-Liebig-Universität in Giessen, and since 2002 the director of the Institut für angewandte Theaterwissenschaften.

Selected works (since 1990): Shadow/Landscape with Argonauts, to texts by Edgar Allan Poe and Heiner Müller, cd version (1990), Newton Casino, music theatre for countertenor, Greek voice and percussion (1990), Die Befreiung des Promotheus, stage concerto, version for actor and sampler (1991), Schliemann’s Radio, radio play (1992), Herakles 2 for five wind instruments, little drum and sampler (1992), Ou bien le débarquement désastreux, music theatre for voice, actor, kora, trombone, guitar, saxophone and keyboards (with Boubakar Djebate; text: Joseph Conrad, Heiner Müller and Francis Ponge, 1993), J. K. – Erfahrungen im Umgang mit dem Eigene Ich, soundtrack (1994), Surrogate Cities for orchestra, speaking voice, mezzo-soprano and sampler (1994), Der Horatier – Chien Romain – Roman Dogs, three radio plays based on texts by Titus Livius, Pierre Corneille, William Faulkner and Heiner Müller (1995), Die Wiederholung, music theatre on motifs from Kierkegaard, Robbe-Grillet and Prince for piano, electric guitar, sampler and actor (1995; also a live play, 1997), Schwarz auf Weiss, music theatre (1996, also a live play, 1998), Nichts weiter for large orchestra and voice (1996), Industry & Idleness for orchestra (1996), In the Basement for violin/clarinet/cimbalom and tape (1996), Ecstasoo, sound track to video animations (1996), Landscape with a man being killed by a snake, music theatre (1997), Walden for enlarged Ensemble Modern (1998), Remix, ballet music (1998), Max Black, music theatre (1998), Eislermaterial, radio play (1999; also a tv film, 1998), Les Lieux De La, ballet music (1999), Oder die glücklose Landung, live play (2000), ...mźme soir, concerto for the stage (2000), Hashirigaki, music theatre after Gertrude Stein (2000), timeios, sound installation in 5 languages after Plato (2000), fin de soleil, sound installation (2000), No Arrival No Parking, concerto for the stage (2001), Stadt Land Fluss for ensemble (2001), Scutigeras for ensemble (2001), Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten (Landscape with Distant Relatives), opera with texts by Giordano Bruno, Gertrude Stein, Franćois Fénelon, Henri Michaux, T. S. Eliot, Leonardo da Vinci, Michel Foucault and Nicolas Poussin (2002), Aus einem Tagebuch, concerto for orchestra (2003), Notiz einer Fanfare, concerto for orchestra (2003), Ou bien Sunyata, concerto for kora, voice and large orchestra (2004), Eraritjaritjaka – musée des phrases, music theatre to a text by Elias Canetti (2004).