Pintscher Matthias
Born on 29 January 1971 in Marl, North Rhine-Westphalia. He studied piano, percussion and violin, as well as taking classes in conducting. His study of composition commenced under Giselher Klebe at the Detmold Musikhochschule (1988), and then continued with Manfred Trojahn at the Robert Schumann Musikhochschule in Düsseldorf (1992–94). His attitude as a composer was greatly influenced by his encounters with Hans Werner Henze, who invited Matthias to Montepulciano to attend Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte (1991– 92), as well as by his meetings with Helmut Lachenmann, Pierre Boulez and Peter Eötvös. ,br>He received numerous prizes including the First Prize at the Hitzacker Composition competition for his String Quartet No. 2 (1992), the Rolf Liebermann Prize, Körber Foundation Prize in Hamburg for his opera Thomas Chatterton (1993), Prince Pierre Rainier de Monaco prize for the same opera (1999), Hindemith Prize (awarded by the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, 2000) and the Hans Werner Henze Prize (Westphalian Music Prize, 2002). He has also been awarded the Composition Prize by the Easter Music Festival in Salzburg (2000). Matthias Pintscher attracted the attention of international music critics with his opera Thomas Chatterton, which was staged at Semper Oper in Dresden in 1998, and followed by his next operatic work, L’Espace dernier, presented at Opéra Bastille in Paris in 2004.
He has worked as composer-in-residence with the Cleveland Orchestra (2002), at Dortmund’s Konzerthaus (2003–04), at the Lucerne Festival (2005), with the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Saarbrücken (2006–07), the Cologne Philharmonic (2007–08) and the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Stuttgart (2008–09). Since 2010 he has been artist-in-association with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. He regularly conducts leading orchestras and ensembles in Europe and the US. During the years 2007–09 he was professor of composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich, and since 2010 he has been teaching composition at New York University.
He lives in New York.
S e l e c t e d w o r k s: String Quartet No. 2 (1990), Partita for solo cello (1991), Invocazioni for wind symphony orchestra (1991), String Quartet No. 4 “Ritratto di Gesualdo” (1992), Tableau / Miroir for piano (1992), Devant une neige (Monumento II) for orchestra (1993), Dunkles Feld – Berückung for grand orchestra (1993, rev. 1998), Gesprungene Glocken, music theatre based on motifs from G. Büchner ’sWoyzeck with text selections from Jean Paul, Rimbaud and St John’s Apocalypse, for coloratura soprano, two actresses, tape and ensemble (1993–94, rev. 2000), dernier espace avec introspecteur for bayan and cello (1993), Thomas Chatterton, opera in two acts to a libretto by C. H. Henneber and the composer after H. H. Jahnn, for soloists, speaking voices, choir and orchestra (1994–98), Choc (Monumento IV) for large instrumental ensemble (1996), Fünf Orchesterstücke (1997), Figura I for string quartet and accordion (1998), Sur “Départ”for three orchestral groups, three cellos and female voices, to words by Arthur Rimbaud (1999), Hérodiade-Fragmente, dramatic scene for soprano and orchestra with text by Stéphane Mallarmé (1999), Figura IV for string quartet (1999), Figura III for accordion (2000), Figura V/ Assonanzafor cello (2000), tenebrae for viola and small ensemble with live electronics (2000– 01), with lilies white, fantasia for orchestra and voices (2001–02), en sourdine for violin and orchestra (2002), L’Espace dernier, music theatre in four parts to a libretto by the composer (based on the life and works of A. Rimbaud), for six solo voices, female choir, actors and orchestra (2002–03), Study Ifor Treatise on the Veil for violin and cello (2004), Reflections on Narcissus for cello and orchestra (2004–05), Study II for Treatise on the Veil for violin, viola and cello (2005), Verzeichnete Spur for double bass, three cellos, instruments and live electronics (2005), Transirfor flute and chamber orchestra (2005–06), towards Osiris for orchestra (2005), Osiris for orchestra (2007), Study III for Treatise on the Veil for solo violin (2007), nemeton for solo percussion (2007), she-cholat ahavah ani (shir ha-shirim V) for mixed choir a cappella (2008), Study IVfor Treatise on the Veilfor string quartet (2009), songs form Solomon’s garden for baritone and orchestra (2009), celestial object Ifor solo trumpet and ensemble (2009), celestial object II for solo horn and ensemble (2009), occultation for solo horn, solo trumpet and ensemble (2010), Mar’eh for violin and orchestra (2010–11), Ex Nihilo for orchestra (2011).
