Christian Jost (composer)

Christian Jost (born October 17, 1963 in Trier ) is a German composer and conductor. He lives in Berlin .

life and work

Jost studied composition, work analysis and conducting at the Cologne University of Music and at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 1983 to 1989 . As a scholarship holder he was a. a. Funded by the Kulturfonds des Deutschen Volkes and the Art and Culture Foundation of North Rhine-Westphalia .

From 1996 to 1998 he traveled through the People's Republic of China and worked there with Chinese orchestras. He has received composition commissions from many orchestras from around the world, including the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Residentie Orkest Den Haag, the Musikkollegium Winterthur , the Berlin Philharmonic and the Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart. The orchestra of the Beethovenhalle Bonn (2000), the Staatskapelle Weimar (2003), the State Philharmonic of Rhineland-Palatinate and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf / Duisburg (2005), the Komische Oper Berlin (2009), signed him as " Composer in Residence " the Dortmunder Philharmoniker (2011), the Nederlands Philharmonic Orkest and the National Symphony Orchestra Taiwan (2012).

The solo concert is of central importance to him . He wrote u. a. TiefenRausch for violin and orchestra and Cosmodromion for percussion and orchestra. The Requiem Trilogy is a cycle of three solo concertos for wind instruments and consists of DiesIrae for trombone and orchestra, LuxAeterna for alto saxophone and orchestra and Pietà - in memoriam Chet Baker for trumpet and orchestra. In 2007 the clarinet concerto Heart of Darkness was created for the world premiere by Karl-Heinz Steffens and the Berliner Philharmoniker under the direction of Simon Rattle . Also in 2007 was the Swiss premiere of the opera Vipern in Bern , as well as the world premieres of the works Concert for Orchestra in Brussels with the RSO Stuttgart under Roger Norrington and Heart of Darkness by the Berliner Philharmoniker with the soloist Karl-Heinz Steffens under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle in Berlin.

Other components of his work are musical dramas such as Phoenix resurrexit - Odyssey in 4 parts, the operas Vipers - a murderous desire in 4 acts, the chamber opera Death Knocks based on the play of the same name by Woody Allen , and The Arabian Night based on the play of the same name by Roland Schimmelpfennig , the choir opera ANGST - 5 doors on a journey into the interior of fear for choir , choir soloists, instrumental ensembles and film projections, as well as chamber music and music for large orchestras such as CocoonSymphonie - 5 stations on a journey into the interior and the four-movement concert for orchestra His opera Hamlet , composed in 2009 on behalf of the Komische Oper Berlin, was voted "World Premiere of the Year" in the annual critics' survey conducted by Opernwelt magazine .

As a conductor, Christian Jost u. a. the Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg, the Bremen Philharmonic, the State Philharmonic Rhineland-Palatinate, the Essen Philharmonic and the orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin.

Jost was married to the mezzo-soprano Stella Doufexis († 2015), who also appeared in his works.

Prizes and awards

• Scholarship from the Kulturfonds des Deutschen Volkes Foundation and the Art and Culture Foundation of North Rhine-Westphalia
• 1999/2000 composer in residence of the orchestra of the Beethovenhalle Bonn
• 2003 recipient of the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize
• 2003/04 Composer in Residence of the Staatskapelle Weimar . World premiere of the CocoonSymphonie - 5 stops on a journey into the interior
• 2004/05 Composer in Residence at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf / Duisburg and the State Philharmonic of Rhineland-Palatinate.
• 2010/11 Composer in Residence of the Dortmund Philharmonic with the focus on the new production of the opera Hamlet , directed by Peter te Nuyl and the musical direction of GMD Jac van Steen

Selected Works

Stage works

• Death Knocks , "One act opera of the same named play by Woody Allen " (2001) commissioned by the Lower Saxony Music Days
• Vipers , a murderous desire in four acts based on motifs by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley (2004) commissioned by the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf
• ANGST , “5 doors of a journey into the interior of fear” for mixed choir, choir soloists and instrumental ensemble (2005) (scenic and concert performance possible) Commissioned by the Berlin Radio Choir
• The Arabian Night , based on the play of the same name by Roland Schimmelpfennig (2007) commissioned by the Aalto-Theater Essen
• Hamlet , 12 musical and dramatic tableaux. Libretto by the composer using the English original text and the translation by August Wilhelm Schlegel , a composition commissioned by the Komische Oper Berlin , world premiere in June 2009 (2009) under General Music Director Carl St. Clair
• Mikropolis - the adventurous insect opera, commissioned by the Komische Oper Berlin (world premiere at the Komische Oper Berlin 2011). A picture book based on the libretto, illustrated by Joelle Tourlonias, will be published under the same title at the publishing house Jacoby & Stuart Berlin.
• Rumor opera in 15 scenes. Commissioned by the Vlaamse Opera Antwerp / Gent. Libretto by the composer based on the novel un dulce olor de muerte - The sweet scent of death by Guillermo Arriaga
• Heart Sutra Chamber opera in four scenes with a prologue based on the short story of the same name and the poem The Love of a Falling Leaf by Zhang Ailing , libretto by Joyce Chiou (2012) Commissioned by the Taiwan International Festival
• Rote Laterne , opera in one act, libretto by the composer based on the novel of the same name by Su Tong (world premiere March 8, 2015 at Zurich Opera House under the musical direction of Alain Altinoglu, directed by Nadja Loschky)

Orchestral works

• The End of Game (1999)
• One small step (2002)
• Mascarade , tableau from the opera Vipers (2003)
• CocoonSymphonie , five stations on a journey into the interior (2003)
• Astralis (2005)
• Miserere , sound study for the Qui tollis from Mozart's Mass in C minor (2006)
• Concerto for Orchestra (2006)
• Suspence for two orchestral groups (2009)
• CodeNine , metamorphoses of four sound elements of the 9th symphonies of Beethoven, Bruckner and Mahler as well as the unfinished by Schubert (2009)

Solo concerts

• TiefenRausch , Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1997)
• DiesIrae , Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra (2000)
• Un lungo bacio for soprano and orchestra (2000)
• Cosmodromion , concerto for percussion and orchestra (2002)
• LuxAeterna , Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra (2003)
• Pietà , In memoriam Chet Baker for trumpet and orchestra (2004)
• Mozart's 13097th day , Sinfonia concertante for violin, viola and orchestra (2005)
• Heart of Darkness , Odyssey for clarinet in B flat and orchestra (2007)

Chamber music

• fragile eggshell mind , an epic story in three parts for speaker, string quintet, electric guitar and piano (1987)
• Ritual Returning , piano quartet I (1992)
• Odyssée surréale for 23 solo strings (1994)
• UhrWerk in memoriam Stanley Kubrick, Piano Quartet II (1999)
• Image & Shadows for 12 mafi solo cellos (2003)
• Adagio12 for 12 solo cellos (2004)
• frozen ... in memory, trio for clarinet, violin and piano (2005)
• Spinnwebwald in memoriam Akira Kurosawa, Piano Quartet III (2007)
• Sepulchral City for clarinet, cello and piano (2007)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ CodeNine

Audio samples

• one small step in the sound library of the publisher Schott Music

Web links

• Works by Christian Jost in the catalog of the German National Library
• Christian Jost's website
• Christian Jost at Schott Music