Ernst Bechert

Ernst Bechert (born March 10, 1958 in Würzburg ) is a German composer.

Life

Ernst Bechert is the son of the music teacher Eva Bechert and the linguist Johannes Bechert and grandson of the physicist and SPD politician Karl Bechert . He grew up first in Munich, then in Bremen. In Hamburg he studied school music, mathematics and composition (with Ulrich Leyendecker ). His other teachers include György Ligeti and Diether de la Motte . After his diploma (1984), he went to Italy to study with Luciano Berio .

During his studies he played as a trombonist and pianist in various Hamburg bands, including "Fritz Brummer", "Tuten & blister", "Association for private musical performances" and founded the "Ensemble for city dwellers" together with the composer Christoph Coburger.

He composed some film scores (including for the directors Helmut Herbst , Helke Sanders and Hannes Heer , together with the Hamburg musician and documentary filmmaker Theo Janßen), but above all numerous stage music for theaters throughout the German-speaking region and in the Netherlands. Among others, he worked with the directors Barbara Bilabel, Ruth Berghaus , Barbara Neureiter, Kay Neumann, Michael Helmerhorst, Karina Holla, David Mouchtar-Samorai and Heiner Goebbels .

He received numerous compositions for concert music, a. a. from the RSO Berlin ( Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin ), the Scharoun-Ensemble (for the opening of the chamber music hall in Berlin), Radio Bremen , the Kulturzentrum Kampnagel , the A • DEvantgarde -Festival etc. He worked with well-known conductors like Riccardo Chailly and Arturo Tamayo together.

In addition, there is teaching: until 2006 he taught composition at the Musikhochschule Mannheim. His students include the jazz musician Sibylle Pomorin , the composers Friedrich Heinrich Kern , Evgeni Orkin and Martin Wistinghausen , and even the hip-hop musician Jan Delay (actually Jan Eißfeldt, son of Theo Janßen, see above; he received from Bechert in the 80s piano lessons).

Bechert lives as a freelance composer in Hamburg, he is married to the actress Cornelia Kempers .

Bechert is a founding member of the Ensemble Composers' Conspiracy, which has existed since 2008 . Since 2015 he has been part of the management team of the "klub katarakt - Festival for experimental music" in the Kampnagel Kulturfabrik Hamburg.

Awards

• 1982 Bremen sponsorship award
• 1984 RSO Berlin project sponsorship award
• 1985 Würzburg Days of New Music competition
• 1985 GEMA Foundation orchestral composition competition
• 1985 Tribune Internationale des Compositeurs Paris (Young Composers Division)
• 1986 Cloppenburg Art Prize
• 1993 Villa Massimo Scholarship Rome
• 2007 Award of the Young Ears Network for "Das Neue Wunderhorn"

Works (selection)

• Adagio for violoncello and piano (1983) / WP: RDJerzewski, S. Seebaß, Bremen 1983
• … Clearer for orchestra (1984) / premiere: RSO Berlin / Arthur Fagen
• Four pieces for orchestra (1985) / Premiere: RSO Berlin / Riccardo Chailly
• Arthur Ackermann. A political fate . (1986) (opera for actors) / premiere: Kampnagel Hamburg, musical direction: Ernst Bechert
• Six songs for city dwellers for soprano and chamber ensemble based on poems by Bertolt Brecht (1986) / premiere: Deborah Cook / Ensemble ad libitum, Bremen
• Schattenlinien for eight instruments (1987) / World premiere: Scharoun-Ensemble, Berlin
• Trio for clarinet, marimba and violoncello (1988) / WP: Ensemble L'art pour l'art, Hamburg
• Frost for double bass solo (1989) / Premiere: Christian Stach, Cologne
• Concerto for violoncello and orchestra (1988/92) / premiere of the new version: Dominique de Williencourt / Orchester de Radio France / Arturo Tamayo , Paris 1992
• Schreber . A Chamber Opera (1991) (libretto by Lukas B. Suter ; commissioned by Kampnagel Kulturfabrik Hamburg)
• Vuile Targets (“Dirty Souls”) (1993) (music for a dance theater based on Stanislaw Witkiewicz) / Premiere: Karina Holla Ensemble, Amsterdam
• Bleeding white . Music theater for 8 women and a string quartet. (1994) / WP: Kampnagel, Hamburg
• Thought compulsion for male voice and two percussionists based on texts by Daniel Paul Schreber (1994) / WP: Alberto Jona / Tanit Ensemble, Rome
• Amadinda, Braille, Unrund (1995) (Three Piano Pieces) / WP: Steffen Schleiermacher
• Der Schmutz - 100 easy pieces (1996) (music theater based on texts by Christian Enzensberger and others) / Premiere: Micro Oper Munich / Ernst Bechert, Munich Biennale 1996
• Scene with a large bird for bass clarinet and piano (1998) / Premiere: Volker Hemken, Yuka Kobayashi, Eifeler Musiktage 1998
• Trio No.2 for violin, cello and piano (1999) / WP: Roman Nodel, M. Flaksman, H. Dan-Kumagai
• Operetta based on Witold Gombrowicz . Music theater for actors (2000) / World premiere: Ensemble der HdK Berlin, director: Barbara Bilabel
• Vijfduizend Vingers . Music theater for children (2001) (text by Henri Overduin and Niek Barendsen) / WP: Vis-a-Vis / Het Ro-Theater, Schouwburg Rotterdam
• Sifr for bass clarinet and electronics (playback) (2003) / Premiere: Volker Hemken, Mannheim
• Lesson # 12 for midi keyboard and electronics (2005) / WP: Ernst Bechert, Heidelberg
• Erased memory for female voice and electronics (playback) (2006) / Premiere: Cornelia Melián, Munich
• The finalists . A music-theatrical scene (2007) / Premiere: Micro-Oper Munich
• 100 miracle horns for many amateur wind players (2007)
• Von wo anders for choir and orchestra (2007)
• Finale for orchestra (2007) (parts of the project “Das Neue Wunderhorn” of the Heidelberg Theater) / premiere: various wind orchestras from the Heidelberg area, choir and orchestra from the Heidelberg / Cornelius Meister theater
• Night blind machinations for bass voice and playback (2008) / premiere: Martin Wistinghausen , Heidelberg
• As in, so out . Children's opera (2009) (part of the children's opera “Schön, Schöne, Schneewittchen”, text by Andrea Heuser ) / Premiere: Theater Osnabrück, musical director Marius Stieghorst
• Electricity for trombone and electronics (2009) / Premiere: Ernst Bechert, Augsburg
• You never know . Music theater about fear (2011) / Premiere: Micro-Oper Munich
• DroodGame . Detective opera based on Dickens, text by Sebastian Ripprich (2012) / premiere: Gerhart-Hauptmann-Theater Görlitz, director: Klaus Arauner, musical director: Ulrich Kern
• Now paradise . A rehabilitation opera (2013) / Premiere: Micro-Oper Munich
• No show . Music theater (2014) / Premiere: Cornelia Kempers, Ernst Bechert, Theo Janßen, Hamburg
• Bad Influence for Ensemble (2014) / WP: Composers Conspiracy, Hamburg
• Sub-critical mass for organ and ensemble (2015) / Premiere: Composers' Conspiracy, Hamburg

literature

• Peter Niklas Wilson: Construction and Allusion. The composer Ernst Bechert. (Feature for Deutschlandfunk, 1989)
• Helga Bittner: Best in a common language (NGZ online, 2002)

Publishers

• Sikorski (three piano pieces, cello concerto)
• Boosey & Hawkes ("Adagio", "Frost", "Trio", "Shadow Lines")
• CFPeters ("... clearer", "Four pieces for orchestra")
• Friedrich Hofmeister ("Scene with a large bird", "sifr", "sifr II")

Web links

• Works by and about Ernst Bechert in the catalog of the German National Library
• Homepage of the composer
• Homepage of the composers' conspiracy