Giselher Smekal

Giselher Smekal (born May 19, 1945 in Seefeld in Tirol ) is an Austrian musician and radio host.

Smekal studied organ, percussion and conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna . As a composer of contemporary music he is self-taught and appeared as such for the first time in 1969 at the 25th Youth Culture Week in Innsbruck, where he received the Culture Week Prize. He mainly designs electronic music , which he combines with elements of sound installation and live electronics; As a pianist, organist and percussionist, he loves free improvisation. Between 1969 and 2008 he was a member of the Reform Art Unit and can therefore be counted among the pioneers of free jazz in Austria. In 1980 he founded the Time Capsule ensemble with Franz Koglmann , Walter “Muhammad” Malli and Günter Sommer . Since 1986 there has been cooperation with Mia Zabelka , for example in the Acting Seven group . The album Tian Guo: Celestial Flowings was created in 2005 with Xu Fengxia .

Since 1982 Smekal has been a freelancer for the ORF , moderating series such as “Mandala” and Zeit-Ton and among other things developed the concept for the radio show Spielräume - music from all directions , which he also moderated in part. From 1985 he was responsible for the new music studio at the station, since 1989 he was head of the jazz editorial team; he also worked as a producer of the CD series ORF Edition Jazz Austria .

Awards

• 1969: Culture Week Prize at the 25th Youth Culture Week in Innsbruck
• 1981: Composition grant from the Federal Ministry for Education, Art and Culture
• 1982: Electronics Prize from the Federal Ministry for Education, Art and Culture
• 1987: Composition Prize of the City of Vienna
• 1991: Prix Electro-Clips from the Montreal Festival
• unknown: Dr. Karl Renner Prize of the City of Vienna

Lexical entries

• Reinhold Westphal: Smekal, Giselher. In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 ; Print edition: Volume 2, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-7001-3044-9 .

Web links

• Music Information Center Austria : Giselher Smekal (accessed on September 16, 2018)
• Giselher Smekal at Discogs (English)