Matthias Heep

Matthias Heep (* 1965 in Wiesbaden ) is a Swiss composer , choir director and arranger .

Live and act

Matthias Heep studied musicology and German at the University of Heidelberg and graduated with a Magister Artium . He then studied composition and music theory with Detlev Müller-Siemens and Rudolf Kelterborn and choral conducting with Hans-Martin Linde at the Basel Music Academy . From 1996 to 2010 he was a lecturer in classical composition in the jazz department of the Basel School of Music .

Matthias Heep works as a freelance composer and choir director. He has directed the Allschwil Kantorei since 1996 , the Chäller Chörli Liestal since 1997 , the University of Bern choir , the Möhlin Choralschola and the Winterthur Theater Choir since 1999 .

He works with several ensembles, such as the Basel madrigalists , the ensemble “SoloVoices” and, since 2002, with an ensemble that has organized the “Mondnachtkonzerte” in the Elisabethenkirche Basel . He is in charge of the “Canto Sem Fronteiras” project, which promotes collaboration between musicians and choirs from Brazil and Switzerland.

Works

2001: The false death , opera, libretto Lukas Holliger , composed with students as part of the European Music Month in Basel
2001: Additions to the fragment of the Mark Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach , eight self-contained movements for solos, choir and modern orchestra
2002: Fallschirmseide , chamber opera for three female voices and ensemble based on the song cycle Frauenliebe und -leben by Robert Schumann , libretto Barbara Tacchini
2003: Not a pale shimmer , music theater for the sighted and the non-seeing, libretto by Norbert Ebel
2004: La machine rêve in honor of Jean Tinguely , libretto Salomé Im Hof, premier at the Museum Tinguely as part of the Basel music festival «les muséiques»
2006–2008: Rappresentazioni , cycle for vocal soloists and chamber ensemble (three parts), the third part is dedicated to the Basel ensemble «SoloVoices»
2007: Dreamers , youth opera, libretto Tim Staffel
2011: with Mahmoud Turkmani: L'Orient n'existe pas , dream play for Arab ensemble, solos, choir and orchestra
2012: In Mr. Miller si Reis ins Morgeland (Mr. Müller travels to the Orient), life comic opera
2013: Momo , music theater, based on the novel by Michael Ende , world premiere with Jeanne Seguin and Kristi Anna Isene
2017: Quatrains Valaisans for alphorn and mixed choir, based on poems by Rainer Maria Rilke , composed with the Singchor Basel

He also composes incidental music , chamber music with different ensembles, works for string orchestra , songs with ensemble accompaniment and motets for a cappella choir .

Discography

2006: Between two worlds by Adrian Mears , Matthias Heep as conductor of the choir of the University of Bern. Mears Music, Schopfheim, DNB 360219713 .

Publications

Canzona in D minor (BWV 588). Arrangement for wind orchestra by Matthias Heep. HeBu, Kraichtal-Münzesheim 1994, DNB 35116779X .
Ahistoricity versus historical awareness? Memories of studying choir conducting with Hans-Martin Linde. In: Dagmar Wilgo (Hrsg.): Klangfarben und Farbklang. Festschrift for the 85th birthday of Hans-Martin Linde . Dohr, Cologne 2015, ISBN 978-3-86846-130-5 , pp. 31-35.