Michael Wertmüller

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Michael Wertmüller in the Schlot , Berlin 2007

Michael Wertmüller (born October 20, 1966 in Thun ) is a Swiss composer and drummer who works in the fields of new music and jazz.

Live and act

Wertmüller attended the Swiss Jazz School from 1982 to 1985 and then studied composition with Misha Mengelberg at the Bern Conservatory (until 1990) and the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam (until 1992) . From 1995 to 1999 he was enrolled at the Berlin University of the Arts with Dieter Schnebel . In addition to his studies, he was a member of the Bern Symphony Orchestra from 1989 to 1991, a guest in various symphony orchestras, a. a. Concertgebouw Orkest Amsterdam, played various chamber music, several radio recordings, world premieres and solo concerts.

Wertmüller composed numerous pieces for different instrumentations; his pieces were u. a. premiered at the Donaueschinger Musiktage , MaerzMusik , Musica Viva and the Lucerne Festival . The opera “schlag ”with the libretto by Lukas Bärfuss was premiered at the Lucerne Festival. The opera “Don't cry, sing”, libretto by Dea Loher, was premiered at the Hamburg State Opera. The comic opera "Valentin", directed by Herbert Fritsch, premiered at the Deutsches SchauSpielHaus Hamburg. The works were regularly performed at festivals such as MaerzMusik, Berlin, musica viva, Munich, Ultraschall Festival, Berlin, Akademie der Künste Berlin, Tel Aviv Biennale, JazzFest Berlin, musique action, Nancy, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and the London Jazz Festival . Wertmüller worked with writers such as Reinhard Jirgl , Wolfgang Hilbig , Lukas Bärfuss , Dea Loher, Michael Lentz, Monika Rinck and Peter Weber . He teaches as a guest lecturer at the Humboldt University and has been a lecturer for instant composing / improvisation at the Berlin University of the Arts since 2007. Wertmüller lives in Berlin.

Michael Wertmüller in Aarhus, Denmark

Between 1991 and 1999 he gave over 250 concerts with the jazz core band Alboth! in Europe, North America and Japan. Since 1992 he has been playing with Peter Brötzmann in various constellations (including in Full Blast with Marino Pliakas ). He also played festivals and concert tours in Europe, Japan, North and South America, Asia, Africa and others. a. Stephan Wittwer , Caspar Brötzmann , Peter Brötzmann, Ken Vandermark , Jim O'Rourke , Otomo Yoshihide , Werner Lüdi ("Blue Deer"), Alex Buess , William Parker , Bill Laswell , Toshinori Kondō , Holger Czukay , Blixa Bargeld and John Cale .

As a theater musician he worked for Christoph Schlingensief . He wrote the music for his play A Church of Fear of the Stranger in Me , which opened the Theatertreffen in Berlin in 2009. Drum beats stand next to soft organ tones, feeds from Richard Wagner's Parsifal and Gustav Mahler's Liebestod next to an African gospel choir. Two sopranos sing material from Arnold Schönberg and Wertmüller's own compositions are added.

Awards

In 1993 he received the first prize at the Drummer Contest Amsterdam . In 2001 he was artist in residence in Los Angeles and in 2004 he received a scholarship from the Berlin Academy of the Arts . In 2005 he took up a residency grant in Cairo. In 2006, Wertmüller received the City of Thun's Culture Prize, and in 2010 a residency grant in Sofia, also from the Pro Helvetia cultural foundation.

Discographic notes

  • Alboth! Amour (1994, Permis de Construire)
  • Sprawl, Wertmüller / Brötzmann / Parker / Wittwer / Buess (1996, Trost Records, Vienna)
  • Werther / Wittwer I (1997, Grob)
  • Brötzmann / Parker / Wertmüller Nothung, Live at the Knitting Factory (2001, Intone Records)
  • Michael Wertmueller the time. a manual. (2002, Grob, with Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin)
  • Wertmüller (2004, Grob, interpreted by Steamboat Switzerland)
  • Full Blast, "Black Hole" (2008, Atavistic )
  • Full Blast and Friends, "Crumbling Brain" live at the Berlin JazzFest (2009, Okka Disc, Chicago)
  • Full Blast and Friends, "sketches and ballads", live at the Donaueschingen Festival for New Music (2011, Trost Records, Vienna)
  • Steamboat Switzerland play Wertmüller, "Zeitschrei" (2012 Trost Records, Vienna)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Portrait in: taz , April 30, 2009
  2. ↑ Culture prizes of the city of Thun
personal data
SURNAME Wertmüller, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss composer and drummer
DATE OF BIRTH 20th October 1966
PLACE OF BIRTH Tuna