Wolfgang Heisig

Wolfgang Heisig (* 1952 in Zwickau ) is a German pianist and composer who is known for the contemporary use of piano rolls .

Live and act

Heisig studied piano and composition at the Carl Maria von Weber Academy of Music in Dresden between 1972 and 1978 . Since 1980 he has composed short aphoristic piano pieces that make up the piano tones collection . He also worked for the Duo Parasol , whose debut album he was involved in in 1989. He was also involved in the composition of the score for the feature film The Boy with the Big Black Dog .

Since 1990 he has been working intensively on the music of the composer Conlon Nancarrow , who often punched his compositions into paper rolls that were played on self-playing pianos . Since Nancarrow was hardly interested in the reproduction and distribution of these roles, Heisig acquired not only a phonola in order to interpret the works by nuanced pedaling and actuation of dynamic and tempo levers. He also had a PC-controlled punching machine built so that Nancarrow's compositions could be produced and performed on piano rolls. In the meantime, the only piano roll edition of Nancarrow's works has emerged in this way.

Heisig also reproduces his own compositions using the roller technique. In his concerts he interprets not only Nancarrow, but also his own and other contemporary works. In 2011 he released an album of contemporary phonola music with the music production company Dabringhaus & Grimm ; He also wrote a volume of poetry that was published by Goethe Literaturverlag in August 2018. He played with Michael Wollny , Émile Parisien , Max Stadtfeld and Leafcutter John at the “100 Years of Bauhaus” ceremony at the Berlin Academy of the Arts . In 2007 he received the Gellert Prize .

Web links

• Web presence
• Wolfgang Heisig at Discogs (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ARTE