Kühr, Gerd
Biography
Born: 1952
Country: Austria
Studies: Salzburg Mozarteum from 1972-79; Musikhochschule Köln from 1980-83
Teachers: Hans Werner Henze, Josef Friedrich Doppelbauer
Website: http://www.gerd-kuehr.at/en/
Gerd Kühr, also Gerd Kuhr, (born 28 December 1952 in Maria Luggau) is an Austrian conductor, composer of classical music and academic teacher. Kühr studied history, conducting and composition at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and took master classes in conducting with Gerhard Wimberger, Hans Swarowsky and Sergiu Celibidache. He continued his studies of composition with Josef Friedrich Doppelbauer and Hans Werner Henze. In 1983 he collaborated with Henze, David Graham and Marcel Wengler to compose the film music for Volker Schlöndorff's Eine Liebe von Swann after Marcel Proust.
His opera Stallerhof, to a libretto of Franz Xaver Kroetz based on his own play, was premiered at the first Munich Biennale in 1988, as a co-production with the Staatstheater Wiesbaden. Ulf Schirmer conducted the premiere at the Kongresssaal of Deutsches Museum. The play Stallerhof, a dialect play on a taboo subject matter, was premiered in 1972. A review of the opera in a production of the Theater Luzern remarks:
Kroetz's Stallerhof is a work about inability to communicate, which opens space for music. Gerd Kühr's music serves the function of expressing the feelings and situations in which people find themselves. With a fairly large chamber orchestra he provides a rich tapestry of colours and motives. There is expressionist music, which brings to mind. the inarticulacy and exploitation suffered by Wozzeck.
Kühr composed in 1997/99 the opera Tod und Teufel (Death and Devil) on a libretto of Peter Turrini on a commission of the Theater Graz and the festival Steirischer Herbst on the occasion of the centennial of the opera house. Kühr composed the opera Agleia Federweiß in 2000/01 on a libretto of Petra Ernst, commissioned by the Jugendmusikfest Deutschlandsberg, a music festival for young people founded by Henze as part of the festival Steirischer Herbst.
Kühr taught from 1985 to 1994 in Graz, from 1992 to 1994 at the Mozarteum. Since 1995 he has been professor for composition at the Graz University of Music. He was awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Composers' Prize in 1995.[1]
Kühr, Gerd (b. 1952, Maria Luggau, Kärnten). Austrian composer of mostly stage, orchestral, chamber, choral, and vocal works that have been performed throughout Europe; he is also active as a conductor.
Prof. Kühr studied composition with Josef Friedrich Doppelbauer and conducting with Gerhard Wimberger at the Salzburg Mozarteum from 1972-79 and composition with Hans Werner Henze at the Musikhochschule Köln from 1980-83. He also attended conducting masterclasses with Sergiu Celibidache and Hans Swarowsky.
Among his honors are the Förderungspreis für Musik des Landes Kärnten (1979), the Österreichisches Staatsstipendium für Komposition (1984, 1988) and the Förderungspreis für Musik of the Österreichisches Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Sport (1990). He has also received the Österreichisches Staatsstipendium für Komponisten (1993), the Rolf-Liebermann-Stipendium für Opernkomponisten (1993), the Förderpreis of the Ernst-von-Siemens-Stiftung (1995), and the Würdigungspreis des Landes Kärnten (1996). In addition, his Lamento e Conforto was the Austrian submission to the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers (1985) and his works have been heard twice at the ISCM World Music Days (1992, Warsaw; 1996, Copenhagen). Two portrait concerts were given at the Salzburg Festival (2000) and at the Styriarte Festival in Graz (2003). He also served as composer-in-residence to the Wiener Concert-Verein in 2001-02.
Prof. Kühr is also active in other positions. As a conductor, he has been active primarily in Austria, but also in Germany, Guatemala, Italy, and Russia, notably as a guest conductor at the Shalyapin Festival in Kazan (1990) and as a guest composer-conductor at the festival Wien Modern (1992) and Darmstadt (1994). He served as a répétiteur at the Opernhaus Köln from 1981-84 and at the Opernhaus Graz from 1984-86. He also served as artistic director of the Jugendmusikfest Deutschlandsberg of the festival Steirischer Herbst from 1987-89 and led the composition workshop of the same festival from 1987-91, as well as the composition workshop of the Münchener Biennale from 1990-92.
He lectured at various music schools near Cologne from 1979-84 and has taught at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Graz since 1985, where he is now Professor für Komposition und Musiktheorie. He taught counterpoint and harmony at the Institut für Musikwissenschaft of the Karl-Franzens-Universität in Graz from 1988-90, as well as composition as a visiting professor at the Salzburg Mozarteum from 1992-94.
Éditions Durand publishes most of his music.[2]
Works for Percussion
Ague's Klage - Percussion Quartet
References
- ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerd_K%C3%BChr Accessed June 28, 2013
- ↑ http://www.composers21.com/compdocs/kuhrg.htm