Johannes Schöllhorn - Composer
Listen to Johannes Schöllhorn’s Niemandsland (No Man’s Land, 2009) for Ensemble Modern, as part of the Ensemble’s “Into” - project. A composition about Hong Kong - its past and its lived reality, the work received its Asian premiere in Hong Kong in November 2010 at the New Vision Arts Festival.
Born in 1962, Johannes Schöllhorn studied with Klaus Huber, Emanuel Nunes and Mathias Spahlinger and musical analysis with Peter Förtig. He also attended conducting courses with Peter Eötvös.
Johannes Schöllhorn’s music avails itself of a wide range of genres, spanning chamber, vocal and orchestra music to music for theatre. In addition to his own compositions, he has worked on different kinds of transcriptions, including music from Renaissance until music of today. His music is performed by many international soloists, ensembles and orchestras such as Ensemble Modern, Ensemble intercontemporain, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Ensemble l’instant donné, Remix Ensemble, ensemble recherche, Neue Vocalsolisten, ensemble ascolta, das Neue Ensemble, the Radio Symphony Orchestras of the WDR and SWR, DSO Berlin, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra London and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. He has awarded many prizes, including the Comitée de lecture of the Ensemble intercontemporain in 1997 and the Praetorius Prize 2009. His chamber opera Les petites filles modèles had its premiere at the Opéra de Bastille in 1997 and was subsequently performed numerous times in Paris and other places in France. In 2008, he took part in the “into” - project in Hong Kong.
Johannes Schöllhorn taught at the Zürich-Winterthur University of Music (Switzerland) from 1995 to 2000. He was conductor of the Ensemble for New Music at the University of Music Freiburg (until 2004), and from 2001 to 2009 he was Professor of Composition at the University of Music and Theatre in Hanover and also Director of the Institute for New Music there. From 2009 to 2017, he was Professor of Composition and Director of the Institute for New Music at the Cologne University of Music. He is Professor of Composition and Director of the Institute for New Music at the University of Music Freiburg since 2017.
Johannes Schöllhorn gave composition courses and masterclasses at the Fondation Royaumont (France), Bartók-Festival (Hungary), Schloss Solitude (Germany), Ictus-Seminar (Belgium), Conservatoire de Paris (France), Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (UK), Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and Shanghai Conservatory of Music (China), Takefu-Festival and Tokyo Ondai University (Japan), Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra (Korea) and Centro San Fedele Milano (Italy); as well as in Hong Kong, Lugano (Switzerland), Kiev (Ukraine), Santiago (Chile), Jakarta (Indonesia) and Manila (the Philippines).