Johannes Maria Staud

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BIOGRAPHY

Born in Innsbruck in 1974, composer Johannes Maria Staud draws inspiration for his music from other arts such as literature, film and the visual arts. Reflections on philosophical questions, social processes or political events also provide the impetus for his compositional work. He transforms these impulses into sensual sound adventures full of energy.

Johannes Maria Staud studied composition, musicology and philosophy in Vienna before continuing his composition studies in Berlin with Hanspeter Kyburz. Just one year after graduating, he won the Erste Bank Composition Prize in 2002, the International Rostrum of Composers Prize in 2003, the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation Prize in 2004 and the Paul Hindemith Prize of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in 2009. Prestigious commissions followed: in 2004/05 he composed Apeiron for the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle; in 2006 Segue for cello and orchestra was commissioned by the Salzburg Festival and premiered by Heinrich Schiff and the Vienna Philharmonic under Daniel Barenboim.

His engagement with the Jewish writer and illustrator Bruno Schulz left direct traces in work titles such as “Über trügerische Stadtpläne” und “die Versuchungen der Winternächte (2009)” and “Zimt : Ein Orchesterdiptychon für Bruno Schulz”. The first part of the diptych, “On Comparative Meteorology”, was first performed in 2009 by the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst and in a new version in 2010 by the Vienna RSO under Peter Eötvös; the second part, Contrebande (On Comparative Meteorology II), was commissioned by Pierre Boulez for the Ensemble Modern Orchestra and premiered in 2010. The Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under Mariss Jansons also premiered Maniai in 2012; in the same year, the Sächsische Staatskapelle appointed him Capell-Compositeur.

Important ensemble works of the last decade include Auf die Stimme der weißen Kreide (Specter I-III), premiered in 2015 at the Festival Musica in Strasbourg, and the diptych Par ici – Par là, presented for the first time in its entirety by the Ensemble intercontemporain at the Cologne Festival Acht Brücken. The violin concerto Oskar (Towards a Brighter Hue II), composed for Midori, was premiered at the Lucerne Festival in 2014, as was the opera Die Antilope based on a libretto by Durs Grünbein. The poet also provided the text for Der Riss durch den Tag (2011), a monodrama for Bruno Ganz, and for the opera Die Weiden, which premiered at the Vienna State Opera in 2018.

Stromab (the title) was Johannes Maria Staud’s major orchestral work, which was premiered by the Royal Danish Orchestra under Alexander Vedernikov in 2017 and subsequently performed in Vienna (Wiener Symphoniker under François-Xavier Roth), Cleveland and New York (Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser Möst). In 2018, the Vienna Philharmonic launched his orchestral work Scattered Light without a conductor at Wien Modern and subsequently performed it in Berlin. He explored baroque alchemy for the works Terrapinguis and Terra fluida, premiered in 2019 by the Munich Chamber Orchestra and the Boulanger Trio respectively. In 2020, Martin Grubinger premiered Epicentre.seismic construction in 3 parts for three percussionists with Slavik Stakhov and Richard Putz, and the ensemble Phace launched Am Horizont (…schon ganz woanders…).

In 2021, ensemble xx. jahrhundert Listen, Revolution (we’re buddies, see -) was premiered at Wien Modern before the work was performed with Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt. The American poet William Carlos Williams provided the text for two further new compositions: Jittering Directions for soprano and orchestra was performed for the first time in 2022 with Yeree Suh and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Andrés Orozco-Estrada at the Wiener Konzerthaus. Once Anything Might Have Happened for soprano, horn, ensemble and live electronics, commissioned by the Ensemble intercontemporain and IRCAM, was successfully premiered during the ManiFeste festival in Paris in June with soprano Sophia Burgos and under the direction of Matthias Pintscher. The new music theater work Missing in Cantu based on a libretto by Thomas Köck celebrated its premiere in 2023 as part of the Kunstfest Weimar.

In the 2024/25 season, the percussion concerto Whereas the Reality Trembles, premiered in fall 2023 by Christoph Sietzen with the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser Möst, will be performed in Austria and Germany. The work, which was co-commissioned with the Wiener Konzerthaus, BR, WDR and SWR, will be performed in Vienna, Munich, Essen, Stuttgart and Hamburg. Also on the agenda is a wind quintet for the Ensemble Windkraft, which will be performed at the Tyrol Easter Festival in 2025, as well as a new work for the Munich Chamber Orchestra under Bas Wiegers, which will subsequently be performed in France under the direction of Pascal Gallois as a co-commission with the Festival Les Musicales de Quiberon. With Die schöne Müllerin/These Fevered Days, an instrumental version of Schubert’s song cycle with seven new songs on texts by Emily Dickinson for the tenor Christoph Prégardien is also being created, commissioned by Ensemble Kontraste, Casa da Música Porto, the Wiener Konzerthaus, Klangspuren Schwaz and the Osterfestival Tirol and performed by Ensemble Kontraste, Ensemble Remix and Klangforum Wien. He is also planning a new organ work for Wolfgang Kogert and a piece for the Kuss Quartet, commissioned by the DYNAMIKfest Salzburg.

Johannes Maria Staud has been Professor of Composition at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg since 2018. He is co-initiator of the annual Arco Composition Summer Academy, which alternates between Marseille and Salzburg.  (Quelle: Karsten Witt Musikmanagement)

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