Peter Ruzicka

Peter Ruzicka is a German composer, conductor, music writer, and organizer, born on July 3, 1948 in Düsseldorf, Bizonia, occupied Germany. He studied in Hamburg, Munich, and Berlin.

Ruzicka held a series of major artistic and administrative posts in musical life. He was artistic director of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1979 to 1987, director of the Hamburg State Opera and the Hamburg State Philharmonic from 1988 to 1997, and director of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam from 1997 to 1999. He later served as director of the Salzburg Festival from 2001 to 2006, and from 2006 became director of the Munich Biennale. Since 1990 he has also been a professor at the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre.

As a conductor, he led performances of 20th-century music, including works by Mahler, Scelsi, Henze, Lachenmann, and Pettersson. He also appeared in concert in Austria, the Czech Republic, and Japan.

As a composer, he wrote the operas Outside - Inside (1972) and Celan (1998-1999), as well as the Celan Symphony for baritone, mezzo-soprano, and large orchestra (1998-2002). His output also includes orchestral works, chamber music including four string quartets, and choral and vocal compositions.

Among his vocal works are Gestalt und Abbruch, on words by Paul Celan, for 16 voices (1979); ...Inseln, randlos..., on words by Celan, for 16 voices, violin, and large orchestra (1994-1995); Todesfuge, on poems by Celan (1968-1969); and Sechs Gesänge nach Fragmenten von Nietzsche (1992). He also composed variations on themes by Haydn and Tallis. His music returns with particular constancy to the poetry and figure of Paul Celan, whom he was among the last to see alive in the spring of 1970.

Ruzicka is also the author of the music book Invented and Found Music: Analyses, Portraits and Reflections, published in Hofheim by Wolke Verlag in 1998.

His work has received broad recognition. He won the Stuttgart Prize in 1969, the Bartók Prize in 1970, the Gaudeamus Prize in 1972, the Bach Prize in 1972, and the Louis Spohr Prize in 2004. He became a member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in 1985 and of the Free Academy of Arts in Hamburg in 1987, and in 2006 he was awarded the Austrian Decoration of Honor for Science and Art.

Connections

This figure has 1 connection in the Music Lineage catalog.