Matthias Krüger

In the artist's words:

Matthias Krüger (*1987) is an internationally active composer of contemporary music. He studied composition and Romance languages and literature in Cologne and was a visiting scholar at the Sorbonne in Paris and Columbia University in New York City. He is currently working on his doctorate at the HfMT Hamburg and took part in the Cursus de Composition et d'Informatique Musicale at the IRCAM in Paris as a DAAD research fellow. His composition teachers include J. Schöllhorn, K. Meyer and F. Lévy. Master classes and encounters with, among others, H. Abrahamsen, M. André, G. Aperghis, C. Czernowin, G.F. Haas, P. Jodlowski, S. Nemtsov, J.-M. Sánchez-Verdú and Vladimir Tarnopolski.

He has received numerous awards, including the Mendelssohn Competition 2013 Berlin, the Zimmermann Scholarship Cologne 2015 and the Prix Chevillion-Bonnaud 2016 in Orléans, as well as a scholarship from the Deutsche Bank Foundation's Akademie Musiktheater heute (2019-2022). He was also nominated for the Gaudeamus Award in 2018, the Busoni Composition Prize 2021 Berlin and several times for the Förderpreis für junge Künstler NRW. He has also held residencies in Istanbul, New Zealand and the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, among others. Most recently, he received a scholarship from the German government for a 3-month residency at the German Study Center in Venice and a scholarship for a four-month residency at the Goethe-Institut in Montreal.

His music has been performed in Europe, Israel, North America, China and Japan, among others at festivals such as the ECLAT Festival, the Donaueschinger Musiktage, Gaudeamus Muziekweek, Warsaw Autumn, Acht Brücken Köln, Festival de Royaumont, Nuova Consonanza Rome or the Shanghai New Music Week, performed by ensembles such as Klangforum Wien, WDR Sinfonieorchester, the ensembles Recherche, Ascolta, Aventure, BRuCH, Slagwerk Den Haag or Meitar Tel Aviv, and performed at venues such as the Konzerthaus Berlin, Centre Pompidou Paris, Palau de la Musica Catalana Barcelona or Carnegie Hall New York.

His portrait CD ain't nuthin' but fairy dust, released by WERGO in fall 2021, was longlisted for the German Record Critics' Award in early 2022. In addition, there are numerous radio broadcasts on Deutschlandfunk, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Deutschlandradio Kultur, HR 2, SWR 2 and WDR 3.

In addition, he regularly gives lectures on his music at international institutions such as Harvard University, the Manhattan School of Music, the CIRMMT Montreal, the CRR de Paris, the CNSMD de Lyon, the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, the Conservatorio de Palma de Mallorca, the Istanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, the Bilkent Üniversitesi Ankara, the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna or at German music academies such as Frankfurt, Freiburg, Essen, Cologne or Karlsruhe.