Thomas Demenga

Last updated

Thomas Demenga (born 12 June 1954 [1] ) is a Swiss composer and cellist.

Contents

Life and career

Born in Bern, Demenga studied with Walter Grimmer, Antonio Janigro, Leonard Rose and Mstislav Rostropovich and at the Juilliard School in New York, among others. He gives concerts as a chamber musician and soloist at all important festivals and music centres of the world. Since 1980, Demenga has been leading a training and soloist class at the Hochschule für Musik. From August 2001, Demenga was artistic director of the Davos Festival young artists in concert, which he directed for the last time in 2006. [2]

At the Summer 2003 Lucerne Festival, Demenga performed as artiste étoile. An extensive series of CD recordings, published by ECM, documents his artistic work. In 2002, the last CD of his recording of Bach's solo suites in combination with works by contemporary composers Heinz Holliger, Elliott Carter, Sándor Veress, Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Isang Yun and Toshio Hosokawa was released. Several of his recordings have been awarded the Vierteljahrespreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik.

He performs in concerts with fellow musicians such as Heinz Holliger, Gidon Kremer, Thomas Larcher, Paul Meyer, Aurèle Nicolet, Hansheinz Schneeberger, Thomas Zehetmair and Tabea Zimmermann. Demenga has worked with conductors like Moshe Atzmon, Myung-Whun Chung, Charles Dutoit, Claus Peter Flor, Howard Griffiths, Heinz Holliger, Armin Jordan, Okko Kamu, Rostropovich, Dennis Russell Davies, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Sándor Végh, Mario Venzago and Hiroshi Wakasugi. [3]

He devotes himself especially to Neue Musik and also deals with improvisation. Thus his own musical language as a composer and interpreter of 20th and 21st century works (including many world premieres) forms a new and complementary dimension to the historical performance practice of Baroque music and his interpretations of the classical and romantic repertoire. He also represents these interests as artistic director, since 2011, of the chamber orchestra Camerata Zürich  [ de ].

In 1991, Demenga was the first Swiss composer to be awarded first prize at the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris for his work "solo per due" for two violoncellos. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heinz Holliger</span> Swiss oboist, composer and conductor (born 1939)

Heinz Robert Holliger is a Swiss virtuoso oboist, composer and conductor. Celebrated for his versatility and technique, Holliger is among the most prominent oboists of his generation. His repertoire includes Baroque and Classical pieces, but he has regularly engaged in lesser known pieces of Romantic music, as well as his own compositions. He often performed contemporary works with his wife, the harpist Ursula Holliger; composers such as Berio, Carter, Henze, Krenek, Lutosławski, Martin, Penderecki, Stockhausen and Yun have written works for him. Holliger is a noted composer himself, writing works such as the opera Schneewittchen (1998).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nobuko Imai</span> Japanese violist

Nobuko Imai, is a renowned Japanese classical violist with an extensive career as soloist and chamber musician. Since 1988 she has played a 1690 Andrea Guarneri instrument.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wolfgang Fortner</span> German composer and conductor

Wolfgang Fortner was a German composer, academic composition teacher and conductor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rudolf Koelman</span> Dutch violinist

Rudolf Koelman is a Dutch violinist and is professor for violin at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK) in Switzerland.

Boris Berman is a Russian pianist and pedagogue.

The New Century Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1992 by cellist, Miriam Perkoff, and violist, Wieslaw Pogorzelski. The goal of the founders was to present classical music in a fresh and unique way in the San Francisco Bay Area. The music director chooses the programs and guides the artistic vision and leads the seventeen members of the orchestra as part of a conductorless orchestra. Musical decisions are made collaboratively, in the goal of enhancing the level of commitment on the part of the musicians and increasing the precision, passion and power of their playing.

Pascal Pons, born on 9 November 1968 in Nice, is a French percussionist.

James Barralet is a British cellist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rheingau Musik Festival</span> International music festival in Germany

The Rheingau Musik Festival (RMF) is an international summer music festival in Germany, founded in 1987. It is mostly for classical music, but includes other genres. Concerts take place at culturally important locations, such as Eberbach Abbey and Schloss Johannisberg, in the wine-growing Rheingau region between Wiesbaden and Lorch.

Lyndon Jeffrey Frank Watts is an Australian bassoonist. He is principal bassoonist of the Münchner Philharmoniker and an academic teacher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oliver Schnyder</span> Swiss classical pianist

Oliver Schnyder is a Swiss classical pianist.

Alexander Lonquich is a German classical pianist and conductor.

The Avanti! Chamber Orchestra is a Finnish ensemble that focuses on contemporary music. The ensemble when it performs varies in size from a solo player to a symphony orchestra. Avanti! Chamber Orchestra won the Gramophone Prize with their first recording. The Orchestra also holds a music festival of its own each summer.

Xenia Jankovic is a Serbian-Russian cellist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ensemble Contrechamps</span>

Ensemble Contrechamps is a Swiss ensemble for new music based in Geneva at the Radio Studio Ernest-Ansermet. The group's artistic director is the Swiss percussionist and composer Serge Vuille, who took over in 2018.

András Keller is a Hungarian violinist and a founder of the Keller Quartet. He also works as a director and conductor of Concerto Budapest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patricia Kopatchinskaja</span> Moldovan-Austrian musician

Patricia Kopatchinskaja is a Moldovan-Austrian-Swiss violinist.

Irene Abrigo is an Italian classical violinist.

The Swiss Chamber Soloists is the concert cycle's chamber ensemble, founded in 1999 and led by the three artistic directors of the Swiss Chamber Concerts Jürg Dähler, Daniel Haefliger and Felix Renggli.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enesco Quartet</span> French string quartet

The Enesco Quartet is a French string quartet based in Paris.

References

  1. Paul Griffiths: The Penguin companion to classical music. Penguin Putnam, London 2005, ISBN   978-0-14-051559-6, p. 219.
  2. Conversation with Thomas Demenga
  3. Thomas Demenga on All Music
  4. Thomas Demenga on Tarisio