York Höller

York Höller (German pronunciation: [ˌjɔʁk ˈhœlɐ]; born 11 January 1944 in Leverkusen) is a German composer and Professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik Köln.

Between 1963 and 1970 Höller studied at the Cologne Musikhochschule: composition with Joachim Blume and Bernd Alois Zimmermann, piano with and Alfons Kontarsky, and orchestral conducting with Wolfgang von der Nahmer. In parallel to this he studied musicology and philosophy at the University of Cologne. He did further musical studies at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt with Pierre Boulez, and in 1967 sat his examination in music education.

Höller was active for a short time as a répétiteur at the Staatstheater Bonn. At the Electronic Music Studio of WDR in 1971–72, he "continued his studies with " (Stenzl 1991, 12) or, alternatively, "was given the chance, at Stockhausen’s invitation, to realize works of his own" (Lichtenfeld 2001). In any case, the technique he developed at this time—a form of extended serialism which he calls "Gestalt composition"—bears a resemblance to the older composer’s formula composition (Stenzl 1991, 12–15; O'Súilleabháin 1992), and in 1982 Höller dedicated his orchestral work Schwarze Halbinseln to Stockhausen (Blumröder 1983, 15/30). He quickly gained international recognition with his works. From the mid-1970s Höller also composed at the Paris research institute IRCAM, where Pierre Boulez had invited him, and in 1989 his opera Der Meister und Margarita (after the novel of the same name by Mikhail Bulgakov) was premièred at the Grand Opéra.

...
Wikipedia