Ernst von Siemens music prize awarded to Klaus Huber

This year the Swiss composer Klaus Huber will receive the International Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, which is endowed with 200,000 €. Born on November 30, 1924 in Bern, Huber is regarded as one of the outstanding figures within the Contemporary Music scene. The Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts will present him with the prestigious award on May 15, 2009 in a ceremony held in Munich’s Kammerspiele. The presentation speech is to be delivered by the Swiss music publicist Max Nyffeler.

Klaus Huber studied violin under Stefi Geyer and composition under his mentor Willy Burkhard in Zurich, and finally under Boris Blacher in Berlin. The year 1959 marked his international breakthrough with his chamber cantata Des Engels Anredung an die Seele, performed at the World Music Festival in Rome. Encompassing three operas, Huber‘s rich and multifaceted oeuvre combines the modern musical vocabulary with the contrapuntal techniques of Ancient Music. For example, his Lamentationes Sacrae et Profanae (1993-1997) was composed intentionally as a complement to the Carlo Gesualdo’s Responsories. Klaus Huber has always stressed that he regards the pure materialism of the avantgarde as inadequate. He himself is more preoccupied, on the one hand, with the transcendent quality of sacred music, as intimated in his earlier settings of mystical poetry, and, on the other hand, with articulating an humanitarian and political commitment, rooted in the present day. A key work is the Cantiones de Circulo Gyrante from 1985 in which texts from Hildegard von Bingen are arranged next to a poem by Heinrich Böll on the destruction of Cologne’s churches during the war.

For example, the conflicts and tensions generated during Cold War era are thematised in his piece …inwendig voller Figur… written for choir, loud speaker, tape-recorder and orchestra, and his great oratorio Erniedrigt – Geknechtet – Verlassen – Verachtet… (1975/78-1981/82) is a condemnation of human oppression. Influenced by liberation theology and the texts from the Nicaraguan priest and poet Ernesto Cardenal, Huber’s music is both a lamentation and an indictment. Further key themes in his work include the exploration of the work of the Russian poet Osip Mandelstam, who was persecuted under Stalin, and the issue of justice and peace, which he addressed in his most recent works, such as Quod est Pax? Vers la raison du coeur… or Miserere Hominibus. The last two decades have also been characterised by an intensive study of Arabian culture and music theory. Klaus Huber has incorporated the three-tone maqam system into his music, used texts from the Palestinian poet Mahmud Darwisch (as for example in Die Seele muss vom Reittier steigen…, 2002) and, in so doing, fashioned a poignant appeal for cultural tolerance.
Consequently his creative output has constantly undergone transformation and further development. Huber‘s openness and readiness to engage in dialogue shaped his activities as a composition lecturer at the Music Academy in Basle (1961-1973) and primarily at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg (1973-1991). He succeeded not only in imparting to his students the necessary technical skills, but also in inspiring them to contemplate and in fostering their individuality. Among his former charges were the two Ernst von Siemens prize-winners Wolfgang Rihm and Brian Ferneyhough, together with other leading figures such as Younghi Pagh-Paan, André Richard, Kaija Saariaho, Toshio Hosokawa, Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf and Michael Jarrell.
Furthermore, Klaus Huber was and is engaged as visiting professor, and in 1969 he launched the International Composers’ Seminar in Boswil, Switzerland. His collected writings and conversations were published in 1999 under the title “Umgepflügte Zeit” by Verlag MusikTexte.

Klaus Huber has garnered numerous awards, including the Beethoven Prize awarded by the City of Bonn in 1970 and the Music Prize Salzburg in 2009. He is a member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, the Academy of the Arts Berlin, the Independent Academy of Arts Mannheim, honorary member of the International Society for New Music, ISNM, and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Strasbourg.

On May 15, 2009 the grant-in-aid prizes, totalling 2,100,000 €, will be awarded. The three composer prizes go to the Freiburg-based Chinese Lin Yang, to the Prague-based Czech Mirslav Srnka and to the Madrid-based Italian Francesco Filidei.