Georg Gräwe

Georg Graewe―
composer/pianist born 1956 in Bochum, Germany
… began composing and performing professionally at the age of 15. He has since been leading a variety of ensembles―ranging from trio to chamber orchestra formats―which have involved some of the leading instrumentalists in contemporary music. His compositions, which include chamber music and works for full orchestra as well as scores for films, theatre productions, radio drama and video, have been performed and broadcast around the world.
Graewe has had a long-standing trio with Dutch cellist Ernst Reijseger and U.S. percussionist Gerry Hemingway since 1989 and has also performed and recorded with Anthony Braxton, Evan Parker, Dave Douglas, Phil Minton, Roscoe Mitchell, Barry Guy, Barre Phillips, Hamid Drake, John Butcher a.m.o.
Over the last ten years he has also written three operas. “Kopenhagen”, his first one (based on the play by Michael Frayn), was produced by Oper Köln (Cologne Opera, Germany) in 2003. His second opera “Quicksilver” (a commission by Semperoper Dresden, Germany) came out in November 2006. And his most recent one, “Barbara Strozzi oder die Avantgarde der Liebe”, was staged by Theater Luzern (Switzerland) in 2010 and Oper Bonn (Germany) in 2011. His video cantata on Albert Einstein’s travel diaries (“alle kennen meine visage”) was premiered at the Jewish Museum Berlin in September 2005.
Since 1999 Graewe has been associated with CNMAT (Center for New Music and Audio Technology) at UC Berkeley. From 2002 to 2007 he taught at “Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin”. In 2010 he curated a series of 27 events that presented different aspects of resonance between music, poetry, visusal arts and science as part of the European Cultural Capital “RUHR.2010”. A catalogue plus DVD edition documenting this project has been published on the Random Acoustics label.
Graewe has recently launched his new SonicFiction Orchestra as part of a three day portrait at Vienna’s “Porgy & Bess” in December 2011, from which recordings are currently being prepared for release in spring 2012.