Timo Kreuser

Timo Kreuser is a German composer and conductor educated at the music universities in Munich, Dresden and „Hanns Eisler“ Berlin. From 2006-2008 he was a scholarship recipient of the ABSOLUTE ACADEMY of Absolute Ensemble NYC and Kristjan Järvi, and the Akademie Musiktheater heute (2007–2009) of the Deutsche Bank Stiftung.

His works quote elements of industrial music, punk provocation and avant-garde electronics experiments, and are composed comments on modern society and political phenomena (the regime, the collective momentum, the individuum) as well as the music and art industry itself. They are composed for specific people and might not be able to be performed in a similar way by others. Timo frequently performs as an experimental pianist and vocalist, specialising in extended techniques. All his recent compositions were commissioned for his vocal and instrumental performance in conjunction with other instruments, and his works have been performed by him and ensembles and soloists, like FIGURA Ensemble, POING, Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, Solistenensemble PHØNIX16, Jakob Bloch Jespersen, Tora Augestad etc. at festivals such as ULTIMA (Oslo), NORDLICHTER Biennale (Berlin), CPH Jazz (Copenhagen), WUNDERGRUND Festival (Copenhagen), KLANG Festival (Copenhagen), FIGURA FESTSPIELE (Copenhagen), Eesti Heliloojate Festival (Tallinn), NYMUSIKK (Bergen & Stavanger), LYD (Haugesund), METTRE EN SCÈNE (Rennes), Grand Théâtre Luxembourg, Théâtre de la Ville Paris, International Winter Festival St. Petersburg, World Theatre Festival Zagreb, Hellenic Festival Athens, etc.. Currently, Timo Kreuser is Composer In Residence (2014-2017) with Figura Ensemble Copenhagen.

With a primary focus on experimental music, Timo Kreuser has conducted at festivals including Musikfest Bremen, Biennale Bern, Maerzmusik, Semperoper Dresden, Komische Oper Berlin, Salzburger Festspiele, Nordwind Festival, Music Festival Gdansk, Filharmonia Gorzow, the Venice Biennale, Gaida Festival Vilnius, and conducted world premieres by composers including Lucia Ronchetti, Vinko Globokar, Juste Janulyte, Olga Neuwirth, Dariusz Przybylski, etc. Furthermore Timo Kreuser is the musical and artistic director of the Berlin-based Solistenensemble PHØNIX16, with which he frequently world premieres pieces and tours internationally.

Kreuser's relationship to contemporary forms of stage art is represented by his frequent participation in projects of/with Christoph Schlingensief, Frank Castorf, Luk Perceval, Jonathan Meese, Peaches, Josef Bierbichler, Romeo Castelucci, Vegard Vinge / Ida Müller and Thomas Ostermeier; and his collaborations with the choreographer Mia Habib [NO], and the performance project TWO-WOMAN-MACHINE-SHOW [DK].

He has lectured on contemporary vocal music performance and vocal improvisation at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music, Warsaw [PL], the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts Southern Denmark, Odense [DK] and the Academi for Scenekunst, Fredrikstad (NO) and consulted on projects for the German Arts Council.