-June 2025-
It’s that time again. After a lot of hard work and heartfelt dedication from many wonderful people, my latest orchestral composition “Davids Bündler” is now online:
I’d be thrilled if you’d also subscribe to my channel while listening 😜
What’s the piece about?
Florestan and Eusebius are two fictional characters created by composer Robert Schumann during his time as a music critic. He used them as a sort of mouthpiece to express different perspectives on the works he reviewed. Though fictional, he counted them among the Davidsbündler—a group of artists and art enthusiasts, both real and imagined, who supported Schumann’s Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (NZfM), first published in 1834.
My composition is named after these Davidsbündler.
It consists of three movements:
1) Florestan – the Wild One
2) Eusebius – the Gentle One
3) Who Will Triumph, Who Will Fall?
Schumann often saw Florestan and Eusebius as reflections of his own emotional and psychological states.
Anyone familiar with Schumann’s life story might already know who will “triumph” and who will “fall.”
In my composition, I incorporate additional musical references to Robert Schumann. For example, Florestan’s first theme is derived from the main theme of Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54—but it is played in reverse and mirrored along an axis. This turns the A minor into an A major theme (so-called “negative harmony”). Florestan is also supported by a second key, B-flat major, making the first movement bitonal (A major alongside B-flat major).
Eusebius, on the other hand, borrows his theme from the third movement of Schumann’s Symphony No. 4, Op. 120. Naturally, the gentle Eusebius also uses a major key—exclusively A major in this case.
Schumann aficionados will also recognize additional motifs from the first movement of the Piano Concerto, as well as from “Eusebius” in Carnaval, Op. 9.
Looking Back & Ahead
-May/June 2025-
Looking Back & Ahead
The May tour with the South Quartet has come to an end – and, as always, things are continuing at full intensity. But more on that in a moment.
The tour with the guys was fantastic once again. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to even get gigs these days and you really have to fight for every single jazz listener – but in return, we were rewarded with lovely new connections, many happy faces, and heartfelt comments.
One of those new connections was Volker Collmann, who created an incredibly cool drawing of our concert at the Alte Druckerei in Ottensen (see below). The press also received our music with great enthusiasm – the review (also see below) made us very happy!
So, what’s next?
Right now, I’m deep in preparations for my next production in Leipzig. I’ve brought in some fresh, young energy to help – I always fear repeating myself (which is probably unavoidable anyway and somehow part of what defines me). Still, it’s a real joy to explore the sonic landscapes of this new production of Enrico Lübbe at Schauspiel Leipzig (which launches in October) together with Thibault Madeline from Brussels.
At the same time, I’m working on a 30-minute composition for the Fourschlag Percussionensemble, which I plan to finish by the end of September. I had also intended to submit something for a carillon composition competition – though I’ll probably have to let that go due to time constraints.
On top of that, I wanted to further develop some sketches that were created during my Roger Willemsen Scholarship – and write two new pieces for the South Quartet.
Too much to get done? Definitely. But that’s okay – let’s see how far I get. 😄
Special Moments
-April 2025-
A very, very, very, very, very special moment in my life. In the first week, plagued by homesickness, today, at the time of departure, I felt an immense emptiness at the thought of not being able to see these four people every day anymore.
There is a beautiful villa in a small suburb of Hamburg, where the spirit of Roger Willemsen spreads his good thoughts and has united us inseparably.
I will never forget that.
Several times (often? regularly? occasionally? constantly?) one doubts in life whether one has taken the right path, the right turn.
This scholarship, under the patronage of the Mare Verlag, has created one of those rather rare moments when you are absolutely convinced: “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, do anything else. Never!” … and in those moments, you know: If I had chosen a life without art long, long ago after my high school graduation, such moments in my life would not have been possible.
For that, I am infinitely grateful – also to my parents, who, although they would have preferred me to be a doctor or a stockbroker, have always (shaking their heads) supported me.
Scholarship
-March 2025-
Puuuhhh… I’m usually quite lazy when it comes to social media and writing. But here are a few lines about my artistic life again.
Thanks to a scholarship from the “Roger Willemsen Stiftung“, I have the wonderful opportunity to live for a whole month in the Remise of the Mare Künstlerhaus (see this picture here). In this inspiring environment, the dance dramaturg Carmen Kovacs and I will design a libretto with a musical sketch for a dance-production.
After that, I plan to compose a piece for the vocal ensemble AuditivVokal – an exciting challenge, as it will include two gambas and a theorbo, among other things. It’s completely new territory for me, but it fascinates and excites me even more.
Next, I will compose a work for the percussion trio “Fourschlag,” for which I will likely write 30 minutes of music. This commission is particularly special since I’ve known one of the musicians, Hans Rudolf, since I was born.
From October of this year until April 2026, I will be working as a composer and musical director for three theater productions in Leipzig, Frankfurt, and Hamburg.
And in between, I’m working on publishing a series of septet arrangements of well-known classical works with Universal Edition – for the same instruments that Stravinsky used to compose his “Soldier’s Tale“.
Boredom looks different 😊
New Website Online
-January 2025-
Some “early year news” about our “South Quartet” project:
Our new bassist, Simon Schallwig, not only plays bass fantastically, but he’s also an amazing web designer. After all these years, we’ve decided to modernize our website and Simon built a “one-pager” for us. Check it out: www.southquartet.com.
So we also have a new URL.
Thank you so much, Simon!!
New Composition Online
-December 2024-
‘L’appel du Vide’, my new composition, can be heard and watched online.
The ‘Voktett’ from Hanover proves that even my unsingable compositions can be sung.
It’s really unbelievable how they interpret and play the partly 8-part composition so wonderfully.
The piece is about the ‘almost end of the world’ (which didn’t happen after all – let’s hope for the best)….So it fits today, but not really for Christmas…
Kleist Prize winner Franziska vom Heede wrote the text specifically for this piece.
More explanations and the lyrics can be found under the video on YouTube:
The last weeks
-October 2024-
It’s been a while that I posted something here.
There’s been quite a lot going on in the last few weeks. Now I’m sitting on the train for 8 hours to the next project and have time to write a few lines.`
On Wednesday, September 26th, we premiered “Fellini’s Ship of Dreams” at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. A very intensive rehearsal phase with unexpected endings and twists.
But I was able to work with a great ensemble of actors who really blew me away musically. Those were very nice moments.
On Saturday, the concert of the prizewinners of the composition competition in Hanover took place. Unfortunately, one of the criteria of the competition was that the pieces had to be singable by amateur choirs – and anyone who knows me or my composition style knows how that turned out 😄
The most important thing for me was that my piece was sung during the competition by a really sensational vocal ensemble – the VOKTETT from Hanover.
A professional sound recording was made and I paid for a video recording out of my own pocket. The results will soon be available on my YouTube channel.
Now I am on my way to the rehearsals and performances of the “2.Philharmonisches Konzert” of the Clara-Schumann-Philharmoniker which I am really looking forward to, because my 15-minute new composition “Davids Bündler” will be part of the concerts.
We will also make audio and video recordings of this for my channel.
After that I will devote myself to the WDR Funkhausorchester, for which I am allowed to write an arrangement.
I don’t know exactly what will happen then. I will in any case take a break from the theater for a few months because I need time to further deepen my knowledge of the instrument and as a composer. There is still so much interesting stuff to learn and sometimes I have the feeling that I only know 0.1% of what is musically possible. But for learning new things, you need time and you shouldn’t rush from one deadline to the other.
In between there is a one-month scholarship stay at the Mare Künstlerhaus run by the Roger Willemsen Foundation. More on that also soon.
And last but not least, there are new videos with my favorite vocal ensemble “AuditivVokal“. Olaf Kazter and his singers have once again implemented my compositions and arrangements so incredibly well! Here’s a little taster. And here is more.
Competition
-June 2024-
This morning I got a fantastic message:
Dear composers,
An incredible 89 compositions have reached us in the past few months. We are incredibly grateful and happy that our composition competition received such a positive response. The jury now had the difficult task of selecting five compositions from the many, diverse and high-quality submissions that the Hannover Voktett will present at chor.com in September. After many hours of constructive consultation and evaluation, the jury decided on the following finalists:
Baierlein, Peer: “L’appel du vide”
Fußeder, Elisabeth: “Sofðu unga ástin mín”
Letelier, Martín: “Soliloquy”
Schultheis, Michael: “Loud Lust”
Vogler, Marc L.: “Clockwork”
I’m super super happy about the news and I’m really looking forward to listen to my composition live – sung by the fantastic “Volktett Hannover“
Scholarship
-June 2024-
In 2023, during my composition commission for the Mecklenburgische Staatskapelle and Ballet X, I was able to get to know the dance dramaturg Carmen Kovacs, who worked among others with Demis Volpi, Eric Gauthier, Aszure Barton, Andrey Kaydanovskiy und Xin Peng Wang.
Yesterday we both get the news, that we each received an individual scholarship of the Roger Willemsen Foundation.
The aim is to develop a dance libretto with a compositional sketch on the theme of “Profit and Loss” during the one-month stay at the mare- Künstlerhaus.
We are very happy about this opportunity.
AuditivVokal
-May 2024-
Lots of Deadlines…..
Besides writing the music for ‘Schiff der Träume’ by Federico Fellini at Deutsches Theater Berlin and a commissioned work for the ‘Clara-Schumann-Philharmoniker‘, I accepted a new assignment of AuditivVokal with which I worked already several times. They are a superb contemporary vocal ensemble and it’s so much fun to work with them and their conductor Olaf Katzer. I couldn’t reject that.
Fellini
-March 2024-
I just accept to write the music for ‘Schiff der Träume’ by Federico Fellini at Deutsches Theater Berlin, which will have premiere on the 26th of September. As usual with the stage director Claudia Bauer. I found some very interesting musicians and this time I’ll compose for counter-tenor, synthesizer and drums. Challenging line-up I’d say…….
What Follows
-February 2024-
I’m currently rehearsing in Hamburg for the premiere of ‘Schattenpräsidentinnen‘ directed by Claudia Bauer. The premiere will be on April 11, 2024.
After that, I’m planning to write a composition for a choir competition and possibly I’ll write the compositions for another production at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin.
We would also like to record a new CD with our jazz band ‘South Quartet‘, in November and I would like to contribute a few pieces for this project.
Further more, I received a commission for the ‘Clara-Schumann-Philharmoniker‘, which I am very pleased about. There will be an evening in Plauen on October 2nd, 2024 and in Zwickau on October 3rd, 2024 with the 4th Symphony and the Piano Concerto by Schumann, as well as my commissioned composition, which will be entitled ‘Davids Bündler’.
AuditivVokal
-December 2023-
I wrote two arrangements for and in collaboration with AuditivVokal in Dresden – one of the leading vocal-ensembles in Germany.
Traditions play a special role in the Erzgebirge in Germany. In addition to the famous art of wood carving, singing and making music in the local dialect is also practiced. The two pieces “Bleibn mer noch e wing do” and “O selige Weihnachtszeit” are presented in this dialect. I put them in a completely new arrangement. Traditional melodies are combined with modern composition techniques.
orchestra compo
-December 2023-
I got the opportunity to compose for the ‘Mecklenburgische Staatskapelle‘ – an A-category orchestra in Germany.
The production is a new adaption of ‘Der Kleine Prinz’ by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and put on stage by the ‘Ballett X Schwerin‘.
I know that no one has time to watch a YouTube video for 1 hour. But maybe you can take a look here and there – it’s really worth it. Great dancers and good musicians.
And please feel free to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
advent presents
-December 2023-
Happy 1st Advent to all of you.
In keeping with this, every Sunday in December there will be a new short (maximum 2 minutes long) piano invention from my pen for you.
Played by the young and very talented pianist András Lakatos.
And if you don’t want to miss any invention until the 4th Advent, please subscribe to my YouTube channel.
Feel free to listen:
..and another one..
-October 2023-
Another new and really nice NorthFace video by Raphael Zöschinger, called ‘Maybe‘.
Please don’t forget to subscribe on my channel if you want to be updated about all new videos during the upcoming months – there will be quite some (and surprising) of them.
NorthFace
-September 2023-
I’ve been back from Vienna since Saturday, where we had the premiere of Ingeborg Bachmann’s novel ‘Malina‘ at the ‘Volkstheater’ on Friday.
In 2 weeks a new production starts in Berlin: Kurt Schwitters ‘Ursonate‘.
In between there is a new video from ‘NorthFace‘.
The project is the Finnish-German collaboration of Anu Junnonen and Peer Baierlein.
Influenced by the Nordic movement in music and artists such as Alva Novo and Arve Henriksen, we are discovering new ways to create Nu-Jazz by combining trumpet and vocals with electronic landscapes.
“Music of the mountains, climbing hills, looking at new horizons. A duo with strong musical baggage that goes beyond electronics and jazz, now facing the north.”
what will be next
-June 2023-
The next premiere will be the installation ‘Rage Is A Good Feeling’ by Nick Romeo Reimann and Olivia Axel Scheucher with compositions by Peer Baierlein. Vocal Recordings by: Kaoko Amano / Johanna Zachhuber / Clemens Kölbl / Akos Banlaky
Kunstverein Baden – Austria.
You can visit the installation between the 23.06. – 02.07.2023.
We did some crazy stuff…..
Today I reached an agreement with the ‘Deutsches Schauspielhaus’ in Hamburg for the production: ‘Hinter jedem großen Idioten gibt es sieben Frauen, die versuchen, ihn am Leben zu halten.’ by Selina Fillinger.
The premiere will be on the 4th of April 2024.
And last but not least we could fix 2 tour-dates with our ‘South Quartet‘ in September and October 2024 in the region of Hamburg. We are looking forward to that.
Ah yes, meanwhile – in the background – friends of mine and newly met artists are filming and cutting new videos for some of my compositions. So I hope to have round about 7 – 8 new videos with all kind of music and all kind of video-styles online this year – I’m VERY curious about the results.
I always give ‘carte blanche’ and I never know it advance what these guys will present to me………
The biggest project in this direction will be the cutting and mixing of the recordings of ‘Der Kleine Prinz’. We have everything on tape. Recorded with about 35 microphones. But it will be a lot lot lot of work to try to get a good version with the material we have – which means 4-6 weeks of cutting work for me, 1 week of mixing at the studio and after that the video-artist will still have to do his job. So maybe this won’t be finished before 2024. Let’s see.
to be continued
-May 2023-
My big dream came true with the premiere of ’Der Kleine Prinz on April 28th — finally composing for an A-orchestra, finally getting rehearsal time and as the icing on the cake working with a wonderful ballet company – Ballet X. That was an absolute highlight. The collaboration with the chief choreographer in Schwerin, Xenia Wiest, was unique – always available, always motivating, always creative.
I can only take my hat off to the fact that she entrusted me with composing a whole evening for the
‘Mecklenburgische Staatskappelle’ (under the direction of Aki Schmitt) and the ballet company, even though she didn’t know me before.
Thank you also to all people at ‘Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater’. Yes it is quite a small house and a small city. But the people working there are all super friendly and warmhearted. I never had a single moment of bad vibes. That was unique.
Last but not least the one person with whom I would have NEVER ever be able to write 1 hour of orchestra music in 5 months: my mentor Alan Belkin – you are the man !
Now I’ll continue with composing for the installation ‘Rage Is A Good Feeling’ with Nick Reimann in Baden / Austria. More details soon.
Then as announced the rehearsals at the ’Volkstheater’ in Vienna will start for the production of ‘Malina’ – a novel by Ingeborg Bachmann (premiere on September 8th), followed by the production ‘Ur-Sonate’ by Kurt Schwitters at the ‘Deutsches Theater‘ in Berlin, which will premiere on November 17th.
I would be happy to to do one last theatre production in 2024 at the ‘Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg’ – where it all began 16 years ago. The circle would close. I would see many loved ones back there. The premiere would be on April 4th, 2024. Another collaboration with my favorite stage-director Claudia Bauer. The piece is called ‘Hinter jedem großen Idioten gibt es sieben Frauen, die versuchen, ihn am Leben zu halten.’ by Selina Fillinger —– but no contract has been signed so far.
After that there will be a voluntary theatre break until 2025. I’d like to learn new composition-techniques again, make new videos, meet new musicians, conductors & ensembles and finally meet back all my friends in Belgium – 2023 will be the first year within the past 25 years in which this will not have been possible . All of this takes and needs time and that’s why there will be a ‘theatre break’ for the rest of 2024.
Some private words – normally I try to avoid that. So you’d better not get used to that 😉
upcoming projects
-March 2023-
The premiere of the new adaptation of ’Der Kleine Prinz’ on April 28th, together with Ballet X at Schwerin, is coming up. We are all really looking forward to it.
Composing 1 hour of music for orchestra in 5 months – it was an extreme experience that would never have worked without important people around me and the great cooperation with the chief choreographer Xenia Wiest.
After that it continues without interruption.
At the end of May, I will do some vocal quartet recordings together with Nick Reimann from Vienna, for whom I’ll compose music for an installation.
Then the rehearsals at the ’Volkstheater’ in Vienna will start for the production of ‘Malina’ – a novel by Ingeborg Bachmann. Here, too, great hapiness, because there are many lovely and committed employees and artists at the ‘VoT’ and the sound department is a dream.
The premiere will be on September 8th, 2023.
During and after the rehearsals for ‘Malina’, the work on several compositions for the following production at the ‘Deutsches Theater‘ in Berlin is pending. It will be a very extensive work, which will premiere on November 17th, 2023.
At the same time, the cooperation with the fantastic vocal ensemble ‘AuditivVokal‘ from Dresden will be intensified and I would like to contribute some compositions for their tour in December. It’s going to be very exciting because I’d like to try out new compositional techniques that I haven’t had any experience with yet.
And then the year is already over.
In 2024 there could possibly be a return to one of my old places of work in Hamburg, which I would be very happy about. More will not be revealed yet, because everything is still relatively uncertain.
Another new Video
-January 2023-
Last year I got to know the dancer and choreographer Xenia Wiest of the ‘Ballett X Schwerin’.
Working with her is something very special – not only artistically, but also the way we communicate, exchange ideas and interact with one another.
‘Remember the Ladies’ is the result of our first production together and we’ve been working on the next project for months.
The ballet is about strong women, emancipation, the fight for their rights, their freedom and their ideals.
New Video online
-December 2022-
A new video which is realized in collaboration with Parisian video artist Romain Al. ’L’Historie d’un Tunnel’ is online.
It’s about conventions / tunnels in which you are forced into from birth and which leaves you behind with scars. You almost drown from all the rules and regulations…then the bomb – liberation. The forest stands for something beautiful, open, free…
But at the very end you can see how the next tunnel is waiting – even in the forest.
“From birth, humans are immersed in a tunnel of one dimension and one direction. It guides them, contains them and takes them through spaces that have been made inaccessible: spaces that are out of the ordinary, multidimensional… free !”
Some more Prizes
-November 2022-
The production ‘Humanistää!‘ showed at the ‘Volkstheater Wien‘ for which I composed the whole music, won more prizes during the prestigious ‘Nestroy-Awards‘ in Austria: ‘best production 2022’, ‘best director 2022’ and ‘best actor 2022’.
New Music & Videos
-August 2022-
There is new music from me with great drawn videos by Andreas Metzler on my YouTube channel:
CLICK HERE TO WATCH & LISTEN
The project ‘Ode an die Popmusik’ is the result of many different events.
First and foremost is my admiration for Alfred Schnittke. In particular, I was fascinated by his collaboration with Lev Atamanov, among others for ‘The Ballerina on the Boat‘.
This gave rise to the idea of persuading my longtime friend Andreas Metzler to create drawn videos for some of my compositions.
Thanks to Martin Frieß, who has been supporting me with angelic patience for many instrument-specific questions and problems for several years, I was able to win really great musicians (mainly from the ‘Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg‘) for the recording-session.
The pieces were originally created for the season opening of the Sasel-Haus in Hamburg and were integrated into a kind of ‘double concert’, the first part of which has been Tchaikovsky’s ‘Nutcracker’ suite, arranged for flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns and double bass.
Using the same instrumentation, ‘Ode an die Popmusik’ emerged as a cycle of contemporary re-compositions of well-known songs.
More Prizes
-August 2022-
The production ‘Humanistää!‘ showed at the ‘Volkstheater Wien‘ for which I composed the whole music, won more prizes: for ‘best production 2022’, ‘best actor 2022′, best costumes 2022’ and ‘best stage 2022’ of all theatres in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Some News
-August 2022-
Quite a while since I’ve been here.
The last couple of months, I’ve been writing for the production ‘Remember The Ladies‘ for the ‘Mecklenburgisches Staatsballett‘. Now the chief choreographer Xenia Wiest takes over and creates the right steps to the music. I’m really excited about the project. Working with Xenia is a lot of fun and creative exchange.
Now I have some days to compose a small commissioned work for Claudia Bauer, the Staatstheater Kassel and the production ‘Les Contes D’Hoffmann‘.
From September 1st, the full focus will be on creating the composition of the music for the production ‘Der Kleine Prinz‘ – also for the ‘Mecklenburgisches Staatsballett‘. I only have 6 months to write 1 hour of orchestral music – that’s more than athletic. Right now it’s a feeling between great joy, hapiness, stress and panic, whether I’ll make it.
Beethoven 9th
-May 2022-
At the moment I’m working for the ‘Orchester Plauen/Zwickau‘ with their conductor Leo Siberski, composing a transition bewteen Frank Sinatra’s ‘I’ve got you under my skin’ and the 4th movement of Beethoven’s 9th symphony. It’s fun !
Listening
-April 2022-
A new piece, titled ‘Hymne an die Musiek’, which I composed for the vocal-ensemble AuditivVokal will be performed during 3 concerts in May:
26.05.2022
Verehrungsklänge
Barockschloss Rammenau
27.05.2022
Verehrungsklänge
Peterskirche Leipzig
28.05.2022
Verehrungsklänge
SLUB Dresden
Music Video Awards
-April 2022-
The video for my composition ‘Peace’ which was created by Willem Rabe of ‘neoanalog‘, is selected for the ‘Silver Screenings’ during this year’s festival of the ‘Berlin Music Video Awards’. I’m very happy about that.
Please watch and listen to it HERE.
Ballet
-March 2022-
I’ll start a new collaboration with choreographer Xenia Wiest from the ‘Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater’. We’ll work together for 2 productions: A ‘Triple Bill’ in October for which I will compose round about 20-30 minutes of music and another big production in 2023 for which I will write the music for the whole evening. More info soon. I’m very curious about this new adventure.
New Videos
-February 2022-
I uploaded new videos on my YouTube channel.
‘Pentagon Of Poetry’ describes a bundle of 5 contemporary vocal compositions which are the result of the collaboration with the vocal ensemble ‘AuditivVokal‘ from Dresden and its conductor Olaf Katzer. Four poems by Goethe, Nietzsche and Lenau serve as the textual basis, as well as a list of well-known authors’ names, which were set to music in the ‘Autoren-ABC’.
Please listen and watch HERE.
Theatertreffen Berlin
-February 2022-
The production ‘Humanistää!‘ showed at the ‘Volkstheater Wien‘ for which I composed the whole music (nearly 2 hours) is invited to the ‘Theatertreffen Berlin‘. The ‘Theatertreffen‘ honours the best 10 theatre productions of the year of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. This year the jury visited more than 500 productions. An invitation for the ‘Theatertreffen‘ is a bit like winning the Oscar for a film. We are all very happy and it’s been more than 50 years that the ‘Volkstheater‘ has been invited for the last time. For me it’s the second invitation after 2017 (with the production ’89/90′ / Schauspiel Leipzig).
YouTube Channel
-January 2022-
Please visit my YouTube Channel to listen to and watch some of my latest compositions.
Extra Features
-December 2021-
The right uppercorner shows a direct link to my new YouTube channel:
If you scroll down a little bit to ‘projects’, I added 2 categories ‘compositions’ and ‘orchestrations’.
And finally you can find a new video ‘Dawn – me² + 1’ in the ‘videos’ section.
New Visuals & YouTube Channel
-November 2021-
Some concerts have been cancelled due to corona and Willem Rabe of neoanalog already finished the new visuals for my CD ‘me² +1’. So I could already create my new YouTube chanel which will only consist of my most valuable music, projects and compositions. Have a look.
Next project to be online will be my music sung by AuditivVokal.
News News News
-November 2021-
Many things happened.
On the 16th of October we could celebrate the premiere of ‘memento’ – a dance production of choreographer Tim Plegge and the ‘Hessisches Staatsballett’. Dark Fader (Roald Baudoux and me) composed several pieces for the evening.
After that, we made the recordings with AuditivVokal happen. I’m so much looking forward to the result of this recording session. But there will still be a lot of work with cutting and mixing. I hope that I can put the result online by the end of January 2022.
That will also include the creation of a new YouTube channel on which I’d like to put my most valuable compositions, combined with good visuals.
Beside AuditivVokal, the result of a cooperation with neoanalog will be seen on this channel. At the moment, these guys are busy with creating the visuals for one of my CDs: ‘me2+1’. I’m so happy that I found them. Willem Rabe is so motivated, creative and helpful. Thank you so much ‘neoanalog’ !
Further on, I arranged 2 pieces for the WDR Funkhausorchestra. I hope the result can be seen and watched very soon on YouTube.
At the moment we are working on a theatre production in Vienna. The premiere will be on the 17th of December.
Busy days, lots of plans and ideas. I love it.
Scholarship
-August 2021-
Some news here. I got a scholarship from the German GEMA. I’m very happy about that. It gives me some freedom to be creative and independent.
Another thing is that there might be an opportunity to record some of my vocal-compositions together with the fantastic AuditivVokal Ensemble from Dresden end of October. At the moment I’m cleaning up my compositions for this occasion.
I’m also doing some notation-software work for publishers. So busy days over here.
Brass Reduction
-April 2021-
I accepted an offer to write a reduction of the brass section in Franz Lehár’s ‘Paganini’ for the Clara-Schumann-Philharmoniker Plauen-Zwickau.
A smaller line-up is needed due to Corona restricitons.
Vienna Calling
-April 2021-
I just signed a contract for a production with Claudia Bauer at the ‘Volkstheater‘ in Vienna.
It’ll be quite a mountain to climb. The idea is to make a kind of a spoken opera with words/text of Ernst Jandl.
The premiere will be on the 17th of December 2021.
Additional Music
-April 2021-
Tim Plegge the house-choreographer of the ‘Hessisches Staatsballett’ is very happy with the music Roald Baudoux and I produced for his next production ‘memento‘ and he asked us for some additional compositions.
‘Work’ (Fun !!) starts next week. Yeah !
New Music Is Finished
-January 2021-
With our project ‘Dark Fader‘, Roald Baudoux and me just finished the composition of 9 electro-acoustic pieces for ‘memento‘. Please read more about it in the article below.
The premiere will take place on the 9th of april.
Last week I also finished 6 new compositions of mine for the production ‘Die Rechtschaffenen Mörder‘ (premiere on the 28th of March at Staatsschauspiel Dresden). We will start rehearsing next week and I’m looking so much forward to hear my music being performed by the fantastic AuditivVokal Ensemble.
Nice X-Mas Present
-December 2020-
Today I found back the contract for my first ballet production in my post box. That’s been a dream of mine for a long time – being part of the fusion between music and movement.
I asked my good friend Roald Baudoux from Dark Fader to join me. We will work for the ‘Hessisches Staatsballett’. The production is called ‘memento‘ and the choreaographer will be Tim Plegge.
The premiere will take place on the 16th of October 2021 in Darmstadt. The plan is to perform ‘memento’ in Darmstadt and Wiesbaden.
Productions in Leipzig and Dresden
-September 2020-
2 new theatre productions for which I will design the music will have their premiere on the 28th of March at Staatsschauspiel Dresden and on the 29th of April 2021 at Schauspiel Leipzig.
In Dresden we will perform ‘Die Rechtschaffenen Mörder‘ – a debut novel from Ingo Schulze.
We will be joined by some fantastic singers of AuditivVokal for which I’m allowed to write new compositions. The stage director will be Claudia Bauer.
In Leipzig we will work on the debut of ‘Widerstand’ – a theatre play especially created for Schauspiel Leipzig. The stage director will be Enrico Lübbe.
Orchestrations
-August 2020-
I was asked to write classical orchestrations of 4 well known Pop-Songs for the Sasel Haus. We decided to take ‘Rehab’ (Amy Winehouse), ‘Hallelujah’ (Leonard Cohen), ‘Norwegian Wood’ (The Beatles) and ‘Ring Of Fire’ (Johnny Cash). The line-up will be: Flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns and double bass. Join the concert on the 16th of May 2021 – it will be fun.
Production in Frankfurt
-June 2020-
Last week I signed a contract for a production at the Schauspiel Frankfurt. We will work on Klaus Mann’s ‘Mephisto’. I’ll be the musical director and Claudia Bauer will be the stage director.
The rehearsals will start in August and I think we’ll be the opener of the season. The premiere is at 3rd of October 2020.
I’m looking forward to it.
Concerto For Double Choir
-March 2020-
I just finished my new ‘Concerto for Double Choir’ after having composed very intensely for the last couple of months, while simultaneously learning my new notation program ‘Dorico‘ (which is fantastic – finally I got rid of ‘Sibelius’ which made me angry much too often).
The Concerto will hopefully be performed by the end of 2020 by ‘Collegium Vocale‘ with their conductor Florian Lohmann who is a real master.
New CD out now !
-January 2020-
Some great news at the beginning of the year:
I found a nice Belgium-Based Label for my CD ‘me2+1’ which I recorded, produced and mixed with great musicians and friends.
Have a look here:
https://off-recordlabel.blogspot.com/2020/01/ouc023-peer-baierlein-me-1.html
This CD is about colours and energy and not the parameters to which most of us are used to (melody, harmony, rhythm).
Enjoy it on a quiet moment of your day/life.
Igor Strawinsky – L’Histoire Du Soldat
-October 2019-
On the 20th of october there will be a concert at the ‘Sasel Haus‘ for which I’m distributing some orchestrations. One part of the evening will be Igor Strawinskys „L’histoire du soldat – Die Geschichte des Soldaten“ together with the actors Victoria Trauttmansdorff and Wolf-Dietrich Sprenger.
For the other part, the visitors could choose their favorite classical works and I adapted them for Igor Strawinskys Septet-Line-Up. For more info, click here.
New Website – Welcome
-April 2019-
I think it was in 2017 when we played at a little private event and I met Johannes Töws for the first time.
He was one of the guests and it turned out that he was an illustrator. I saw some of his works and fell in love with his drawings immediately.
I told him:’ Johannes, there will come a day when I’ll contact you and we’ll work together’.
Last year I decided to refresh my website.
The basic idea was to have much less unnecessary personal information.
The visitors should see nice paintings with lots of funny little details which conjure a smile on their faces.
Of course Johannes was the first choice for this ‘assignment’.
We decided to first brainstorm – each for his own – to find a common thread for the site.
When we talked some days later we both had the exact same idea.
We wanted to tell the history of music in 6 pictures – starting in a bygone era, ending in the mañana.
Johannes wanted to add 3 main figures (they don’t have names yet). These are the little blue, green and yellow chimeras which can be seen in each picture. They evaluate together with their instruments and environment.
Most people don’t have time nowadays. But if you do have, take some minutes and explore Johannes’ fantastic work of art please.
