York Höller


York Höller is a German composer and Professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik Köln.

Biography

Höller was born in Leverkusen. Between 1963 and 1970 he studied at the Cologne Musikhochschule: composition with Joachim Blume and Bernd Alois Zimmermann, piano with Else Schmitz-Gohr
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 Karlheinz Stockhausen" or, alternatively, "was given the chance, at Stockhausen’s invitation, to realize works of his own". 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, and in 1982 Höller dedicated his orchestral work Schwarze Halbinseln to Stockhausen. 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 was premièred at the Grand Opéra.
From 1986 to 1990 Höller was lecturer in analysis and music theory at the Musikhochschule Köln. Subsequently, he succeeded Stockhausen as artistic director of the WDR Studio for Electronic Music from 1990 to 1999. In 1993 he accepted a call to the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin as professor of composition. As a successor to Hans Werner Henze he moved in 1995 in this same capacity to the Cologne Musikhochschule. In addition, Höller has presented lectures and held composition courses at many European and American colleges.
Since 1991 York Höller has been a member of the Academy of Arts, Berlin.

Honors

York Höller has received numerous distinctions:

Compositions