Univ.-Prof. Mag.
Johannes Maria Staud
Johannes Maria Staud (b. 1974, Innsbruck) is one of the leading contemporary composers of his generation. His music draws inspiration from literature, film and the visual arts, while engaging with philosophical, social and political questions. His works are characterised by a distinctive dramaturgy and a highly refined compositional language.
Johannes Maria Staud studied composition, musicology and philosophy in Vienna before continuing his composition studies in Berlin with Hanspeter Kyburz. Shortly after completing his studies, he received numerous major awards, including the Erste Bank Composition Prize (2002), the International Rostrum of Composers Prize (2003), the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation Prize (2004) and the Hindemith Prize (2009).
Prestigious commissions followed: in 2004/05, Apeiron was written for the Berlin Philharmonic under Simon Rattle; in 2006, Segue for cello and orchestra was premiered by Heinrich Schiff and the Vienna Philharmonic under Daniel Barenboim, commissioned by the Salzburg Festival. The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Mariss Jansons, premiered Maniai in 2012. In the same year, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden appointed him Capell-Compositeur.
His work on the Jewish writer and artist Bruno Schulz has left a strong imprint on his work, reflected in titles such as Über trügerische Stadtpläne und die Versuchungen der Winternächte (On Deceptive City Maps and the Temptations of Winter Nights) and Zimt. Ein Diptychon für Bruno Schulz (Cinnamon. An Orchestral Diptych for Bruno Schulz). The first part of this diptych, On Comparative Meteorology, was premiered in 2009 by the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst and revised in 2010 for performance by the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under Peter Eötvös; the second part, Contrebande (On Comparative Meteorology II), was commissioned by Pierre Boulez for the Ensemble Modern Orchestra and premiered in 2010 under Peter Eötvös.
Recent ensemble works include Auf die Stimme der weißen Kreide (Specter I–III), premiered in 2015 at the Festival Musica Strasbourg, and the diptych Par ici – Par là, first performed in its entirety by the Ensemble Intercontemporain at the Acht Brücken Festival Cologne. The violin concerto Oskar (Towards a Brighter Hue II), composed for Midori, was premiered in 2014 at the Lucerne Festival, as was the opera Die Antilope, based on a libretto by Durs Grünbein. Grünbein also wrote the text for Der Riss durch den Tag (2011), a monodrama for Bruno Ganz.
In the opera Die Weiden (world premiere December 2018 at the Vienna State Opera), Staud and Durs Grünbein explore contemporary political developments through the story of a young couple travelling “into the heart of darkness” in present-day Europe. His orchestral work Downstream was premiered by the Royal Danish Orchestra under Alexander Vedernikov and subsequently performed in Vienna (Vienna Symphony Orchestra under François-Xavier Roth), Cleveland and New York (both with the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst). The orchestral work Scattered Light, inspired by John Cage and the New York School, was premiered by the Vienna Philharmonic at the opening concert of Wien Modern.
After returning to academia in 2015/16, initially deputising for his former teacher Michael Jarrell, Johannes Maria Staud has been Professor of Composition at the Mozarteum University Salzburg since 2018.