Festival Sankt Gallen: Composer Portrait Beat Furrer

What's it about?

Beat Furrer was born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, in 1954; he has lived in Vienna since 1975. Austria has become his musical home - as they say so beautifully in English, he is a "naturalized" Austrian. He studied composition with Roman Haubenstock-Ramati. Over the years, a friendship developed between the two artists, who belonged to different generations. Furrer also took conducting courses with Otmar Suitner and has embarked on a successful conducting career, with a focus on contemporary music. Among other things, he championed Haubenstock-Ramati's work and conducted the premiere of the revised version of his opera Amerika in 1992. In 1985, Furrer founded the Ensemble Klangforum Wien, which he led for years as artistic director and conductor. He and his successors have developed Klangforum into one of the world's best interpreter groups of new music. Between the early 1980s and 1995...