Biography - Matthias Ockert
Composer and guitarist of contemporary music.
He writes for electronics, traditional instruments, jazz, experimental video, music and dance theatre.
From 1995 to 2004 he studied jazz guitar with Bill Connors and Attila Zoller in NYC. He received a diploma in architecture from the TU Berlin in 1998 and from 2001 to 2008 he studied composition with Wolfgang Rihm and Sandeep Bhagwati at the University of Music Karlsruhe.
2008/09 he studies composition with Hanspeter Kyburz at the University of Music Hanns-Eisler in Berlin.
As jazz guitarist he performed and recorded with various bands and ensembles in Europe and USA.
His compositions were performed at Lucerne Festival, Academy of Arts in Berlin, ZKM Center for Arts and Media Karlsruhe, International Summer Courses for New Music Darmstadt, world new music festival Stuttgart, Florida Electroacoustic Music Festival, International Computer Music Conference New Orleans, Festival Synthèse Bourges, Festival di Musica Acusmatica Tiscali and the International Film Festival Munich.
He won the first place prize at the International Composition Competition 2004 for the Room of the Transparent Factory in Dresden with diaphaneity for large ensemble and live-electronics.
stretto which won a residence prize at the 32rd International Competition of Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Art at Bourges, France.
2006 he received a grant from the Heinrich-Strobel-Stiftung des SWR and composed for the multimedia-project Donny G. of Jeunesses Musicales Germany and ZKM Karlsruhe.
2007 he was invited to write a piece for Ensemble Modern and for the Lucerne Festival Percussion Ensemble and received a grant from the Hanne Darboven Stiftung, and the Heinrich Hertz grant by the Society for Arts and Media Karlsruhe.
In 2008 he was guest composer at the Academy of Arts Berlin, the SWR Experimentalstudio Freiburg and his composition Primum Mobile for female voices, ensemble and electronics was premiered by the KlangForum Heidelberg at the ZKM Karlsruhe, supported by the Hanne Darboven Foundation.
2009 he composed Layers News Opera for the Zeitgenössische Oper Berlin and the dance theatre Xanthopsia for the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, which won the Walter-Fink-Prize for Music, Dance and Media.
His current main project is the opera The Library of Babel after Borges which will premiered at the Münchner Biennale in 2014 and the Portrait CD Matthias OCKERT recomposed for the Edition of Contemporary Music of the German Music Council which will be released in 2013 by wergo.