Today, to expand the horizons to include the music of the present means to cross borders and invent new principles of order in a living chaos, such as in Jorge Luis Borges' tale of the garden of intersecting paths. As one walks through it, new paths arise, whereby each is a garden of time in which different futures grow alongside one another, and where one never really knows exactly in which garden one is at any particular moment.(from Udo Zimmermann's introduction to his first "musica viva" season program, 1997/98)

Photo © by Andreas Birkigt, Leipzig

Events

22 May 2013	Zimmermann, Udo: White Rose (Second Version 1985) Cond.: Arno Waschk, staging: Anja Nicklich Koblenz, Theater, 06:00 pm (Germany)
05 Oct 2013	Zimmermann, Udo: White Rose (Second Version 1985) Dresdner Philharmonie Dresden, Festspielhaus Hellerau (Germany)

All data are subject to correction

1943	Born in Dresden on 6 October
1954-1962	Chorister in the Dresden Kreuzchor
1962-1968	Studies at the "Carl Maria von Weber" Hochschule für Musik in Dresden(composition, conducting, voice)
1968-1970	Master classes at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin
1970-1984	Composer and producer at the Dresden State Opera
1972/1973	Wins Radio DDR's Hanns Eisler Awards
1974	Founder and director of the Studio "Neue Musik" (Dresden State Opera/Radio DDR)
1976	Teaching assignment at the Dresden Musikhochschule
since 1978	Professor of composition at the Dresden Musikhochschule
since 1979	Conducting engagements with all major European orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Staatskapelle Dresden, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Orchestre de Radio France Paris, Tonhalleorchester Zurich, Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic, MDR Symphony Orchestra, Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin; guest conductor at the opera houses of Vienna, Hamburg, Munich and Bonn
since 1980	guest lectureships and master courses in Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France, England, the USA and elsewhere
since 1982	Professorship for music theater in Dresden
since 1983	Regular member of Berlin's Akademie der Künste and of Hamburg's Freie Akademie der Künste
1985-1990	Director of the "Werkstattbühne für zeitgenössisches Musiktheater" in Bonn
since 1986	Director of the "Dresdner Zentrum für zeitgenössische Musik"
since 1988	Artistic director of the "musica-viva-ensemble", Dresden
since 1990	President of the board of trustees of the Stiftung Kulturfond Berlin
1990-2001	Manager of the Leipzig Opera
1991	Critics' Prize for music of the Association of German Critics, Berlin
1991/1995	Composer in residence at the Salzburg Festival
1993	Awarded the "Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse" of the Federal Republic of Germany
since 1993	Member of the Saxon Cultural Senate
since 1997	Artistic director of the "musica viva" concerts of the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation
2001-2003	General Director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin
since 2003	Intendant des Europäischen Zentrums der Künste Hellerau
2008	Officer of the "Ordre des Arts et des Lettres" President of the Sächsische Akademie der Künste
Career	Multiple winner of the UNESCO Composers' Tribune, Paris. Various composition prizes in eastern and western Europe. Member of the Freie Akademie der Künste zu Leipzig, the Sächsische Akademie der Künste and the Akademie der Künste Berlin-Brandenburg (Director of the Music Section)

On Udo Zimmermann

It is perhaps rare that a composer pursues a career as a conductor while also serving as the general manager of a theater, but Udo Zimmermann, who unites this triumvirate within himself, is following a venerable tradition which counts eminent forerunners. Though he has been composing for decades, he has always been fascinated by all aspects of practical music-making. He had the best prerequisites through his origins and training. To begin with, he was a member of Dresden's Kreuzchor, a celebrated boys' choir whose roots reach far back into the past. This is where his first works were performed. He then studied at the Dresden Musikhochschule. He was also able to profit from a compositional forum thanks to the Sächsische Staatskapelle's highly respected series of chamber music recitals. He never had to write simply "for his own enjoyment"; from the very beginning, virtually all of his works were commissioned. He also never accepted any compromises, since he always succeeded in meeting his own high demands as well as those of the performers and the public.

Ethical and moral concerns soon began to make themselves felt in his works. Udo Zimmermann sees himself as a witness of his time and confronts up-to-the-minute issues even when looking towards the past. Revelatory in this respect are the "Borchert Lieder", an early work. But even a late work such as "Pax Questuosa", written for the 100th anniversary of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, juxtaposes texts by St. Francis of Assisi with writings by major German-language poets of our own century. It is both a legitimation and warning in one. But this does not mean that Udo Zimmermann blocks out all utopian moments in his oeuvre. There are enough elements which still allow us to hope. The opera "Der Schuhu und die fliegende Prinzessin" turned the search for a concrete utopia into its very program.

Udo Zimmermann is one of today's leading music dramatists, whose works have been played in all of Europe's leading opera houses and even in the United States. And it should be noted that they have also established themselves in the repertoire. High compositional standards do not have to exclude quality communication with the public. Zimmermann's love of the stage manifested itself early on. He was still a student when he composed the opera "Weiße Rose" about Hans and Sophie Scholl and their resistance group in the Nazi era. The work was first performed by students as well, but when it was not until it was staged by professional theaters that the full extent of its sophisticated craftsmanship was uncovered. In the mid 1980s, Zimmermann presented a new version of this work, a duodrama which now limits itself to the two main characters and aims at topicality through broad abstraction. "Levins Mühle", based on a well-known book by Johannes Bobrowski, addresses racism and social privileges and reflects contemporary issues in the form of a parable. Zimmermann combines exuberant, folkloric verismo with the modern-day montage techniques of entertainment music and aleatoric composition. Based on a work by Peter Hacks, "Der Schuhu und die fliegende Prinzessin" relates a parable as "art fairy tale". The action on stage unfolds in the form of a play within a play, which even involves the musicians. In "Die wundersame Schustersfrau", after Federico García Lorca, Udo Zimmermann returns to the traditional proscenium stage. The didactic drama about the productive discrepancy between dream and reality does, however, open up new stage dimensions through its unique musical idiom, which borrows original Spanish inflections.

Udo Zimmermann's innate sense of drama, his talent for finding typifying gestures and evoking them in a striking and succinct manner also manifests itself in his works for the concert hall. Significantly, these generally involve a text or were at least inspired by a poetic or visual source. Experiences made in the opera "Weiße Rose" can be felt in the "Musik für Streicher 1968", and even go so far as to include direct quotes. However, the composer also experiments here with new compositional concepts, including aleatoric composition. They are then condensed to form genuine models in the orchestral works of the 1970s. Three types of form, procedurally disposed in a dialectic manner, stand out from the others: the cantilena type emphasizes melodic qualities which are often expressively intensified and made to "speak"; the free fugato heaps voices upon one another in a staggered fashion and with the same motion, almost like a symbol of growth; finally, there are the formulae built of short motifs which function as surprising intrusions, generally sharply articulated and signalizing turns and rifts.

Zimmermann's works have been undergoing a noticeable transformation since the early 1980s. There is a greater need for peace and quiet which invite the listener to reflect and even to meditate. Dedicated to the memory of the conductor Karl Böhm, the orchestral work "Songerie" alludes in its title to the "dream" which, however, is not seen as a means of veiling reality, but as a medium which helps us see through reality more lucidly. The perception of the emotional shadings is intended to move and affect the listener. The fact that Udo Zimmermann has been intensively involved with the organization of artistic processes since 1990 and has been voicing his controversial opinions on artistic matters seems to contradict this recent development. But Zimmermann sees the former as a kind of necessity: in a time of radical change, one must lay the foundations for the future. At all events, Udo Zimmermann always considers the public as his partner. Without wanting to ingratiate itself with the public, his music seeks contact and exchange in the spontaneous event of music. Obviously, what seems artless and ingenuous is laced with ferments which create a firm deposit on the work and have a long-lasting effect. And it is quite a different matter when we see that the immediate emotional access includes a strict calculation and modern technological methods. Here, too, antitheses are brought together to form a unity.

Fritz Hennenberg (1996)
(Translation: Roger Clément)

Writings by Udo Zimmermann

Unter Tragen lächeln können. Auf der Suche nach meiner Identität, in: Jahrbuch der Hamburgischen Staatsoper 8 (1980/81), Hamburg 1981

Die Hirtenweise auf dem Berge Kareal, in: Programmheft zu einer konzertanten Aufführung von Richard Wagners "Tristan und Isolde" am Bayerischen Rundfunk München 1981

Was bedeutet mir die Zauberflöte?, in: Jahrbuch der Hamburgischen Staatsoper 9 (1981/82), Hamburg 1982

Über "Parsifal", in: Programmheft zur Inszenierung von Richard Wagners "Parsifal" zu den Bayreuther Festspielen 1982

Gefühl in ursprünglicher Größe. Richard Wagner und wir, Sonderdruck Dresdner Musikfestspiele 1983

Der "Realismus" des Modest Mussorgskij, in: Programmheft der Hamburgischen Staatsoper zu "Boris Godunow", Spielzeit 1984/85

Mozart und die Musik der Gegenwart, in: Philharmonische Programme/Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester, Jg. 1986/87

Siebzig Blicke auf meine Musik (zusammengestellt von Fritz Hennenberg), in: Komponieren zur Zeit, Leipzig 1988

Kultur und Kunst zweier deutscher Staaten in einem europäischen Deutschland. Festvortrag zur Jahrestagung des Kulturkreises im Bundesverband der deutschen Industrie am 7. Oktober 1990 im Rathaussaal Heidelberg

Ein marodes System hat keine marode Kultur, in: Rheinischer Merkur/Christ und Welt vom 12. Oktober 1990

Rede über Deutschland, in: Reden über Deutschland 2, München 1991

Weshalb wir neue Musik brauchen, in: Eine Sprache der Gegenwart. 50 Jahre Musica Viva, hrsg. von Renate Ulm, Mainz/ München 1995

Zum Geleit, in: Jahrbuch der Sächsischen Akademie der Künste 2007/2008, Dresden 2009, S. 11-13

Die Grenze zum Nächsten nicht verletzen, in: Jahrbuch der Sächsischen Akademie der Künste 2007/2008, Dresden 2009, S. 77-79


Writings about Udo Zimmermann

Geißler, Frank (Hrsg.): Man sieht, was man hört. Udo Zimmermann über Musik und Theater, Leipzig: Reclam 2003
Hennenberg, Fritz und Zimmermann, Udo: "Leidenschaft Musik, Abenteuer Theater. Komponist - Intendant - Dirigent", Bonn 1992
Nicolai, Felicitas, Das Verhältnis von Text und Musik in den vokalen und instrumentalen Werken Udo Zimmermanns, Diss. Leipzig 1986
Nyffeler, Max: "Abspringen ist lebensgefährlich". Die Grenzgänge des Komponisten und Intendanten Udo Zimmermann, Rundfunkportrait, Erstsendung WDR, 13. Juni 2002
Zimmermann, Udo. Ein Fünfzigjähriger im Spiegelbild von Zeitgenossen. Eine Biographie in Zitaten, hrsg. von Michael Ernst, Leipzig 1993

Vaterunserlied (1959)
Archiv Dresdner Kreuzchor

Wort ward Fleisch (1961)
Archiv Dresdner Kreuzchor

Grab und Kreuz (1962)
Archiv Dresdner Kreuzchor

Konzert für Violine und Orchester (1964)
Bibliothek der Hochschule für Musik "Carl Maria von Weber" Dresden

Sonatine (1964)
Ms.

Neruda-Lieder (1965)
Ms.

Dramatische Impression (1966)
für Violoncello und Klavier
Edition Peters

Dramatische Impression (1966)
(Orchesterfassung der "Dramatischen Impression" für Violoncello und Klavier)
Edition Peters

Sonetti amorosi (1966)
Edition Peters

Klaviersonate 1967
Ms.

Konzert für Pauken und Orchester (1966/83)
Peer-Verlag

L'Homme (1970)
Edition Peters

Episoden für Bläserquintett (1971)
Archiv Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater Schwerin

Ein Zeuge der Liebe, die besiegt den Tod (1973)
Edition Peters

Psalm der Nacht (1977)
Bärenreiter

Wenn ich an Hiroshima denke (1981/82)
Peer-Verlag

Pax Questuosa (Der klagende Friede) (1982)
PeerVerlag

Wenn ein Wintervogel das Herz ... (1990)
Ms.