The Lucerne Festival, where Johannes Maria Staud was composer-in-residence in 2014, presented several world and Swiss premieres, which are exemplary of the thematic diversity of his works: the violin concerto Oskar (Towards a Brighter Hue II), written for Midori, further develops the solo piece Towards a Brighter Hue, which took its inspiration from a sculpture by the English artist David Nash. The opera Die Antilope analyses the behaviour of society and the individual with a libretto by Durs Grünbein who also provided the text for Der Riss durch den Tag. The monodrama for Bruno Ganz, which received its world premiere in 2011 and could be seen again in 2014 in Lucerne, refers to Grünbein’s native Dresden and tells of social indifference, ignorance and their effects. The complete version of Zimt. Ein Diptychon für Bruno Schulz was premiered in Lucerne, a piece for which Johannes Maria Staud intensively studied the works of the Jewish writer and illustrator Bruno Schulz. The first part of this orchestral diptych, On Comparative Meteorology, was premiered in its original version in 2009 by the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst and in the revised version in 2010 by the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under Peter Eötvös; the second part, Contrebande (On Comparative Meteorology II) , was commissioned by Pierre Boulez for the Ensemble Modern, which gave the world premiere in 2010 under Peter Eötvös.

Johannes Maria Staud’s 2015/16 season begins at the Festival Musica in Strasbourg with the world premiere of Auf die Stimme der weißen Kreide (Specter I-III) , a large instrumental work for the Ensemble Modern. A week later, Specter of the Gardenia oder Der Tag wird kommen will open the steirischer herbst. The theatrical evening came about through a collaboration with Josef Winkler and will be performed by the Ensemble Modern under Emilio Pomàrico in a staging by Sofia Simitz. In October, the musikprotokoll im steirischen herbst will also present the world premiere of a new work for the ensemble recherche. The world premiere of Wasserzeichen for the Trio Catch is due in September at the Philharmonie Cologne. As an ECHO Rising Star, the young ensemble will perform the piece on a tour organised by the European Concert Hall Organisation, which will include Amsterdam, Brussels, Hamburg, Vienna, London and Porto among others. In May 2016, the Ensemble Intercontemporain will premiere the second part of Par ici – Par là at the ACHT BRÜCKEN festival in Cologne, presenting the complete ensemble diptych for the first time.

In 2015/16, Johannes Maria Staud will also return to the university where he began his compositional career: he will stand in for his former teacher Michael Jarrell for one year as professor of composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.

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