Karsten Gundermann (born 1 October 1966) is a German composer.

Life

Born in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

, Gundermann attended Hans Jürgen Wenzel's children's composer class and then studied at the Dresdner Musikhochschule with

Udo Zimmermann Udo Zimmermann (6 October 1943 – 22 October 2021) was a German composer, musicologist, opera director, and conductor. He worked as a professor of composition, founded a centre for contemporary music in Dresden, and was director of the Leipzig ...

. From 1990 he studied at the National Academy for Chinese Theatre in Beijing. In 1993 he composed there the

Beijing Opera Peking opera, or Beijing opera (), is the most dominant form of Chinese opera, which combines instrumental music, vocal performance, mime, martial arts, dance and acrobatics. It arose in Beijing in the mid-Qing dynasty (1644–1912) and became ...

''The Nightingale'' based on a fairy tale by

Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogue (literature), travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fai ...

. The opera was performed in 2010 as part of the

Rheingau Musik Festival The (RMF) is an international summer music festival in Germany, founded in 1987. It is mostly for classical music, but includes other genres. Concerts take place at culturally important locations, such as Eberbach Abbey and Schloss Johannisberg, ...

at Palais am Zoo in

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

. In 2003 he composed the ''Chinese-German Seasons and Times of Day'' based on the eponymous cycle of poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, commissioned by the

RIAS Kammerchor The RIAS Kammerchor (RIAS Chamber Choir) is a German choir based in Berlin, Germany. It receives support from the Rundfunk Orchester und Chöre GmbH Berlin ("Berlin Radio Orchestra and Choirs"), a limited-liability company owned by the public br ...

es and the

Concerto Köln Concerto Köln is an ensemble specialising in music of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The group formed in 1985, one of many groups associated with the surging interest in period instruments in that decade. Its members consisted mainly ...

. In June 2010 his compositional arrangement of '' Le cinesi'', a

baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

opera with music by

Christoph Willibald Gluck Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; ; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period (music), classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of th ...

and a

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

Pietro Metastasio Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi (3 January 1698 – 12 April 1782), better known by his pseudonym of Pietro Metastasio (), was an Italian poet and Libretto, librettist, considered the most important writer of ''opera seria'' libretti. Early ...

, was

premiere A premiere, also spelled première, (from , ) is the debut (first public presentation) of a work, i.e. play, film, dance, musical composition, or even a performer in that work. History Raymond F. Betts attributes the introduction of the ...

d at the .

Films

* 2002: ' * 2002: ''Abgedreht'' * 2010: ''Faust II reloaded – Den lieb ich, der Unmögliches begehrt!''

Writings

* ''Echt clever! Geniale Erfindungen aus Hamburg''. * ''Secret Sounds Musik und Klang aus China''.''Secret Sounds Musik und Klang aus China''
on WorldCat

References

External links

*
Karsten Gundermann
in the Archive of Contemporary Composers of the Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden
Porträt: Karsten Gundermann
Online-Magazin des Goethe-Instituts China, June 2010 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gundermann, Karsten 1966 births Living people Composers from Dresden German composers 20th-century German classical composers German film score composers