Thomas Walter Buchholz (born 27 August 1961) is a German composer and

music educator Music education is a field of practice in which educators are trained for careers as elementary or secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. Music education is also a research area in which scholars do origina ...

Life

Buchholz was born in 1961 in Eisenach as the son of the oratorio singer and vocal pedagogue Kurt Wichmann and the concert pianist and music teacher Jutta Buchholz ''née'' Gensty. His father was editor of the vocal school of

Pier Francesco Tosi Pier Francesco Tosi (c. 16531732) was a castrato singer, composer, and writer on music. His ''Opinoni de' cantori antichi e moderni...'' was the first full-length treatise on singing and provides a unique glimpse into the technical and social asp ...

. Buchholz went to school in Eisenach and from the age of six years he received lessons in singing, piano, organ and

music theory Music theory is the study of theoretical frameworks for understanding the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory": The first is the "Elements of music, ...

at the ''Eisenacher Musikschule''. Afterwards he trained as a

piano maker A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an action mechanism where hammers strike strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a chromatic scale in equal tempera ...

at the Pianofortefabrik in Leipzig. Afterwards he worked as

piano tuner Piano tuning is the process of adjusting the tension of the strings of an acoustic piano so that the Interval (music), musical intervals between strings are Musical tuning, in tune. The meaning of the term 'in tune', in the context of piano tunin ...

in Eisenach and as musical instrument restorer at the

Michaelstein Abbey Michaelstein Abbey (Kloster Michaelstein) is a former Cistercian monastery, now the home of the ''Stiftung Kloster Michaelstein - Musikinstitut für Aufführungspraxis'' ("Michaelstein Abbey Foundation - Music Institute for Performance"), near ...

in Blankenburg. From 1983 to 1988 Buchholz studied singing with Rudi Ploß,

musical composition Musical composition can refer to an Originality, original piece or work of music, either Human voice, vocal or Musical instrument, instrumental, the musical form, structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new pie ...

with Günter Neubert and

music education Music education is a field of practice in which educators are trained for careers as primary education, elementary or secondary education, secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. Music education is also a rese ...

with Hans-Georg Mehlhorn at the

University of Music and Theatre Leipzig The University of Music and Theatre "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig () is a public university in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1843 by Felix Mendelssohn as the Conservatorium der Musik (Conservatory of Music), it is the oldest univ ...

. From 1988 to 1992 he was for composition with

Ruth Zechlin Ruth Zechlin (22 June 1926 – 4 August 2007) was a German composer. Life Ruth Oschatz was born in Grosshartmannsdorf, where she began piano lessons at the age of five years, and wrote her first composition at the age of seven. From 1943 to 1 ...

at the

Academy of Arts, Berlin The Academy of Arts () is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany. The academy's predecessor organization was founded in 1696 by Elector F ...

. He also took composition courses with Rudolf Kelterborn,

Witold Lutosławski Witold Roman Lutosławski (; 25 January 1913 – 7 February 1994) was a Polish composer and conductor. Among the major composers of 20th-century classical music, he is "generally regarded as the most significant Polish composer since Szymanow ...

and

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...

. From 1988 to 1992 he was assistant for

at the

Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (), also referred to as MLU, is a public university, public research university in the cities of Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Halle and Wittenberg. It is the largest and oldest university in the German State o ...

. He taught

instrumentation Instrumentation is a collective term for measuring instruments, used for indicating, measuring, and recording physical quantities. It is also a field of study about the art and science about making measurement instruments, involving the related ...

counterpoint In music theory, counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically dependent on each other, yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. The term originates from the Latin ...

and new music. From 1993 to 1995 he was

research fellow A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a p ...

at the

Heinrich Schütz House, Bad Köstritz Heinrich Schütz House is a cultural site in Bad Köstritz, in Thuringia, Germany. The composer Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672) was born here; the house is now a museum about his life and work. History The earliest mention of the building is in 15 ...

. There he did research on

Georg Benda Georg Anton Benda (; 30 June 17226 November 1795) was a Kingdom of Bohemia, Bohemian composer, violinist and ''Kapellmeister'' of the Classical period (music), classical period. Biography Born into a Benda family, family of notable musicians in ...

and historical music. Afterwards he worked at the Handel House in Halle until 1999 and was engaged in regional music history. In the same year he was appointed

visiting professor In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting scientist, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic fo ...

for composition at the

Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan (), also known as Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory (YKSC) or Yerevan State Conservatory (YSC), is a state-owned college of music located in Yerevan, Armenia. The institute was founded in 1921 as a music st ...

in Armenia. He has also taught Ensemble conducting at the Leipzig Musikhochschule and at the ''BIP-Kreativitätszentrum'' in Leipzig and teaches in the composer class of Saxony/Anhalt. From 2011 to 2018 he was choir and orchestra conductor and

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

for music theory at the free in Halle. Since 2018 he has been working as a pedagogical assistant at the IWK Institute for Further Education in Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1996 Buchholtz has been chairman of the ''Landesverband Sachsen-Anhalt Deutscher Komponisten'' (LVDK). From 1999 to 2003 he was also president of the ''Ständigen Konferenz Zeitgenössische Musik in Mitteldeutschland''. Buchholz is a member of the board of the German Composers' Association (DKV) Saxony/Saxony-Anhalt. Furthermore, he was artistic director of the

Hallische Musiktage The Hallische Musiktage are a festival specialised on contemporary music, based in Halle (Saale). Founded in 1955, it is held annually in November, the second-oldest German festival of contemporary music after the Donaueschinger Musiktage. Hans S ...

from 1996 to 2012. From 2010 to 2014 Buchholz was head of the jury of the International Komitas Festival at . He was also a jury member at the composition competition for the , Hans-Stieber Prize, International Guitar Competition Berlin and the ''Composition Prize of the City of Leipzig''. His approximately 170 works (published by

Schott Music Schott Music () is one of the oldest German music publishers. It is also one of the largest music publishing houses in Europe, and is the second-oldest music publisher after Breitkopf & Härtel. The company headquarters of Schott Music were foun ...

and Verlag Neue Musik in Berlin) have been performed in 16 European countries, Japan and the USA. He has made CD and radio recordings, also as harpsichordist and organist. He has worked with Reinbert Evers,

Howard Arman Howard Arman (born 1954 in London) is an English choral conductor and opera director. He won the Handel Prize of the Handel Festival, Halle, in 1996, shaped the festival's orchestra and conducted operas of George Frideric Handel. He is a conduct ...

, Thomas Blumenthal,

Matthias Sannemüller Matthias Sannemüller (born 2 September 1951) is a German violist. Life Born in Leipzig, Sannemüller was born in 1951 as son of the concertmaster Horst Sannemüller and the opera singer Philine Fischer. In his youth he learned piano and viol ...

, John Holloway,

Thomas Müller Thomas Müller (; born 13 September 1989) is a German professional Association football, footballer who plays for club FC Bayern Munich, Bayern Munich. He primarily plays as an attacking midfielder or a second striker. Widely regarded as one o ...

Georg Christoph Biller Georg Christoph Biller (20 September 1955 – 27 January 2022) was a German choral conductor. He conducted the Thomanerchor as the sixteenth Thomaskantor since Johann Sebastian Bach from 1992 to 2015. He was also a baritone, an academic teacher, ...

Christfried Brödel Christfried is a Germanic masculine given name, composed of the components "Christ" and "fried" (from Old High German ''fridu'' meaning peace). Nowadays the name is rarely given. Notable people with this name include: * Christfried Berger (1938� ...

Clemens Flämig Clemens Flämig (born in 1976) is a German conductor and Stadtsingechores zu Halle. In 2016, in the course of a selection procedure, he was shortlisted alongside for the 17th Thomanerchor after Johann Sebastian Bach. Life Flämig was born in ...

, Martin Schmeding and

Carin Levine Carin Levine is an American classical flautist. Life Levine studied at the University of Cincinnati with Jack Wellbaum (flute) and Peter Kamnitzer (chamber music), then from 1974 at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg with Aurèle Nicolet (flute ...

. Buchholz gave

workshop Beginning with the Industrial Revolution era, a workshop may be a room, rooms or building which provides both the area and tools (or machinery) that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods. Workshops were the only ...

s on new music in Ufa, Yerevan, Bern, Brno, Vilnius, Riga, Prague and

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

Work

Since his youth, Buchholz has been occupied with ''

Neue Musik Neue Musik (English ''new music'', French ''nouvelle musique'') is the collective term for a wealth of different currents in composed Western art music from around 1910 to the present. Its focus is on compositions of 20th century music. It is char ...

''. These include his compositions ''Eruption'' (1990/91), ''String Quartet'' (1988) and ''Two Rhapsodies'' (1990). In his first chamber symphony ''Eruption'', he included sonoristic and

pointillistic Pointillism (, ) is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image. Georges Seurat and Paul Signac developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism. The term "Pointillism" ...

elements. Later he used styles of

renaissance music Renaissance music is traditionally understood to cover European music of the 15th and 16th centuries, later than the Renaissance era as it is understood in other disciplines. Rather than starting from the early 14th-century ''ars nova'', the mus ...

and

baroque music Baroque music ( or ) refers to the period or dominant style of Classical music, Western classical music composed from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque style followed the Renaissance music, Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Class ...

. He composed the chamber symphonies ''Perotinus'' (1994) and ''Ellipse'' (1995) and the cycle for chamber orchestra ''Five Baroque Etudes'' (1998/99). His

orchestral music An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, a ...

includes several major works, including ''Wintermusik I'' (2004), ''Die Stadt'' (2006), ''Tod des Odysseus nach einem Text von Heiner Müller'' (2009), ''Fraktale'' (2010), ''The Young Person's Guide to New Music'' (2010), ''Klingelfranz'' (2011) and ''Gegen-Impuls'' (2013). One focus of his work is

choral music A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

. The major choral cycles include ''Orplid'' (1998), ''Armenia clamans'' (1999), ''Letare Germania'' (2006), ''Luther-Arkaden'' (2008), ''Novalis Madrigal (2010)'' and ''Nongenti'' (2015/16). Buchholz combines contemporary compositional techniques with tonal cells into a unity in which he breaks through classical settings as well as complex avant-garde structures. Examples are ''Les dances imaginaire'' for two orchestras (2008) and ''Armenian Hymns'' for alto solo, 2 oboes and choir (2013). The chamber music comprises about 70 works, including cyclical compositions such as ''domino per due pianoforti'' (1992), ''Trois Airs Baroques'' (1998/99), ''Fourteen States to Bach'' (1999), RICERCAR and CHORAL (1999/2000), ''UNDEUTschLICHt - eleven caricatures for two harps'' (2003), ''KRUNK for string quartet'' (2005) and ''Tetraktys'' (2009). In total, the

German National Library The German National Library (DNB; ) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to collect, permanently archive, comprehens ...

registers over one hundred published works.

Prizes and scholarships

* Kompositionsstipendium der (1992, 1994, 1998, 2003) * Forum Junger Komponisten (1994) * Aufenthaltsstipendium im

Künstlerhaus Schloss Wiepersdorf Schloss Wiepersdorf is a ''Schloss'' in Niederer Fläming, Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg ...

(1996) * Kompositionsstipendium der Stiftung Kulturfonds Sachsen-Anhalt (1998, 2000, 2005) * 1. Preis beim Kompositionswettbewerb zum Themenjahr "Reformation und Musik" of the Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (2012)

Discography

*1996: ''Lutherarkaden'' *1998: ''Kammersinfonien VI – IX'' (

Thorofon Thorofon Schallplatten KG is a classical record label based in Wedemark, Germany. Among the several series of recordings the label has published, there are works and titles such as Ludwig van Beethoven's piano sonatas, the complete works for solo ...

) *1999: ''Eruption'' *2000: ''Liebsame Beschäftigung'' () *2001: ''Musik in Deutschland'' 1950–20ff *2004: ''Nostradamus I'' (Stylton) *2007: ''Neue Musik für Streichorchester im Händelhaus, Halle/Saale'' *2008: ''Sonnengesänge'' ( MDG) *2008: ''Alle Jahre wieder'' *2010: ''UNDEUTschLICHt – zyklen für ensembles'' (Kreuzberg Records) *2011: ''Momentaufnahme 20 Jahre'' (Kreuzberg Records) *2011: ''Komponisten aus Sachsen-Anhalt, Vol. 3'' *2011: ''Ehre sei Gott für alles'' ( Querstand)

Writings

* ''Schöpferischer Umgang mit musikalisch-historischen Quellen. Bemerkungen zu meiner Kammersinfonie vii ''Ex-sequi'' (1995)''. In Ingeborg Stein (ed.): ''Diesseits- und Jenseitsvorstellungen im 17. Jahrhundert. Interdisziplinäres Kolloquium vom 3.–5.2.1995''. Quartus-Verlag, Jena 1996, , . (Sonderreihe Monographien, vol. 4) * ''Rezeption von Musik der Schützzeit in Kompositionen des 20. Jahrhunderts''. In Ingeborg Stein (ed.): ''Rezeption alter Musik. Protokollband. Kolloquium anläßlich des 325. Todestages von Heinrich Schütz.'' Forschungs- und Gedenkstätte Heinrich-Schütz-Haus, Bad Köstritz 1999, , . (Sonderreihe Monographien, vol. 6) * ''Einige Abstraktionsgestalten barocker Strukturelemente in Kompositionen des 20. Jahrhunderts''. In ''Beiträge der Kolloquien 1998–2001''. Forschungs- und Gedenkstätte Heinrich-Schütz-Haus, Bad Köstritz 2002, , . (Beiträge zur musikalischen Quellenforschung, vol. 5)

Literature

* ''Buchholz, Thomas.'' In Wilfried W. Bruchhäuser: ''Komponisten der Gegenwart im Deutschen Komponisten-Interessenverband. Ein Handbuch.'' 4th edition Deutscher Komponisten-Interessenverband, Berlin 1995, , p. 157. * Gert Richter: ''Thomas Buchholz''. In ''

Komponisten der Gegenwart The ''Komponisten der Gegenwart'' (KDG) is a music encyclopedia in the German language about composers of the 20th and 21st century. It is a looseleaf service with information on currently about 900 composers. Editors Hanns-Werner Heister and Wa ...

'' (KDG). Edition Text & Kritik, Munich 1996, . * ''Buchholz, Thomas.'' In Axel Schniederjürgen (ed.): ''Kürschners Musiker-Handbuch.'' Axel Schniederjürgen 5th edition, Saur Verlag, Munich 2006, , . * Christoph Sramek: ''Buchholz, Thomas''. In

Ludwig Finscher Ludwig Finscher (14 March 193030 June 2020) was a German musicologist. He was a professor of music history at the University of Heidelberg from 1981 to 1995 and editor of the encyclopedia '' Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart''. He is respect ...

(ed.): ''

Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'' (''MGG''; "Music in the Past and Present") is a German music encyclopedia. It is among the world's most comprehensive encyclopedias of music history and musicology, on account of its scope, content, wealth ...

'' (MGG). Supplement, Bärenreiter, Kassel

mong others Mong may refer to: People *A proposed original name for the Hmong people, based on the main group, the Mong community *Bob Mong (), American journalist and academic administrator *Henry Mong (), American surgeon and Presbyterian missionary *Mong M ...

2008, . * Christoph Sramek: ''Thomas Buchholz. Skizzenblätter zu Leben und Werk des halleschen Komponisten''.''Thomas Buchholz. Skizzenblätter zu Leben und Werk des halleschen Komponisten''
on WorldCat Verlag Neue Musik, Berlin 2011, .

References

External links

* *
Literatur von Thomas Buchholz
in the

Bibliography of Music Literature The Bibliography of Music Literature (BMS or BMS online, ) is an international bibliography of literature on music. It considers all kind of music and includes both current and older literature. Since 1968, the BMS editorial staff has also been wo ...

Thomas Buchholz - Biogramm Munzinger

Biographie und Werkverzeichnis von Thomas Buchholz
im Komponistenlexikon des DKV

at Klassika {{DEFAULTSORT:Buchholz, Thomas 1961 births Living people People from Eisenach 20th-century German classical composers 21st-century German classical composers 20th-century hymnwriters 20th-century German songwriters Academic staff of the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg Academic staff of the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig German music educators 21st-century German songwriters German hymnwriters