2008

• The Koninklijk Conservatorium in Den Haag (Netherlands) plans an intense "GOEBBELS FESTIVAL 2008" on the compositional work in March (details see dates).
  
  
• The complete cycle "SURROGATE CITIES" for big orchestra has been performed by the Berlin Philharmonics (cond. Sir Simon Rattle) and choreographed by Mathilde Monnier as a dance project (Zukunft/BPhil - education project) at the beginning of February - as will also be performed in the context of a "Goebbels Festival 2008" in Den Haag by the ASKO Ensemble and the Symfonie Orkest van het Koninklijk Conservatorium (conduct. Peter Rundel and Reinbert de Leeuw) in the middle of march. The vocal soloists in all these performances are David Moss and Jocelyn B. Smith.
  
  

• I went to the house but did not enter
  In August 2008 Heiner Goebbels plans to premiere his next music theatre production with the HILLIARD ENSEMBLE as a coproduction of European festivals together with théâtre Vidy in Lausanne, cocomissioned by several US american venues and promoters. WIth texts by T.S.Eliot, Maurice Blanchot and Samuel Beckett.
  

• Many performances of the latest music theatre production STIFTERS DINGE are taking place all over Europe in 2008 (France, UK, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey a.o.), Please check the detail informations (starting times) at the sites of the venues, since there will be often twice performances a day in most cities.
  
  
• Also in 2008 further performances of the music theatre productions MAX BLACK ( touring since 1998), HASHIRIGAKI (touring since 2000) and BLACK ON WHITE (touring since 1996)

2007

• more performances of the music theatre productions Max Black (New Zealand, Marseille, Normandie a.o.) Hashirigaki (Seoul, Jerusalem) and Eraritjaritjaka (Turin, Budapest, a.o.) and Black on White (Madrid)
  
  
• SONGS OF WARS I HAVE SEEN
  Heiner Goebbels composed a suite for ensemble called "Songs of Wars I have seen" as a common commission of the Southbank Centre London for the London Sinfonietta and the Orchestra in the Age of Enlightenment, which was premiered in the Queen Elizabeth Hall London July 12th, conducted by Sian Edwards - it was received with great response aswell by the audience and the british press: THE EVENING STANDARD reviewed it under the headline "Brilliant battle cries" and found it "Utterly hypnotic and quite unforgettable." Andrew Clements called it in THE GUARDIAN an "extraordinary musical experience" and the TIMES review describes "50 minutes of gently mesmerising music-theatre" and ends up with "A thought-provoking, hautingly tender work for troubled times"
  
  
  
• Stifters Dinge / Stifter's Things
  
  In September a new music theatre production has been premiered with great response in theatre vidy, lausanne. Performances at the coproducing institutions in Frankfurt (schauspiel) , Berlin (Spielzeit Europa - Berliner Festspiele) and Luxemburg (Grand Theatre) will follow in Octobre and Novembre as well as performances in Munich (Spielart Festival). Because of big request and small amount of possible spectators in this installative performance there are additional (late) performances announced in all cities. Please doublecheck the dates and time. An Interview with Heiner Goebbels, lots of first reviews and first pictures on the following links.
  
  
• Heiner Goebbels was awarded by the Polish theatre critics with the prize "Future of the Theatre" for the performances of Eraritjaritjaka during the Warsaw Theatre Festival "Festiwal Festiwali Teatralnych Spotkania" in 2006.
  
  
• The Opera "Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten / Landscape with distant Relativs" (2002) was released as a CD by ecm records with David Bennent, Georg Nigl, the Ensemble Modern and the Deutscher Kammerchor, conducted by Franck Ollu.
  
  
• since the beginning of octobre Heiner Goebbels is fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute for advanced study) in Berlin until July 08
  
  

2006

• An extended Festival wirth several Concerts of Orchestras, Ensembles, international Soloists, lectures and student workshops was dedidcated to the work of Heiner Goebbels in Octobre in Groningen (Netherlands).
  
  
• Heiner Goebbels was elected as President of the Theatre Academy of Hessen, a connection between four Universities and 9 theaters in Hessen, which all contribute to the education in performing arts and theatre.
  
  
• "Hörspiel des Monats" (radiopiece of the month) has been awarded to "Landscape with distant relativs" by Heiner Goebbels, premiered at the SWR in April, by the Academy of Perfoming Arts.
  
  
• Preis zum Welttheatertag für Heiner Goebbels - the German Centre of the ITI, the International Theatre Institute has awarded its Prize of the World Theatre Day (March 27th) to Heiner Goebbels.
  
  
• After its overwhelming response last year, 2006 will be a focus on the worldwide touring of the music theatre piece Eraritjaritjaka - museé des phrases - including performances in New Zealand, France, Canada, USA, Austria, Poland and other countries.
  
  
• Also following works can be seen among others: Black on White (Germany) , Max Black (Germany), ...meme soir.- (France), Surrogate Cities (Sweden) and Hashirigaki (Lithuania).
  

• FIELDS OF FIRE - the video and soundinstallation - as a collaborative work by the artist Michal Rovner (concept and video) with Heiner Goebbels (sound) was presented in the first half of this year in New York and Tel Aviv.
  
  
• Beside lots of other concerts this year The North Netherlands Orchestra in Groningen is planning a Festival in the second half of octobre around Heiner Goebbels with various concerts of his compositions.
  
  
• On April 23rd the SWR broadcasting station Baden-Baden presented a highlight on the topic "Landscape" around the creation of the radio version Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten / Paysage avec parents éloignés / Landscape with distant relatives by Heiner Goebbels. The opera has been live-recorded in Paris and was mixed and re-edited by Heiner Goebbels in two different versions for the opera as well as for the radio-drama department of the SWR. A CD version is in planning for the label ecm.
  

2005

• GRAND PRIX "MIRA TRAILOVIC" was awarded on the 39th edition of BITEF FESTIVAL in BELGRAD for ERARITJARITJAKA, because it "combines the skills and talent of an actor, born and raised in the 20th century, with the techniques and means of the 21st century, telling an eternal story in a new language... (We are especially grateful to Mr Goebbels, for saving the audience time and money, by giving us a chamber music concert, a solo performance, a movie and a introduction to Elias Canetti in less than one and a half hours)."
• Heiner Goebbels was also awarded on that Festival with the Directors prize by the daily newspaper POLITIKA.
  

• FIELDS OF FIRE - a video and soundinstallation - is a collaborative work by the artist Michal Rovner (concept and video) with Heiner Goebbels (sound) and will be presentetd at Jeu de Paume in Paris from Octobre 4th until Decembre 31st as a corealisation of Jeu de Paume and Festival d'Automne. Its based on oil field video shootings and sound recordings in kasachstan made by Michal Rovner (Tel Aviv / New York).
  

• Heiner Goebbels - Komposition als Inszenierung
  Das großformatige Buch mit vielen Texten von und über Heiner Goebbels und mit zahlreichen Abbildungen seiner Arbeiten, ist jetzt endlich wieder erhältlich. Der Verlag der Autoren Frankfurt hat dieses Buch,das im Jahre 2002 im Henschel-Verlag erschienen war, in sein Programm übernommen und verkauft es zum Preis von EUR 15,-. Bestellen
  
  
• HEINER GOEBBELS IN ITALY: The Venice Biennale of Music has been opened this year on September 28th with a complete new staging of Surrogate Cities, directed by Heiner Goebbels, stage and light design: Klaus Gruenberg. The sounddesign and videoworks are created in collaboration with the media-laboratory Fabrica, Treviso. From september to decembre 2005 there is an emphasis on the work of Heiner Goebbels in Italy - starting with performances of Eraritjaritjaka in Rome and the creation of Surrogate Cities in Venice, followed by several orchestra concerts of the Bologna Opera in Bologna and in the Opera of Modena in Octobre, a concert by the north italian Icarus-ensemble in Reggio Emilia and finished by music theatre performances of Max Black in Parma in Decembre.
  
  
• GRAND PRIX DE LA CRITIQUE (price of the french theatre critics) has been awarded for ERARITJARITJAKA by Heiner Goebbels as the best foreign performance, and OPUS Stage Price for ERARITJARITJAKA has been awarded to Heiner Goebbels in the category directing already in april.
  
  
• There will be extended touring of Eraritjaritjaka - museé des phrases (in France, Italy, Germany, performances in Barcelona, Bruxelles, Moscou, Madrid, Rome and other european cities), besides more performances of Hashirigaki (Zurich, Bordeaux) , Black on White (Frankfurt), Max Black (Geneva,Parma) and other music theatre works, compositions (From a Diary, and Surrogate Cities) and staged concerts by Heiner Goebbels. More informations can soon be found on this site. Heiner Goebbels will work on editing and mixing the Paris-recordings of his opera Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten / Paysage avec parents éloignés / Landscape with distant relatives for the SWR. The Opera itself will be presented twice at the Warsaw Fall Festival. Some recent lectures of Heiner Goebbels will be published during this year, aswell.

Activities in 2004

• This Year has been a very busy year with intense touring of his new music theatre production, with lots of concerts and performances from Taipeh to Vancouver ....and a long list of lectures, which Heiner Goebbels held in Oslo, Berlin (3), London, Frankfurt (2), Cologne, Zurich, Munich (2), Porto, Warsaw and many other Academies and Universities. In April a one hour Film-Portrait by Dagmar Birke has been broadcasted on the ARTE TV-channel. The SWR premiered "Hashirigaki" as a new radio-play and the Bochum Symphonics performed the new orchestra-composition "Ou Bien Sunyatta".
  
  
• HERALD ANGEL AWARD for ERARITJARITJAKA at the EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL
  on April 20th the new music theatre piece by Heiner Goebbels Eraritjaritjaka - museé des phrases was premiered at theatre vidy in lausanne. With words by Elias Canetti and string-quartett compositions of the 20th century, Heiner Goebbels created part three of a trilogy with André Wilms - having started with Ou bien le débarquement désastreux in 1993 and continued with Max Black in 1998. "Eraritjaritjaka" is developed with stage and light-designer Klaus Grünberg, costume designer Florence von Gerkan, Sounddesigner Willi Bopp and the young belgian film director Bruno Deville. The music is performed by the Mondriaan String Quartett from Amsterdam. 12 performances were presented in Lausanne and have been enthusiastically received by the audience and the critics (see first german, english and french reviews); since the summer this work was aswell recieved with great response at the Edinburgh International Festival and awarded with the HERALD ANGEL AWARD, later in Frankfurt, Zurich, Den Haag, Berlin and Paris, where a series of 12 performances at the ODEON was sold out. The press celebrated this event with an entire page in La Liberation (France) and La Reppublica (Italy) and reviews in Le Monde a.o. It became already a kind tradition to finish the last days of the year with performances at schauspielfrankfurt : Hashirigaki 2002, Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten 2003, Eraritjaritjaka 2004.
  
  "Eraritjaritjaka - an archaic poetic expression in the Arunta language, meaning: full of desire for something, that has been lost" (Elias Canetti)
  
  
  
  
• Three music theatre works of Heiner Goebbels were invited for the Festival d'Automne in Paris this year: the opera Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten / Paysage avec parents éloignés / Landscape with distant relatives in October, the staged concert Eislermaterial in November and the new work Eraritjaritjaka - museé des phrases in December.
  
  
• In the Season 2003/2004 Heiner Goebbels was composer-in-residence with the Bochumer Symphonics (conductor: Steven Sloane). The series of performances was opened with the creation of "Notiz einer Fanfare" (see reviews) and with a performance of Eislermaterial in the Autumn 2003. In January 2004 a performance of The Liberation of Prometheus followed. New performances of "The Horation - three Songs" from Surrogate Citites and "La Jalousie" (see german reviews) will come in March and May. A new orchestral composition "Ou Bien Sunyatta" was premiered at the Gebläsehalle Bochum/Hattingen in July.
  

• more performances in 2004 of the Opera Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten / Paysage avec parents éloignés / Landscape with distant relatives (Caen and Paris, France) , of Eislermaterial (Frankfurt, Paris, Weimar) , Black on White (Taipeh, Moscou), Max Black (Vancouver), Hashirigaki (Sydney Festival and Warsaw), the "classical" staged concert The Liberation of Prometheus (Bochum) , ...meme soir.- (Marseille, Grenoble) and many concerts (in Warsaw, Bochum, Porto. Cologne and others).
  
  

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Activities in 2003

• Again a grammy nomination for a Heiner Goebbels production:
  Eislermaterial with Josef Bierbichler and the Ensemble Modern has been nominated for the 46th Annual Grammy Award in the category "Best Small Ensemble".
  
  
• This year 10 concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Sir Simon Rattle, see english and german reviews on From a Diary, on Surrogate Citites and the recent US Tour.
  
  
• First german reviews to the world premiere of Heiner Goebbels' new, short, orchestra composition "Notiz einer Fanfare". Next Performance at the Silvester Concert of the Hamburgische Staatsoper (conductor Ingo Metzmacher), released shortly afterwards on a Sony Music CD Produktion called "Who´s afraid of 20th century music?"
  

• In Summer 2003 Heiner Goebbels was composer-in-residence at the Lucerne Festival. During this festival there were presentations of Black on White, a portrait-concert with ensemble compositions, Surrogate Citites with the Berlin Philharmonics (conductor: Sir Simon Rattle) and lectures and discussions on his work. A new book with texts from and about Heiner Goebbels was published in this context at the Lucerne Festival - see portraits, writings and interviews, and especially the texts from a new interview in the WoZ by Patrik Landolt and a portrait from the magazine Musik&Theater.
  
  

• Three performances at the end of the year at Schauspiel Frankfurt of Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten / Paysage avec parents éloignés / Landscape with distant relatives ,on which the Berliner Morgenpost recently wrote: "Musiktheater mit dem Akzent auf Theater, ohne jeden Anflug von Nachbeterei, neu, aufrüttelnd, Staunen erregend. Ein Volltreffer - noch dazu unter den Gürtel des opernhaft Hergebrachten." (Klaus Geitel)
  

• Pictures of the australian premiere of Surrogate Cities at the Queensland Biennial Music Festival in Brisbane as well as reviews.

• Great resonance for the american premiere of Eislermaterial at the Lincoln Centre Festival! See review at the new york times from July 15th. More shows were later this year in Germany (Baden-Baden, Bochum). Next performances in January 2004 in Frankfurt (Künstlerhaus Mousonturm).
  
  
• On May 17th Heiner Goebbels was awarded with the "Kritikerpreis für Musik 2003" presented by the Organization Of The German Critics.
  
  
• T wo extendend international portraits on Heiner Goebbels have been published in the New York Times and in The Wire.
  
  
• First german reviews from the new orchestra piece From A Diary - Short Notes for Orchestra. After Heiner Goebbels was comissioned for an orchestra composition for the Berlin Philharmonics in their first season with conductor Sir Simon Rattle, the piece premiered on March 6th. Next performances of this composition were in Salzburg (April), London (September) and on the U.S. Tour in November (New York,Washington and San Francisco).

• The new music theatre project with the Ensemble Modern, his first opera Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten / Paysage avec parents éloignés / Landscape with distant relatives has opened on October 16 2002 at the Opera Geneve and had a total of ten successful performances (Batiment des forces motrices, Geneve). In the beginnig of 2003 followed a number of performances at the Holland Festival in Amsterdam and - at the Co-Producer`s venues - the german premiere in Berlin, the french premiere in Mulhouse and the Austrian Premiere ins St.Pölten. Further german and french critiques.
  
  
  

Past Activities in 2002

• New CD available:
  
  

  On September 9th the record label ECM has released the Eislermaterial CD with Ensemble Modern and Josef Bierbichler. The german CD magazine "Phonoforum" has awarded the CD with the star of the month, the german website "schallplattenkritik.de" (CD reviews) has put it on the list of the best CDs of the fourth quarter 2002.

• More The Liberation of Prometheus performances took place in Trier, Rotterdam and Karlsruhe/ZKM, as well as a live radio version has been premiered in cooperation with the SWR. Hashirigaki has been shown at the Istanbul International Festival of Theatre, succesfully passed a U.S. Tour (Hanover, Minneapolis, Los Angeles), and had a series of shows in Hongkong and at the Barbican Centre in London with again great response.The last shows for this year will be in Frankfurt. Max Black performances happened at Frankfurt and Madrid.

• A Heiner Goebbels Festival has taken place in Rotterdam (March 2002) with four performances of concert pieces and staged concerts.

• Surrogate Cities for big orchestra had its U.K. premiere at the Edinburgh Festival in August, and about ten performances of a staged version have started from October 11th at the Opera in Freiburg.

• More Ensemble Compositions hav been performed by AGON Orchestra, ASKO Ensemble, Blindman Quartett, Ensemble Modern, Remix Ensemble Portugal a.o. Again shows of ...meme soir.- by les Percussions de Strasbourg took place in Netherlands. Concerts of Scutigeras by Piano Circus.

• Henschel releases book on Heiner Goebbels:
  
  

  Komposition als Inszenierung, a book on the work of Heiner Goebbels (editor: Wolfgang Sandner) with his writings as well as many contributions by other authors and many photographs, has now been released by the Henschel Verlag Berlin. A first public presentation took place Sept. 8th in the Alte Oper Frankfurt..

• Goethe-Plakette awarded:
  
  

  In the context of his 50th birthday (click here to read the german portraits) in Frankfurt/Main Heiner Goebbels was awarded with the Goethe-Plakette and a number of concerts, staged concerts and theatre performances took place in the next months. The concert hall Alte Oper and the Künstlerhaus Mousonturm prepared concerts with the Ensemble Modern and performances of Max Black and the Schauspiel Frankfurt will present for the first time in Frankfurt aswell performances of Hashirigaki in the end of December.

• In the context of his 50th birthday the WDR3 has broadcasted a three hour show on 17th August by Michael Rüsenberg, and the SWR2 has broadcasted on every thursday in August five representations of Heiner-Goebbels-Material.

• The live-radiopiece Or the hapless landing ("Oder die glücklose Landung" - SWR 2000) was awarded with the Prix Marulic Special Price at the 6th International Radio Festival in Kroatia. This radio piece also was awarded with the WORLD SILVER MEDAL of the New York Festivals Radio competition 2002.

Past Activities in 2001

• That year had started with a long series - sold out and well acclaimed - of Eislermaterial presentations with the Ensemble Modern and Josef Bierbichler in Munich (Kammerspiele), Basel, and Frankfurt.

• In February Heiner Goebbels got a Grammy nomination for the Surrogate Cities CD (ECM New Series) in the category 'Best Classical Contemporary Composition'.
  

  German interview on Grammy nomination

• Hashirigaki - Guardian names it Musical Theatre of the Year 2001:
  Andrew Clements, the music critic of the Guardian, writes in his article The year in Classical Music (December 21, 2001):
  "Best of all for me, though, was Heiner Goebbels's latest theatre piece, Hashirigaki, a highlight of an Edinburgh festival otherwise full of operas in concert performance; Goebbels brings together Gertrude Stein and the Beach Boys in a magical synthesis that, like all the greatest art, is utterly unclassifiable."
  Also the WIRE defined the performance of Hashirigaki at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival as the highlight of the festival: "Goebbels is a man of the theatre as much as a composer, and music and words were unified in a delightfully absurdist, make-believe world of play"

• In March 20 performances en suite of the new musictheatre piece Hashirigaki (pictures) in Paris (Theatre des Amandiers, Nanterre) with an extremely positiv echo of the audience and the reviewers. Hashirigaki premiered last year in Lausanne and was shown in Berlin, Hamburg, Rome. Performers are Carlotta Engelkes, Marie Goyette and Yumiko Tanaka. It is based on texts by Getrude Stein and features Japanese music as well as music from the famous Beach Boys album "Pet Sounds". Hashirigaki has been well recieved and has been considered - by several papers and a huge public response - as one of the highlights at the Third Theatre Olympics / the Tschechow-Festival in Moskau this May and at this year's Singapore Arts Festival in June. ("Hashirigaki performed a miracle in our hearts... It was a language of wonder, of joy and of power of Imagination... The happy marriage of music and theatre in Hashirigaki was thrilling" (The Straits Times) "One of the most intriguing and innovative offerings at this year's Arts Festival." (Business Times). "The best thing one has seen at the fest." (Singapore Press: The Arts).
  

• In April 2001 Heiner Goebbels was awarded the European Theatre Prize for new theatrical realities in Taormina, accompaigned by a performance of Max Black and a conference on his work with contributions of Prof. Helga Finter, Prof. Hans Thies Lehmann, David Moss, Hans Burkhard Schlichting, Helene Varopoulou, and many others.

• Another highlight in 2001 were again performances of the music theatre piece Black on White in Festspielhaus Baden-Baden (June), in Jahrhunderthalle Bochum (August/September) and also at the Lincoln Centre Festival in New York (end of July).

• During June 2001, as part of the AGORA Festival of IRCAM/Centre Pompidou, Paris, it was possible to revisit the sound installation timeios, created by Heiner Goebbels in 2000, which has been shown in several European cities.

• End of June L.I.F.T. (London International Festival of Theatre) presented No arrival No parking - navigation part three, a staged concert project by Heiner Goebbels with London improvising musicians which was part of the L.I.F.T. professional development program (light & stage: Klaus Grünberg).

• By now already a classic: The Liberation of Prometheus, Heiner Goebbels' only piece in which he performs live on stage himself, was presented in August both in Austria - open air - at the ancient Roman amphitheatre Carnuntum (Vienna) and in the New Festspielhaus in Luzern (Switzerland). It was also shown in Italy (Reggio Emilia) in October 2001.

• In September the restart of ...meme soir.- at the TAKTLOS Festival in Bern (Switzerland) took place succesfully.
  ...meme soir.- is a staged concert created recently for and with Les Percussion de Strasbourg (premiered in 2000 at musica viva in Munich).
  

• The designated musical director of the Opera Dessau, the conductor Golo Berg, opened his first season with a presentation of the Grammy nominated orchestra compostion Surrogate Cities (September), soloists have been - as well as on the CD - David Moss and Jocelyn B. Smith.

• On October 21st 2001, the british keyboard sextett Piano Circus premiered Scutigeras, a circle of compositions by Heiner Goebbels, including 'La Jalousie', 'Surrogate' and 'D&C', adapted with Piano Circus member Richard Harris for 2 grand pianos and 4 keyboards plus samplers, with specially-commissioned light work by Jo Joelson.
  

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