Michael Denhoff

Get a $5.00 Music Credit and download a free album for your iPod® or any MP3 player!

Music

List of compositions at Netherlands Radio Music Library.

Compositions (selection):

1983 — Desastres de la Guerra — Orchesterbilder nach Goya op. 36 (UA Lüdenscheid 1983)
1984 — Omaggio für Violine, Oboe und gr. Orchester op. 40 (UA Remscheid 1985)
1984–86 — Atemwende — Klavierzyklus nach Paul Celan op. 49, 1–7 (UA div. Orte 1985-87) CD Inakustik
1987 — Traumbuch eines Gefangenen — oratorische Szenen für Sprecher, Bariton, Chor und großes Orchester op. 51 (UA Bonn 1988) CD Wergo
1989 — Nachtbild (Mahler-Momente) für Kammerensemble op. 57 (UA Hamburg 1989) CD Koch
1990 — Hebdomadaire — 52 Stücke vom Jahr für einen Pianisten op. 62 (UA Bonn 1990) CD col legno
1990–92 — Der Pelikan — Kammeroper nach Strindberg op. 64 (UA Münster1992)
1992 — Two once so one für Streichquartett, Viola und Violoncello op. 66 (UA Bonn 1992)
1994 — Innenräume… Erinnernd für großes Orchester op. 71 (UA Bonn1994)
1995/96 — Mallarmé-Zyklus — 12 Quartette für 12 Musiker op. 75 (UA Hamburg 1997) CD Cybele
1998 — Hauptweg und Nebenwege — Aufzeichnungen op. 83 für Streichquartett und Klavier (UA Bonn 2000) CD col legno
2000–03 — Inventionen op. 88 für Player-Piano(s) (UA Köln 2000)
2002 — In unum Deum für Soli, Chor, Orgel und kl. Orchester op. 93 (UA Berlin 2003) CD Cybele
2000–04 — 12 Inventionen op. 88 für Player-Piano(s) (UA Essen 2007) CD MD+G
1996–2005 — Skulpturen, Pianocycle op. 76 (UA div. places) CD Telos
2004–05 — Magnificat op. 98 für gemischten Chor mit zwei Soloquartetten, Saxophonquartett und vier Schlagzeuger (UA Münster 2006)
2007–08 — Rue Sedaine, 11PM op. 104 für Ensemble (UA Köln 2007) / op. 104a für Orchester
2009 — Strophen — Das Melodienprojekt op. 107 — 52 pieces in different versions from Solo to Ensemble (UA div. places)

Schriften:

Thomas Schäfer: Michael Denhoffs “Nachtbild”: Nähe als Hindernis; in: Modellfall Mahler - kompositorische Rezeption in zeitgenössischer Musik. Wilhelm Fink Verlag München 1999, S. 369-377
MGG - Neuauflage - Personenteil, Bärenreiter-Verlag

Publisher:

Edition Gravis — Bad Schwalbach
Breitkopf & Härtel — Wiesbaden
Ricordi / Mannheimer Musikverlag — München (formerly Edition Moeck — Celle)

Life

Michael Denhoff was born in 1955 in Ahaus, Westphalia. He studied cello with Siegfried Palm and Erling Blöndal-Bengtsson, composition with Jürg Baur and Hans Werner Henze, and chamber-music (as a member of the Denhoff Piano-Trio) with the Amadeus Quartet.

From 1976 to 1980 he was awarded a stipend from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes.

Denhoff taught theory of music at the University of Mainz from 1984–85. He lives at present as freelance composer and cellist in Bonn, where he conducted the Akademischen Orchester from 1985–92 and has been a member of the Ludwig Quartet since 1992. In 1996 began a close co-operation as cello-piano duo with the pianist Birgitta Wollenweber.

Further to this he is often called to give courses in chamber music and composition, as, for example, from 1997–99 as visiting professor at the National Music Academy of Hanoi (Vietnam). Since 2008 he teaches chamber music at the Robert Schumann University in Düsseldorf.

For his compositional œuvre he has been the recipient of many prizes (amongst others: 1st prize at the Hitzacker and Bergisch-Gladbach composition competitions, prizes from the cities of Stuttgart and Dortmund and the regions North Rhein Westphalia and Lower Saxony, the Bernd-Alois Zimmermann-Prize and most recently the Annette von Droste Hülshoff Prize). A Villa Massimo stipend made possible a study-residence (1986–87) in Rome, in 1996 he was awarded a further stipend ("Villa La Collina") in Cadenabbia.

A considerable number of CD’s document his extensive output.

In 2000 Michael Denhoff organised “Jahr100KlavierStücke”, a series of 50 workshop-concerts designed by him together with the pianist Susanne Kessel, given in Bonn and dedicated to a chronological review of the piano music of the 20th century. In 2009 he initiated in Bonn the musical-literary series “WortKlangRaum”.