Biographical Note
Photo: © Harald Rehling
Born in Bern (Switzerland) on the 30th November 1924
studies composition with his godfather Willy Burkhard in Zurich and with Boris Blacher in Berlin
1959 international breakthrough as a composer: first performance of the chamber cantata "Des Engels Anredung an die Seele" at the World Music Days of the IGNM in Rome
1964-73 director of the composition class at the Academy of Music in Basel
1966/68/72 director of the composition seminars at the Gaudeamus Foundation in
Bilthoven/Netherlands
1969 founds the international composers’ seminar in the Künstlerhaus Boswil (Switzerland)
1970 Beethovenpreis of the city of Bonn (for "Tenebrae")
1973-90 director of the composers’ class and of the Institute for contemporary music at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg. Among his students were Brian Ferneyhough and Hans Wüthrich in Basel, Wolfgang Rihm, Younghi Pagh-Paan, Toshio Hosokawa, Michael Jarrell, Günter Steinke, Dieter Mack, Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, Johannes Schöllhorn, Richard Nikolaus Wenzel and a couple of other today renowned composers.
1978 Art Prize of the city of Basel
1979-82 president of the Swiss Composers’ Association
1984 starts his international activities as a guest composer
1991 retires from teaching in Freiburg, working from now on exclusively as a guest professor
Klaus Huber is member of the "Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste", of the "Akademie der Künste Berlin" and of the "Freie Akademie der Künste Mannheim", honorary member of the ISCM as well as honorary doctor of the University of Strasbourg. He lives in Bremen and Panicale (Perugia/Italy).
Awarded the European Church Music Prize by the city of Schwäbisch Gmünd 2007. Music Prize Salzburg 2009. Ernst von Siemens-Musikpreis 2009.
Since 1975 his works have been published by Ricordi Munich. The autographs are available in the Paul Sacher Foundation, Basle.
His collected writings were published in 1999 under the title "Umgepflügte Zeit" by the Cologne-based Verlag MusikTexte; "unterbrochene Zeichen - Klaus Huber" 2005 by PFAU Verlag, in Saarbrücken; a double volume (137/138) of Musik-Konzepte 2007, edition text + kritik; the book "Klaus Huber: Von Zeit zu Zeit, Das Gesamtschaffen ", Gespräche mit Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, published by Wolke Verlag 2009 (see: bibliography].