1954 – Born December 6th in Schaffhausen, Switzerland Throughout school simultaneous music courses at the Schaffhausen Music School (principal instrument: piano)
1975 – Moves to Vienna. Studies at the Music Academy in composition (Roman Haubenstock-Ramati) and conducting (Otmar Suitner)
1984 – Winner of the composition competition "The Young Generation in Europe," jointly sponsored by the City of Cologne, the Venice Biennale, and the Paris Festival d'Automne
1985 – Co-founder and Artistic Director of the instrumental ensemble Klangforum Wien (originally "Société de l'Art Acoustique"). Performances in Vienna's Secession museum and Concert House, as well as at festivals [...]
About the Music
Beat Furrer was born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland in 1954 and moved to Vienna in 1975. To all intents and purposes he is an Austrian composer.
He studied composition with Roman Haubenstock-Ramati and they developed a close friendship based on mutual esteem which lasted until the older composer’s death in 1994. Thanks to Otmar Suitner, who taught him conducting, Furrer has been in a position to perform works by his professor on a regular basis. He is credited, for example, with the world première of the revised version of Haubenstock-Ramati’s opera Amerikain 1992.
In 1985, Furrer founded the new music ensemble Klangforum Wien, which he led a number of years both as artistic [...]
