Mark Andre

Mark Andre reaches with such intensity for a stillness that almost bursts your eardrums. Berliner Zeitung, 23/1/2018

Mark Andre, born in Paris in 1964, creates musical-existential experiences for the listener characterised by subtle, minutely worked-out processes of transformation. Central to his work is the question of disappearance, which shapes his approach to sound, form, and subject. The practicing Protestant is a sensitive explorer of sound, both in his delicate and concentrated chamber works as well as in his orchestral and music theatre pieces.

After his studies in France, including those at the Paris Conservatory with Claude Ballif and Gérard Grisey, Mark Andre found a new musical home in Germany. He describes his encounter with the music of Helmut Lachenmann, whose piano concerto score Ausklang he happened to stumble across, as having been a revelation. He subsequently went through extensive composition studies with Lachenmann in Stuttgart and studied musical electronics with André Richard at the experimental studio of Southwest German Radio, in the meantime shifting the focus of his life from France to Germany. Here, he soon received grants and prizes, such as the Kranichsteiner Music Prize at the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music (1996), first prize at the Stuttgart International Composers Competition (1997), and the composition prize from Frankfurt Opera (2001). Since 1998 he has taught regularly at the Darmstadt Summer Courses. In 2002 he received the Advancement Award from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, and in 2005 he travelled to Berlin as a participant of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Programme, where he has lived ever since.

Particular interest was aroused by the 2004 premiere of Mark Andre’s tripartite music theatre work …22, 13… at the Munich Biennale. This work’s title refers to a passage in the Apocalypse of St John. His orchestral triptych …auf…, which he completed in 2007, similarly references religious themes. Here, Mark Andre explored aspects of transition as relates to Christ’s Resurrection. Andre has a soft spot for German prepositions, grammatical elements with the function of transition, as illustrated in numerous other work titles such as those of the chamber music works written between 2001 and 2005: …durch…, …zu…, …in…, and …als…. Mark Andre's first opera, wunderzaichen, under Sylvain Cambreling’s baton, became a highlight of the 2013/14 Stuttgart Opera season and was reprised there in 2018 in a revised version.

One of Mark Andre’s most important works of the last few years is the clarinet concerto über written for Jörg Widmann and the SWR Symphony Orchestra, which won the Orchestral Prize at the Donaueschingen Festival. His collaboration with Jörg Widmann has led to two further works for solo clarinet: Atemwind 1 and the sound installation …selig sind…. The violin concerto an was premiered in 2016 at the ACHT Brücken festival in Cologne, followed by the work …hin…for harp and chamber orchestra in 2018. Another significant work of recent years is the Riss trilogy for ensemble, with individual parts written for the Ensemble Modern, the Ensemble Musikfabrik and the Ensemble Intercontemporain. In the previous season, Drei Stücke für Ensemble were performed by the Berliner Philharmonie and the Elbphilharmonie, commissioned by the Berlin Scharoun Ensemble.

Mark Andre kicked off the current season with the world premiere of iv 17 at the Lucerne Festival. The eight miniatures for soprano and piano are then reprised at Wien Modern and at the ECLAT Festival in Stuttgart. As composer in residence, he guested at the Klangspuren Schwaz in September: the festival, which opens with the Austrian premiere of his orchestral work woher… wohin, features an arrray of performances featuring his compositions. Shortly afterward, Ensemble Modern interprets the cycle Riss in a concert showcase at the Shanghai New Music Week. With iv15 himmelfahrt, interpreted by Martin Lücker, an organ work is featured in the Alte Oper Frankfurt’s programme in September, whose premiere in October 2018 in Munich in a working version featuring electronic stop action was received to great acclaim, and was then was performed in June 2019  for the first time with mechanical stop action by Leo van Doeselaar in Bad Frankenhausen. The season closes in June 2020 with the world premiere of a new work for the Gaechinger Cantorey at the Musikfest Stuttgart.

Mark Andre is a member of the Berlin Academy of the Arts, Saxon Academy of the Arts, and the Bavarian Academy of the Arts, and was honoured with the order of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2011. In 2012 he was a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin. He teaches composition at the Academy of Music in Dresden.            

 2019/20 season

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A list of all works by Mark Andre can be found at www.edition-peters.de