Jörg Widmann
German composer, conductor and clarinetist. At the age of eleven, Widmann received his first lessons in composition with Kay Westermann and continued with Hans Werner Henze, Wilfried Hiller and Wolfgang Rihm. He studied clarinet at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich and at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. As a performer he won first prizes at the Carl Maria von Weber Wettbewerb in Munich and at the Wettbewerb deutscher Musikhochschulen in Berlin. Since 1993 he has held master classes at the Royal Academy of Music in London, conservatory in Odessa and the Academy of Music in Lisbon. Since 1996 he received several prizes (Kulturförderpreis der Landeshauptstadt München, Bayerischer Staatspreis für junge Künstler, Louis Spohr Medaille der Stadt Seesen, the Belmont Preis für zeitgenössische Musik of the Forberg Schneider Stiftung for his achievements in composition, the Schneider Schott Musikpreis, the Paul Hindemith Preis, Ernst von Siemens Stifung and the honorary award of the Munich Opern-Festspiele). At the "musica viva" in 1999 he gave the world premiere of Musik für Klarinette und Orchester "Über die Linie II" by Wolfgang Rihm, which was written especially for him. He is one of the founders of the Ensemble TrioLog, which aims to promote the music of the 20th and 21st century. In summer 2001 Jörg Widmann was appointed professor of clarinet at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg. Since 2017 he becomes principal conductor of the Irish Chamber Orchestra and he is a Professor of Composition at the Barenboim-Said Academy Berlin.