Heinz Holliger

With contributions to the world of music which extend far beyond his principal instrument, Heinz Holliger is one of this century's truly outstanding musicians. A noted conductor and composer as well as an outstanding oboist, he is devoted to preserving the classic repertoire while at the same time promoting works by living composers and other repertoire of the 20th century.

In the 2004/05 season Heinz Holliger returns to the US for a tour with the Juilliard String Quartet performing oboe quartets by Mozart and Elliott Carter at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco presented by San Francisco Performances, the Detroit Chamber Music Society, the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Montreal's Theatre Maisonneuve presented by the Pro Musica Society and two concerts in Alaska for the Concert Associations of Fairbanks and Anchorage.

Last season Mr. Holliger and distinguished guests appeared at the Da Camera Society in Houston and in two concerts at New York's 92nd Street Y featuring the complete Zelenka Trio Sonatas and contemporary repertoire of Elliott Carter, Isang Yun and Henri Dutilleux. Recent highlights in Europe include a week long celebration of Heinz Holliger and his work presented by the Cité de la Musique in Paris including performances of his own compositions, appearances as soloist as well as conductor and forum host. Eminent artists and ensembles such as Andras Schiff, Thomas Zehetmair and the Freiburger Barockorchester took part in this festival, which is repeated in Lisbon in November 2004 by the Gulbenkian Foundation.

Mr. Holliger has performed and conducted throughout the world with major orchestras, in recital, and at international music festivals including Salzburg, Berlin, Edinburgh and Lucerne Festivals. He has appeared with the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia, the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood, the Cleveland Orchestra, l'Orchestre de Paris, the London Philharmonia and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and has conducted the Vienna Philharmonic. In 1993, he performed the world premiere of Elliott Carter's Oboe Concerto in Geneva, and the American premiere later that year with Herbert Blomstedt and the San Francisco Symphony in New York's Carnegie Hall, Boston, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

His own compositions include the opera Snow White (Zurich Opera, 1998), Partita (performed by Andras Schiff, Berlin Festival in 2001), and the song cycle Puneigä (performed by Juliane Banse, Wien Modern, 2002). He conducted his major work, the Scardanelli Cycle for chorus, flute and orchestra, on tour in Germany and Switzerland and recorded it for ECM.

Mr. Holliger's repertoire embraces virtually all the great works written for oboe. Among the composers who have written works for him are Luciano Berio, Elliott Carter, Witold Lutosawski, Hans Werner Henze, Andre Jolivet, Frank Martin, Krysztof Penderecki and Karlheinz Stockhausen. His extensive discography includes releases on Deutsche Grammophon, Erato, Teldec, Philips, Monitor and Vox; and he has earned many awards several times over, including the Deutsche Schallplatten Prize, Edison Award, Grand Prix du Disque, and numerous Grammy Award nominations.

The son of a physician, Heinz Holliger was born in Switzerland and attended the Bern Conservatory as a student of piano and oboe. He studied composition with Sandor Veress, a pupil of Bartók and Kodály, and with oboist Pierre Pierlot and pianist Yvonne Lefébure in Paris. He joined the Basel Symphony and Chamber Orchestra as principal oboe, and continued his composition studies with Pierre Boulez whom he considers to be one of his greatest musical influences. At age 20, he received the first of a series of many important prizes at international competitions, the First Prize for Oboe in the Geneva International Music Competition. This was followed by the Josef Pembauer Prize for Piano, and first prizes in oboe at both the Swiss Musicians Association Competition and the Munich International Competition.

Mr. Holliger is a member of the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts, and an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in London.