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About
Beat Furre is a Swiss-born Austrian composer and conductor. He has served as professor of composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz since 1991. He won the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 2018.
Born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, Furrer relocated to Vienna in 1975 to pursue studies with Roman Haubenstock-Ramati (composition) and Otmar Suitner (conducting) at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. In 1985 he co-founded what is now one of Europe's leading contemporary music ensembles, Klangforum Wien, which he still conducts. Recent awards and honors include the Music Prize of the City of Vienna in 2003 and the Golden Lion, for the monodrama "FAMA", at the 2006 Venice Biennale. In 2014 he was awarded with Grand Austrian State Prize. He is the recipient of the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize 2018. Since 1991, he has served as professor of composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz. Furrer is co-founder and chairman of "impuls", an International Ensemble and Composers Academy for Contemporary Music.
The 25th anniversary of the Klangforum Wien was celebrated in 2010 at the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik with the premiere of his Xenos-Szenen for eight voices and ensemble.
Works
Since 1989, Furrer's main projects have been operatic. Critics, however, have characterized Furrer's music theatre as dryly abstract rather than sensuous. Thus, for instance, Furrer's music theatre Violetter Schnee (2018/19) was described as monotonous or, in the words of critic Matthias Siehler, a "routine doomsday": "The more Furrer invokes the global climate catastrophe and failure of communication, the more his music sounds like mere paper." Similarly, critic Manuel Brug called La Bianca Notte (2015) brainy, lacking emotion and dramatic life. From 1999 on, Furrer's works have been published by Bärenreiter in Kassel.