About
Edu Haubensak was born in Helsinki in 1954 and spent his childhood in Zurich. He used Arnold Schoenberg’s ‘Theory of Harmony’ as a means of selftuition. He then studied theory and composition with Thomas Kessler and Robert Suter at the Basle Academy of Music (1976–79). It was at this time that he wrote his first piano works (‘Black White’) and musico-scenic compositions (‘Gleichgewichte).
He also composed electronic collages for the radio, and several works of his were realized choreographically. In the Tonhalle, the Collegium Musicum Zurich gave the world premiere of his first orchestral work, under the baton of Brenton Langbein. Haubensak is a co-founder of the Fabrikkomposition concert series at Zurich’s Rote Fabrik. In 1984/85, he was awarded a scholarship to the Istituto Svizzero in Rome, and in the same year was awarded First Prize by the jury of the International Composer’s Seminar in Boswil. Haubensak has taken an intense interest in instruments with new tunings. His first pieces for piano solo with altered pitches culminated in the ten-part piano cycle ‘Grosse Stimmung’ (1989–2005, 175’). In 1994, he was awarded a one-year work grant by the City of Zurich. He also attended composition courses and masterclasses with Heinz Holliger and Klaus Huber. In 2006 he won the Zollikon Arts Prize. He has been invited to international festivals (such as MaerzMusik Berlin) and has given lectures, taught, and engaged in research projects, sound installations and conceptual compositions. He has published various essays in DU, in WERK, POSITIONS and in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. In 2010, he is a scholar of the cultural foundation Landis & Gyr in London.
Edu Haubensak works with well-known musicians such as Sylvia Nopper, Sylwia Zytynska, Marianne Schuppe, Stefan Wirth, Conrad Steinmann, Tomas Bächli, Rico Gubler, Jürg Dähler, Heinz Holliger, Simone Keller and the ensembles Collegium Novum, Cattral and Aequator, the orchestras Ensemble Resonanz Hamburg, the Basel Sinfonietta and the Musikkollegium Winterthur.