BEAT FURRER – Composer

Beat Furrer was born in Schaffhausen (Switzerland) in 1954. In Vienna he studied conducting with Otmar Suitner and composition with Roman Haubenstock Ramati at the University of Music and Performing Arts. In 1985 he founded the Klangforum Wien. Commissioned by the Vienna State Opera, he composed his first opera Die Blinden. His music theatre work BEGEHREN was premiered in Graz in 2001, the opera invocation in Zürich in 2003 and the sound theatre piece FAMA in Donaueschingen in 2005. Since 1991 Furrer is a professor of composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Kunst in Graz. In 2004 he was awarded the Music Prize of the City of Vienna, and in 2005 became a member of the Academy of Arts in Berlin. He was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2006 for his work FAMA. In 2010 his music theatre WÜSTENBUCH was premiered in Basel. 

– Martin Hiendl