Trivia

He has written nearly 400 compositions, including orchestral works, operas, choral music, and chamber pieces. He has cited Morton Feldman, Wilheim Killmayer, Luigi Nono, Arnold Schoenberg, and Edgard Varese among his main influences.

He leads the Institute of Modern Music at the Karlsruhe Conservatory of Music.

In March 2010 the BBC Symphony Orchestra featured the music of Rihm in one of their 'total immersion' weekends at the Barbican Centre, London. Recordings from this weekend were used for three 'Hear and Now' programmes on BBC Radio 3 dedicated to his work.

His students include the composers Rebecca Saunders and Jörg Widmann.

Wolfgang Rihm was a German composer of contemporary classical music and teacher. One of the most influential post-war European composers, Rihm was among the leading German composers of his time.

He was honoured as Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2001.

He finished both his school and his studies in music theory and composition at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe with Eugen Werner Velte in 1972, two years before the premiere of his early work Morphonie at the 1974 Donaueschingen Festival launched his career as a prominent figure in the European new music scene.

He received in 2019 the German Music Authors' Prize (Lifetime achievement).

Anne-Sophie Mutter premiered his violin concerto Lichtes Spiel (Light Games) in Avery Fisher Hall with the New York Philharmonic on 18 November 2010.

He was musical director of the Institute of New Music and Media at the University of Music Karlsruhe and was a composer in residence at the Lucerne Festival and the Salzburg Festival.

Finished his studies in music theory and composition at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe with Eugen Werner Velte in 1972.