Bio

Prof. Dr. h.c. Heiner Goebbels is composer and theatre artist and has lived in Frankfurt/Main since 1972, where he graduated in sociology at the Goethe University Frankfurt and in music at Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts. From 1999 until 2018, he served as professor for artistic practice at the Institute of Applied Theatre Studies as well as the managing director from 2003 until 2011. From 2006 to 2018, he was also President of the Hessian Theatre Academy. His artistic oeuvre includes staged concerts, radio pieces, compositions for ensemble and large orchestras, and also sound and video installations. His work was on display at documenta in 1987 and 1997, Centre Pompidou Paris in 2000, London in 2012, Lyon in 2014, Dresden in 2016, Moscow in 2017, and many others. Since the beginning of the 90s, he focused on musical theatre works. Many of his albums have been released by ECM Records. His anthology Aesthetics of Absence has been translated into many languages. He was awarded numerous international radio, theatre, and music awards: Prix Italia, European Theatre Prize, International Ibsen Award, etc. He was the Composer in Residence at the Lucerne Festival in 2003 and Artist in Residence at Cornell University in 2010. He is a member of several Academies; Honorable Fellow of the Dartington College of Arts and Central School of Speech and Drama, London; Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Berlin (2007/08); and was artistic director of the Ruhrtriennale – International Festival of the Arts from 2012 to 2014. He has been awarded Honorary Doctorates by the Birmingham City University and the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts, Sofia.