Heiner Goebbels

Kunstpreis Rheinland-Pfalz 2010

Heiner Goebbels wird am 23.März in Mainz der Kunstpreis des Landes Rheinland-Pfalz verliehen - die höchste Auszeichnung des Landes im künstlerischen Bereich. Zur Begründung formulierte die Jury: "Als Grenzgänger zwischen den Sparten gehört Heiner Goebbels zu den bedeutendsten Experten der gegenwärtigen Musik- und Theaterszene. Seine multimedialen Konzepte sprengen sowohl den tradierten Rahmen der Konzertmusik als auch den des herkömmlichen Theaters. Er setzt Raum und Licht, Wort und Bewegung ebenso selbstverständlich und virtuos ein wie Instrumente und Stimmen, erfundenes oder gefundenes Material, um seine musiktheatralischen Konzepte zu realisieren."

coming up

Many concerts and performances can be seen during 2010, specially performances of the latest music theatre works such as I went to the house but did not enter (Belgium, UK a.o.), Stifters Dinge (Germany, Spain, Portugal a.o.) and Eraritjaritjaka (DK).
New adaptions of the recently staged concert Songs of Wars I have seen will be performed in February and March (Spain, USA). Heiner Goebbels will also present earlier Ensemble compositions (1991-2002) in a staged concert called Industry & Idleness performed by the Collegium Novum Zürich (conductor Andrea Molino), coproduced by Zürcher Schauspielhaus opening in May 2010.
Apart from several lectures and contributions to conferences Heiner Goebbels will be "artist in residence" at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (USA) in March.

Stifters Dinge at Armory in New York

the year 2009 ended with an enthusiastic response of both, audience and critics, after a series of sold-out-performances at the park avenue armory drill hall in the program NEW VISIONS of the Lincoln Centre. For reviews please check the Financial Times (www.ft.com) or New York Times, www.backstage.com, Village Voice, ConcertoNet, Philadelphia Inquirer

Downloads » backstage (pdf) » NY Times (pdf) » Village Voice (pdf) » ConcertoNet.com (pdf) » Philadelphia Inquirer (pdf)

Stifters Dinge Makes U.S. Premiere 12/16-20 At Park Avenue Armory in New York

The work will have its U.S. premiere as part of Great Performers "New Visions" series with eight performances, December 16-20, in a specially-constructed theater in the Wade Thompson Drill Hall at Park Avenue Armory.

Downloads » announcement lincoln center (pdf)

Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur Mainz

Heiner Goebbels has been elected to be a member of the "Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur Mainz" (Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz).

Black on White - New Staging in Prague

The ambitious czech BERG ORCHESTRA will produce a new version of the legendary music theatre piece "Schwarz auf Weiss" (Black on White, 1996) together with the team of directors "SKUTR". This production will be shown at the Strings of Autumn Festival in Prague, Sept. 29th and 30th and on Nov 9th and 10th

Edison Award for Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten

The CD Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten, released by ecm records will receive the dutch EDISON AWARD in the category contemporary music on june 11th in The Hague.

Website relaunch

After 12 years - this website has started in 1997 - it was time for a complete renovation. Webdesigner Christopher Martin (» CMCM) created not only a clear new look but used the latest web technologies for a fast and comfortable use while strictly adhering to web standards. This site is now built upon a database, offers a fast fulltext search function and is as well a showcase for Heiner Goebbels' latest projects as a quite complete archive of his works. We'll try to complete most of the essential categories soon, but would like to apologize for any inconvenience and errors within the next weeks, while we complete the transfer. To see what this page looked like 12 years ago click » here.

Again Eislermaterial in Frankfurt

Künstlerhaus Mousonturm / Frankfurt Main will again present three performances of the legendary Eislermaterial with the Ensemble Modern and Josef Bierbichler

The Italian Concerto

In the fall 2005 the ambitious » Angelica Festival in Bologna has organised a number of orchestra and ensemble concerts presenting the compositional work of Heiner Goebbels in northern Italy (Bologna, Modena, Reggio Emilia). Three of the orchestra recordings (Ou bien Sunyatta, Die Faust im Wappen, So that the blood dropped from the Earth) have just been released by I dischi di angelica together with a rare improvisation by Heiner Goebbels (piano) with Chris Cutler (percussion, electronics), which took place in that festival - called "The Italian Concerto".

Honours in London

In April Heiner Goebbels received the BBC Music Magazin Award 09 (category premiere recording) for the ecm CD Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten and was awarded with a Honorary Fellowship the London Central School of Speech and Drama. After the ceremony 'with hat & gawn' he gave a key note on the conference "theatre noise"; the same evening at the Southbank Centre the London Sinfonietta and the Orchestra in the Age of Enlightenment performed together Songs of Wars I have seen in the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Downloads » PM Ehrungen London 2009 (pdf)

Performances 2009

In 2009 many performances can be seen worldwide: I went to the house but did not enter (France, USA, Switzerland, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Austria and many others) as well as Songs of Wars I have seen (USA, UK), Stifters Dinge (France, Australia, USA) , Eraritjaritjaka (France, Germany, Sweden), Max Black (France) a.o.

Three American Premieres

In 2009 three major compositions / performances of Heiner Goebbels will be premiered in the USA. This series started already with Songs of Wars I have seen in St. Paul in the middle of January - enthusiastically received by the audience (and the correspondent of the New York Times who "again walked away stunned" after the concert). In March several performances of the latest music theatre piece I went to the house but did not enter will be premiered in Chapelhill, and in Decembre Lincoln Centre presents Stifters Dinge at the Park Avenue Armory.

Again Eraritjaritjaka in Frankfurt

At the Eastern weekend the german audience will have another chance to see again Eraritjaritjaka with Andre Wilms and the Mondriaan Quartett following words by Elias Canetti in Schauspiel Frankfurt. This music theatre production has been presented far more than hundred times all over the world and was awarded with six european theatre prizes since its creation in 2004.

into Pearl River Delta

Commissioned by Ensemble Modern and Siemens Arts Program for the project "into..." Heiner Goebbels will spend one month in the Pearl River Delta and conribute with a composition for the Ensemble Modern Concerts in October 2009 in Berlin and Frankfurt.

I went to the house but did not enter

In August 2008 Heiner Goebbels premiered with great response of the audience and the british press during the Edinburgh International Festival his latest music theatre production with the HILLIARD ENSEMBLE as a coproduction of European festivals together with théâtre Vidy in Lausanne, cocomissioned by several US american venues and promoters. WIth texts by T.S.Eliot, Maurice Blanchot, Franz Kafka and Samuel Beckett - Followed by performances in Germany, France, Spain, Luxembourg, USA, Italy, Austria, Switzerland already in this season 08/09 (see dates)

Again BITEF Prize!

Stifters Dinge has been awarded with the GRAND PRIX "Mira Trailovic" at the 42nd BITEF FESTIVAL (Belgrade).

Binding - Kulturpreis

On June 7th Heiner Goebbels was awarded with the prestigious Binding - Kulturpreis in Frankfurt (Römer / Kaisersaal)

GOEBBELS FESTIVAL 2008

The Koninklijk Conservatorium in Den Haag (Netherlands) organised an intense two week long "GOEBBELS FESTIVAL 2008" on the compositional work in March with lots of concerts, lectures, presentations and performances (partly also in Amsterdam).

Surrogate Cities

The complete cycle Surrogate Cities for big orchestra has been performed by the Berlin Philharmonics (cond. Sir Simon Rattle) and choreographed by Mathilde Monnier as a dance project (Zukunft/BPhil - education project) at the beginning of February - and also was performed in the context of the "Goebbels Festival 2008" in Den Haag by the ASKO Ensemble and the Symfonie Orkest van het Koninklijk Conservatorium (conduct. Peter Rundel and Reinbert de Leeuw) in march. The vocal soloists in all these performances are David Moss and Jocelyn B. Smith.

Stifters Dinge / Stifter's Things

Many performances of the latest music theatre production Stifters Dinge are taking place all over Europe in 2008 (France, UK, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Serbia a.o.), Please check the detail informations (starting times) at the sites of the venues, since there will be often twice performances a day in most cities.

Performances in 2008

Also in 2008 further performances of the music theatre productions Max Black ( touring since 1998), Hashirigaki (touring since 2000) and Schwarz auf Weiss (touring since 1996)

Fellowship at the Institute für advanced study

Since the beginning of octobre Heiner Goebbels is fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute for advanced study) in Berlin until July 08.

Links » Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin/Institute for Advanced Study Berlin

Stifters Dinge / Stifter's Things

In September the new music theatre production Stifters Dinge has been premiered with great response in theatre vidy, lausanne. Performances at the coproducing institutions in Frankfurt (schauspiel) , Berlin (Spielzeit Europa - Berliner Festspiele) and Luxemburg (Grand Theatre) will follow in Octobre and Novembre as well as performances in Munich (Spielart Festival). Because of big request and small amount of possible spectators in this installative performance there are additional (late) performances announced in all cities. Please doublecheck the dates and time.

"Future of the theatre"-Award

Heiner Goebbels was awarded by the Polish theatre critics with the prize "Future of the Theatre" for the performances of Eraritjaritjaka during the Warsaw Theatre Festival "Festiwal Festiwali Teatralnych Spotkania" in 2006.

Songs of Wars I have seen

Heiner Goebbels composed a suite for ensemble called Songs of Wars I have seen as a common commission of the Southbank Centre London for the London Sinfonietta and the Orchestra in the Age of Enlightenment, which was premiered in the Queen Elizabeth Hall London July 12th, conducted by Sian Edwards - it was received with great response aswell by the audience and the british press: THE EVENING STANDARD reviewed it under the headline "Brilliant battle cries" and found it "Utterly hypnotic and quite unforgettable." Andrew Clements called it in THE GUARDIAN an "extraordinary musical experience" and the TIMES review describes "50 minutes of gently mesmerising music-theatre" and ends up with "A thought-provoking, hautingly tender work for troubled times"

Performances in 2007

More performances of the music theatre productions Max Black (New Zealand, Marseille, Normandie a.o.) Hashirigaki (Seoul, Jerusalem) and Eraritjaritjaka (Turin, Budapest, a.o.) and Schwarz auf Weiss (Madrid)

Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten - CD release

The Opera Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten (Landscape with distant Relativs) (2002) was released as a CD by ecm records with David Bennent, Georg Nigl, the Ensemble Modern and the Deutscher Kammerchor, conducted by Franck Ollu.

GOEBBELS FESTIVAL 2006

An extended Festival with several Concerts of Orchestras, Ensembles, international Soloists, lectures and student workshops was dedicated to the work of Heiner Goebbels in Octobre in Groningen (Netherlands).

Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten - Radio production

On April 23rd the SWR broadcasting station Baden-Baden presented a highlight on the topic "Landscape" around the creation of the radio version Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten / Paysage avec parents éloignés / Landscape with distant relatives by Heiner Goebbels. The opera has been live-recorded in Paris and was mixed and re-edited by Heiner Goebbels in two different versions for the opera as well as for the radio-drama department of the SWR. A CD version is in planning for the label ecm.

Hörspiel des Monats

"Hörspiel des Monats" (radiopiece of the month) has been awarded to Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten by Heiner Goebbels, premiered at the SWR in April, by the Academy of Perfoming Arts.

Preis zum Welttheatertag für Heiner Goebbels

The German Centre of the ITI, the International Theatre Institute has awarded its Prize of the World Theatre Day (March 27th) to Heiner Goebbels.

Links » ITI Germany

President of the Theatre Academy of Hessen

Heiner Goebbels was elected as President of the Theatre Academy of Hessen, a connection between four Universities and 9 theaters in Hessen, which all contribute to the education in performing arts and theatre.

Links » Hessische Theaterakademie (HTA)

Eraritjaritjaka - worldwide

After its overwhelming response last year, 2006 will be a focus on the worldwide touring of the music theatre piece Eraritjaritjaka - museé des phrases - including performances in New Zealand, France, Canada, USA, Austria, Poland and other countries.

Performances in 2006

Also following works can be seen among others: Schwarz auf Weiss (Germany), Max Black (Germany), ...même soir.- (France), Surrogate Cities (Sweden) and Hashirigaki (Lithuania).

Fields of Fire

Fields of Fire - the video and sound installation - as a collaborative work by the artist Michal Rovner (concept and video) with Heiner Goebbels (sound) was presented in the first half of this year in New York and Tel Aviv.

GOEBBELS FESTIVAL 2006

Beside lots of other concerts this year The North Netherlands Orchestra in Groningen is planning a Festival in the second half of octobre around Heiner Goebbels with various concerts of his compositions.

Fields of Fire

Fields of Fire - a video and soundinstallation - is a collaborative work by the artist Michal Rovner (concept and video) with Heiner Goebbels (sound) and will be presentetd at Jeu de Paume in Paris from Octobre 4th until Decembre 31st as a corealisation of Jeu de Paume and Festival d'Automne. Its based on oil field video shootings and sound recordings in kasachstan made by Michal Rovner (Tel Aviv / New York).

Heiner Goebbels in Italy

The Venice Biennale of Music has been opened this year on September 28th with a complete new staging of Surrogate Cities, directed by Heiner Goebbels, stage and light design: Klaus Gruenberg. The sounddesign and videoworks are created in collaboration with the media-laboratory Fabrica, Treviso. From september to decembre 2005 there is an emphasis on the work of Heiner Goebbels in Italy - starting with performances of Eraritjaritjaka in Rome and the creation of Surrogate Cities in Venice, followed by several orchestra concerts of the Bologna Opera in Bologna and in the Opera of Modena in Octobre, a concert by the north italian Icarus-ensemble in Reggio Emilia and finished by music theatre performances of Max Black in Parma in Decembre.

GRAND PRIX DE LA CRITIQUE

GRAND PRIX DE LA CRITIQUE (price of the french theatre critics) has been awarded for Eraritjaritjaka by Heiner Goebbels as the best foreign performance, and OPUS Stage Price for Eraritjaritjaka has been awarded to Heiner Goebbels in the category directing already in april.

GRAND PRIX "MIRA TRAILOVIC"

GRAND PRIX "MIRA TRAILOVIC" was awarded on the 39th edition of BITEF FESTIVAL in BELGRAD for Eraritjaritjaka, because it "combines the skills and talent of an actor, born and raised in the 20th century, with the techniques and means of the 21st century, telling an eternal story in a new language... (We are especially grateful to Mr Goebbels, for saving the audience time and money, by giving us a chamber music concert, a solo performance, a movie and a introduction to Elias Canetti in less than one and a half hours)."
Heiner Goebbels was also awarded on that Festival with the Directors prize by the daily newspaper POLITIKA.

Heiner Goebbels - Komposition als Inszenierung

Das großformatige Buch mit vielen Texten von und über Heiner Goebbels und mit zahlreichen Abbildungen seiner Arbeiten, ist jetzt endlich wieder erhältlich. Der Verlag der Autoren Frankfurt hat dieses Buch,das im Jahre 2002 im Henschel-Verlag erschienen war, in sein Programm übernommen und verkauft es zum Preis von EUR 15,-.

Performances in 2005

There will be extended touring of Eraritjaritjaka - museé des phrases (in France, Italy, Germany, performances in Barcelona, Bruxelles, Moscou, Madrid, Rome and other european cities), besides more performances of Hashirigaki (Zurich, Bordeaux), Schwarz auf Weiss (Frankfurt), Max Black (Geneva, Parma) and other music theatre works, compositions (Aus einem Tagebuch/From a Diary, and Surrogate Cities) and staged concerts by Heiner Goebbels. Heiner Goebbels will work on editing and mixing the Paris-recordings of his opera Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten / Paysage avec parents éloignés / Landscape with distant relatives for the SWR. The Opera itself will be presented twice at the Warsaw Fall Festival. Some recent lectures of Heiner Goebbels will be published during this year, aswell.

2004

This Year has been a very busy year with intense touring of his new music theatre production, with lots of concerts and performances from Taipeh to Vancouver ....and a long list of lectures, which Heiner Goebbels held in Oslo, Berlin (3), London, Frankfurt (2), Cologne, Zurich, Munich (2), Porto, Warsaw and many other Academies and Universities. In April a one hour Film-Portrait by Dagmar Birke has been broadcasted on the ARTE TV-channel. The SWR premiered Hashirigaki as a new radio-play and the Bochum Symphonics performed the new orchestra-composition Ou bien Sunyatta.

Performances in 2004

More performances in 2004 of the Opera Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten / Paysage avec parents éloignés / Landscape with distant relatives (Caen and Paris, France), of Eislermaterial (Frankfurt, Paris, Weimar), Schwarz auf Weiss (Taipeh, Moscow), Max Black (Vancouver), Hashirigaki (Sydney Festival and Warsaw), the "classical" staged concert Die Befreiung des Prometheus/The Liberation of Prometheus (Bochum) , ...même soir.- Marseille, Grenoble) and many concerts (in Warsaw, Bochum, Porto, Cologne and others).

Three works at Festival d'Automne

Three music theatre works of Heiner Goebbels were invited for the Festival d'Automne in Paris this year: the opera Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten / Paysage avec parents éloignés / Landscape with distant relatives in October, the staged concert Eislermaterial in November and the new work Eraritjaritjaka - museé des phrases in December.

Composer-in-residence with the Bochumer Symphonics

In the Season 2003/2004 Heiner Goebbels was composer-in-residence with the Bochumer Symphonics (conductor: Steven Sloane). The series of performances was opened with the creation of Notiz einer Fanfare and with a performance of Eislermaterial in the Autumn 2003. In January 2004 a performance of Die Befreiung des Prometheus/The Liberation of Prometheus followed. New performances of "The Horation - three Songs" from Surrogate Cities and La Jalousie came in March and May. A new orchestral composition Ou bien Sunyatta was premiered at the Gebläsehalle Bochum/Hattingen in July.

HERALD ANGEL AWARD for ERARITJARITJAKA at the EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL

On April 20th the new music theatre piece by Heiner Goebbels Eraritjaritjaka - museé des phrases was premiered at theatre vidy in lausanne. With words by Elias Canetti and string-quartett compositions of the 20th century, Heiner Goebbels created part three of a trilogy with André Wilms - having started with Ou bien le débarquement désastreux in 1993 and continued with Max Black in 1998. Eraritjaritjaka is developed with stage and light-designer Klaus Grünberg, costume designer Florence von Gerkan, Sounddesigner Willi Bopp and the young belgian film director Bruno Deville. The music is performed by the Mondriaan String Quartett from Amsterdam. 12 performances were presented in Lausanne and have been enthusiastically received by the audience and the critics (see first german, english and french reviews); since the summer this work was aswell recieved with great response at the Edinburgh International Festival and awarded with the HERALD ANGEL AWARD, later in Frankfurt, Zurich, Den Haag, Berlin and Paris, where a series of 12 performances at the ODEON was sold out. The press celebrated this event with an entire page in La Liberation (France) and La Reppublica (Italy) and reviews in Le Monde a.o. It became already a kind tradition to finish the last days of the year with performances at schauspielfrankfurt : Hashirigaki 2002, Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten 2003, Eraritjaritjaka 2004.

End of the year: Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten

Three performances at the end of the year at Schauspiel Frankfurt of Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten / Paysage avec parents éloignés / Landscape with distant relatives, on which the Berliner Morgenpost recently wrote: "Musiktheater mit dem Akzent auf Theater, ohne jeden Anflug von Nachbeterei, neu, aufrüttelnd, Staunen erregend. Ein Volltreffer - noch dazu unter den Gürtel des opernhaft Hergebrachten." (Klaus Geitel)

Again: Grammy Nomination

Again a grammy nomination for a Heiner Goebbels production:
Eislermaterial with Josef Bierbichler and the Ensemble Modern has been nominated for the 46th Annual Grammy Award in the category "Best Small Ensemble".

American Premiere of Eislermaterial

Great resonance for the american premiere of Eislermaterial at the Lincoln Centre Festival! See review at the new york times from July 15th. More shows were later this year in Germany (Baden-Baden, Bochum). Next performances in January 2004 in Frankfurt (Künstlerhaus Mousonturm).

Composer-in-residence at the Lucerne Festival

In Summer 2003 Heiner Goebbels was composer-in-residence at the Lucerne Festival. During this festival there were presentations of Schwarz auf Weiss, a portrait-concert with ensemble compositions, Surrogate Cities with the Berlin Philharmonics (conductor: Sir Simon Rattle) and lectures and discussions on his work. A new book with texts from and about Heiner Goebbels was published in this context at the Lucerne Festival - see portraits, writings and interviews, and especially the texts from a new interview in the WoZ by Patrik Landolt and a portrait from the magazine Musik&Theater.

"Kritikerpreis für Musik 2003"

On May 17th Heiner Goebbels was awarded with the "Kritikerpreis für Musik 2003" presented by the Organization Of The German Critics.

Aus einem Tagebuch

First german reviews from the new orchestra piece Aus einem Tagebuch/From A Diary - Short Notes for Orchestra. After Heiner Goebbels was comissioned for an orchestra composition for the Berlin Philharmonics in their first season with conductor Sir Simon Rattle, the piece premiered on March 6th. Next performances of this composition were in Salzburg (April), London (September) and on the U.S. Tour in November (New York,Washington and San Francisco).

Notiz einer Fanfare

First german reviews to the world premiere of Heiner Goebbels' new, short, orchestra composition Notiz einer Fanfare. Next Performance at the Silvester Concert of the Hamburgische Staatsoper (conductor Ingo Metzmacher), released shortly afterwards on a Sony Music CD Produktion called "Who´s afraid of 20th century music?"

Concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle

This year 10 concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Sir Simon Rattle, see english and german reviews on Aus einem Tagebuch/From a Diary, on Surrogate Cities and the recent US Tour.

Performances in 2002

More Die Befreiung des Prometheus performances took place in Trier, Rotterdam and Karlsruhe/ZKM, as well as a live radio version has been premiered in cooperation with the SWR. Hashirigaki has been shown at the Istanbul International Festival of Theatre, succesfully passed a U.S. Tour (Hanover, Minneapolis, Los Angeles), and had a series of shows in Hongkong and at the Barbican Centre in London with again great response. The last shows for this year will be in Frankfurt. Max Black performances happened at Frankfurt and Madrid.

Surrogate Cities and more

Surrogate Cities for big orchestra had its U.K. premiere at the Edinburgh Festival in August, and about ten performances of a staged version have started from October 11th at the Opera in Freiburg.
More Ensemble Compositions have been performed by AGON Orchestra, ASKO Ensemble, Blindman Quartett, Ensemble Modern, Remix Ensemble Portugal a.o. Again shows of ...même soir.- by les Percussions de Strasbourg took place in Netherlands. Concerts of Scutigeras by Piano Circus.

Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten

The new music theatre project by Heiner Goebbels with the Ensemble Modern, his first opera Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten / Paysage avec parents éloignés / Landscape with distant relatives has opened on October 16 2002 at the Opera Geneve and had a total of ten successful performances (Batiment des forces motrices, Geneve). In the beginnig of 2003 a number of performances at the Holland Festival in Amsterdam and at the Co-Producer's venues will follow: the german premiere in Berlin, the french premiere in Mulhouse and the Austrian Premiere in St.Pölten.

Goethe-Plakette awarded

In the context of his 50th birthday in Frankfurt/Main Heiner Goebbels was awarded with the Goethe-Plakette and a number of concerts, staged concerts and theatre performances took place in the next months. The concert hall Alte Oper and the Künstlerhaus Mousonturm prepared concerts with the Ensemble Modern and performances of Max Black and the Schauspiel Frankfurt will present for the first time in Frankfurt aswell performances of Hashirigaki in the end of December.

50th birthday

In the context of his 50th birthday the WDR3 has broadcasted a three hour show on 17th August by Michael Rüsenberg, and the SWR2 has broadcasted on every thursday in August five representations of Heiner-Goebbels-Material.

Eislermaterial - CD release

On September 9th the record label ECM has released the Eislermaterial CD with Ensemble Modern and Josef Bierbichler. The german CD magazine "Phonoforum" has awarded the CD with the star of the month, the german website "schallplattenkritik.de" (CD reviews) has put it on the list of the best CDs of the fourth quarter 2002.

Henschel releases book on Heiner Goebbels: Heiner Goebbels: Komposition als Inszenierung

Komposition als Inszenierung, a book on the work of Heiner Goebbels (editor: Wolfgang Sandner) with his writings as well as many contributions by other authors and many photographs, has now been released by the Henschel Verlag Berlin. A first public presentation took place Sept. 8th in the Alte Oper Frankfurt.

Prix Marulic Special

The live-radiopiece Oder die glücklose Landung (Or the hapless landing - SWR 2000) was awarded with the Prix Marulic Special Price at the 6th International Radio Festival in Kroatia. This radio piece also was awarded with the WORLD SILVER MEDAL of the New York Festivals Radio competition 2002.

Heiner Goebbels Festival 2002

A Heiner Goebbels Festival has taken place in Rotterdam (March 2002) with four performances of concert pieces and staged concerts.

Hashirigaki - Guardian names it Musical Theatre of the Year 2001:

Andrew Clements, the music critic of the Guardian, writes in his article The year in Classical Music (December 21, 2001):
"Best of all for me, though, was Heiner Goebbels's latest theatre piece, Hashirigaki, a highlight of an Edinburgh festival otherwise full of operas in concert performance; Goebbels brings together Gertrude Stein and the Beach Boys in a magical synthesis that, like all the greatest art, is utterly unclassifiable."
Also the WIRE defined the performance of Hashirigaki at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival as the highlight of the festival: "Goebbels is a man of the theatre as much as a composer, and music and words were unified in a delightfully absurdist, make-believe world of play"

Die Befreiung des Prometheus

By now already a classic: Die Befreiung des Prometheus, Heiner Goebbels' only piece in which he performs live on stage himself, was presented in August both in Austria - open air - at the ancient Roman amphitheatre Carnuntum (Vienna) and in the New Festspielhaus in Luzern (Switzerland). It was also shown in Italy (Reggio Emilia) in October 2001.

Scutigeras

On October 21st 2001, the british keyboard sextett Piano Circus premiered Scutigeras, a circle of compositions by Heiner Goebbels, including 'La Jalousie', 'Surrogate' and 'D&C', adapted with Piano Circus member Richard Harris for 2 grand pianos and 4 keyboards plus samplers, with specially-commissioned light work by Jo Joelson.

Surrogate Cities in Dessau

The designated musical director of the Opera Dessau, the conductor Golo Berg, opened his first season with a presentation of the Grammy nominated orchestra compostion Surrogate Cities (September), soloists have been - as well as on the CD - David Moss and Jocelyn B. Smith.

Restart of ...même soir.-

In September the restart of ...même soir.- at the TAKTLOS Festival in Bern (Switzerland) took place succesfully.
...même soir.- is a staged concert created recently for and with Les Percussion de Strasbourg (premiered in 2000 at musica viva in Munich).

Schwarz auf Weiss

Another highlight in 2001 were again performances of the music theatre piece Schwarz auf Weiss in Festspielhaus Baden-Baden (June), in Jahrhunderthalle Bochum (August/September) and also at the Lincoln Centre Festival in New York (end of July).

Timeios (ein Bild, das wir Zeit nennen)

During June 2001, as part of the AGORA Festival of IRCAM/Centre Pompidou, Paris, it was possible to revisit the sound installation Timeios, created by Heiner Goebbels in 2000, which has been shown in several European cities.

No arrival no parking

End of June L.I.F.T. (London International Festival of Theatre) presented No Arrival No Parking - navigation part three, a staged concert project by Heiner Goebbels with London improvising musicians which was part of the L.I.F.T. professional development program (light & stage: Klaus Gruenberg).

European Theatre Prize for new theatrical realities

In April 2001 Heiner Goebbels was awarded the European Theatre Prize for new theatrical realities in Taormina, accompaigned by a performance of Max Black and a conference on his work with contributions of Prof. Helga Finter, Prof. Hans Thies Lehmann, David Moss, Hans Burkhard Schlichting, Helene Varopoulou, and many others.

Hashirigaki

In March 20 performances en suite of the new musictheatre piece Hashirigaki in Paris (Theatre des Amandiers, Nanterre) with an extremely positiv echo of the audience and the reviewers. Hashirigaki premiered last year in Lausanne and was shown in Berlin, Hamburg, Rome. Performers are Carlotta Engelkes, Marie Goyette and Yumiko Tanaka. It is based on texts by Getrude Stein and features Japanese music as well as music from the famous Beach Boys album "Pet Sounds". Hashirigaki has been well recieved and has been considered - by several papers and a huge public response - as one of the highlights at the Third Theatre Olympics / the Tschechow-Festival in Moskau this May and at this year's Singapore Arts Festival in June. ("Hashirigaki performed a miracle in our hearts... It was a language of wonder, of joy and of power of Imagination... The happy marriage of music and theatre in Hashirigaki was thrilling" (The Straits Times) "One of the most intriguing and innovative offerings at this year's Arts Festival." (Business Times). "The best thing one has seen at the fest." (Singapore Press: The Arts).

Eislermaterial on tour

That year had started with a long series - sold out and well acclaimed - of Eislermaterial presentations with the Ensemble Modern and Josef Bierbichler in Munich (Kammerspiele), Basel, and Frankfurt.

Grammy Nomination

In February Heiner Goebbels got a Grammy nomination for the Surrogate Cities CD (ECM New Series) in the category 'Best Classical Contemporary Composition'.