Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf

Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, who hails from Mannheim, studied composition under Brian Ferneyhough, Klaus Huber and Emmanuel Nunes, piano with James Avery, music theory under Peter Förtig as well as musicology, philosophy under Jürgen Habermas and sociology under Ludwig von Friedeberg. In 1993 he received a doctorate in philosophy for his thesis on Arnold Schönberg. In addition to compositional activities, he has published more than 150 essays and written and edited numerous books. His writing addresses not only contemporary music subject matter, but composer personalities such as Wagner and Cage and Adorno’s philosophy of music. In 1995, he was instrumental in founding the Society for Music and Aesthetics. Mahnkopf’s musical roots lie deep in German-Austrian art music. His central frame of reference is Beethoven, and for the 20th century, Alban Berg. He has been influenced by the avant-garde of high modernism and, by virtue of his non-German teachers, is internationally oriented.
After many years of teaching music theory, Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf has been professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” in Leipzig since 2005. A central focus of his work, in addition to the repeated examination of chamber symphonies, which he also intends to continue after completing five works, is the void cycle consisting of compositions featuring various instrumental combinations. Mahnkopf has also been working on an opera “void” for some time. “Among other things, it also refers to the final movement from Camus’ ‘Plague',” says the composer. 2022 saw the publications of Mahnkopf’s latest book: “Die Kunst des Komponierens” (The Art of Composing).

The biography may be reprinted free of charge in programme booklets with the following credit: Reprinted with kind permission of the music publisher Boosey & Hawkes/Sikorski