Rendezvous: Stretched Strings, June 27 l Ensemble intercontemporain, June 28
Matthias Pintscher began his musical education as a child (piano, violin, percussion). At the age of 15, he conducted the Youth Symphony Orchestra in the town of Marl in Germany. A few years later, he started composing while beginning his training as a conductor, studying with Peter Eötvös in 1994 in Vienna. Pintscher’s creations are noted for the delicate sound world they inhabit, their refinement, the intricacy of their construction, and their precision of expression. He is the author of two operas (including L’Espace dernier, premiered at the Opéra Bastille in 2004), of numerous orchestral works, concertos (including Mar’eh, concerto for violin premiered in 2011 by Julia Fischer), and chamber music works.
Composition and conducting: Matthias Pintscher sees these two domains as entirely complementary. “My thinking as a conductor is informed by the process of my own writing” notes Matthias Pintscher, “and vice versa, of course.” Creator of major works for some of today’s finest orchestras, his sensibility as a composer provides him with an understanding of the score “from the inside” that he shares with the musicians. Matthias Pintscher works with some of today’s top soloists and conducts the most prestigious orchestras in the world. Very involved in the diffusion of the contemporary repertoire, Matthias Pintscher has worked regularly with music ensembles such as the Ensemble Modern, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Contrechamps, Avanti (Helsinki), Remix Ensemble (Porto), and the Scharoun Ensemble. Beginning in the 2013-2014 season, Matthias Pintscher is the music director of the Ensemble intercontemporain. He is also the artistic director of the Heidelberg Atelier of the Heidelberg Young Composer’s Academy.
Matthias Pintscher lives today in New York and Paris, two cities and two cultures that he chose for their complementary nature.