Aribert Reimann was born in Berlin in 1936. He grew up in Berlin in a music-loving family. His father was church musician and his mother a noted oratorio singer and singing teacher.At the age of ten Reimann started to compose songs for voice and piano. After passing his final exams at grammar school, Reimann worked as a répétiteur at the studio of the Städtische Oper in Berlin, at the same time studying composition with Boris Blacher and Ernst Pepping and piano with Otto Rausch. In 1957 he began his career as a pianist and accompanist. One year later he went to the University of Vienna to study musicology. In 1959 his ballet Stoffreste after a libretto by Günter Grass was performed for the first time at the Städtische Bühnen in Essen. Musical theatre and vocal music, especially lied
these are the poles that characterise and determine the creative work of Reimann who from 1974 to 1983 was professor of the contemporary lied at the Hamburg Musikhochschule and was appointed professor of the contemporary lied at the Berlin Hochschule der Künste since 1983.

Ein Traumspiel after August Strindberg, which was performed for the first time in 1965, was the beginning of Reimann's increasing success as an opera composer. Works as Melusine Schwetzingen 1971), Lear (Bavarian State Opera 1978), Die Gespenstersonate after Strindberg (Berlin 1984), Troades after Franz Werfel's version of the Euripides play (Berlin 1992) and at the latest Bernarda Albas Haus after Federico García Lorca (Munich 2000) have widely consolidated Reimann's reputation as one of the leading opera composers in Germany. The world premiere of his next large-scale opera Medea will take place at the Vienna State Opera in June 2010.



For his compositional oeuvre which includes lieder and works for the musical theatre as well as numerous chamber music and symphonic works, Reimann has received a large number of prices, awards and distinctions: in 1985 the Grand Cross for Distinguished Service of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, in 1986 the 'Prix de composition musicale de la Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco', in 1988 the Order of Merit of the State of Berlin, in 1991 the Frankfurt Music Award, in 1995 the Grand Cross with Star for Distinguished Service of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and in 1999 appointment as Commandeur de 'L'Ordre du Mérite Culturel de la Principauté de Monaco' and in 2006 the Schoenberg Prize to name but a few.



Aribert Reimann lives in Berlin.