Benjamin Schweitzer was born in 1973 in Marburg. At the age of sixteen, he began studying composition, music theory and piano at the junior department of the Lubeck Music Academy and received several prizes at composition and instrumental competitions for young musicians. From 1993-98, he studied composition (with Wilfried Kraetzschmar), music theory (with Jörg Herchet) and orchestra conducting (with Christian Kluttig) at the Dresden Music Academy. After his diploma (with highest disctinction), he entered the master class for compsition, supported by a scholarship of the state of Saxony. From 1998-99 he spent a year studying with Paavo Heininen at the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki/Finland.
 
Schweitzer performed occasionally as pianist and conductor, and he was founder and artistic director of the „ensemble courage“, a chamber music group specialized on contemporary music that was awarded an advancement prize by the Ernst von Siemens music foundation in 2001. In 2005, Schweitzer left this post in order to be able to concentrate mostly on composing. Currently, he lives as free-lance composer in Berlin and partly in Finland.
 
Renowned music institutions like the Siemens Arts Program, Konzerthaus Berlin, Munich Biennale, Bavarian State Opera, DeutschlandRadio and European Centre of the Arts Dresden/Hellerau commissioned works from him. His music has been successfully performed at festivals like the Lucerne Festival, Huddersfield Festival, Berliner Festspiele, UltraSchall Berlin and Time of Music Viitasaari. In 2009, his ensemble piece achteinhalb was selected the German contribution for the World New Music Days of the ISCM in Sweden.
 
Apart from his work as composer, Schweitzer continues his activities in the field of musicology and analysis, being invited to symposia and conferences in Germany and abroad. He published numerous articles especially, but not only on contemporary music and held lectures at the the department of musicology of the Dresden University regularly from 1999-2003. In addition, he is a welcome and successful teacher at masterclasses like the chamber-music course of the German Music Council, the "Jeunesse Moderne" Academy and the workshops for young composers in Weikersheim. He was invited by the Berlin Academy of the Arts to join the project "Composers and Choreographers" in 2002 and by the "Opernwerkstatt Ligerz“ (Switzerland) to their annual symposia in 2005 and 2008.

Schweitzer received composition prizes and distinctions like the Award of the Composers‘ Association of Saxony 1999, Artist-in-residence of the Town of Stein am Rhein/Switzerland, Artist‘s Grant of the cultural foundation of the state of Saxony in 2002, a grant for visiting the "Cité Internationale des Arts" Paris in 2004/05, commission grant of the Senate of Berlin 2006, an invitation to the German Study Centre in Venice for 2007 and to the Kunstlerhof Schreyahn (Lower Saxony) for 2007-08.For spring 2010, Peter Eötvös  selected him for a residency at the Herrenhaus Edenkoben.

Please visit Benjamin Schweitzer's Homepage www.benjamin-schweitzer.de.