Wilfried Hiller was born in Weißenhorn (Swabia) on 15 March 1941. After piano studies with Wilhelm Heckmann at the Augsburg Conservatory since 1956, Hiller worked as an organist and as a ballet répétiteur. In 1963 he continued his musical studies at the Munich Conservatory in composition (Günther Bialas), opera direction (Heinz Arnold), percussion and timpani (Ludwig Porth and Hanns Hölzl) as well as music theory (Hermann Pfrogner). From 1967 Hiller worked as a percussionist in various orchestras, for example at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz and the Bavarian State Opera.

In 1968, he founded the concert series "musik unserer zeit". The following years were influenced by the close acquaintance with Carl Orff, whom Hiller met in 1968. Orff becoming Hiller's teacher, they worked closely together until Orff's death. The collaboration with the actress Elisabeth Woska since 1971 was decisive for his music-theatre work. Meeting Michael Ende in 1978 also meant the beginning of a creative partnership and intense friendship that lasted until Ende's death in 1995 and resulted in a large number of successful works such as Die zerstreute Brillenschlange, Vier musikalische Fabeln and Der Goggolori, Die Jagd nach dem Schlarg, Das Traumfresserchen and Der Rattenfänger. After Ende's death, Hiller first worked with Herbert Asmodi (Die Geschichte vom kleinen blauen Bergsee und dem alten Adler) and since 1997 with Rudolf Herfurtner (Die Waldkinder, Eduard auf dem Seil, Pinocchio). Hiller has also been inspired by novels and poetic works of Theodor Storm (Der Schimmelreiter, libretto by Andreas K.W. Meyer), Christian Morgenstern (Heidenröslein), Wilhelm Busch (incidental music to the puppet-play Der Geigenseppel, which was commissioned by the German Pavilion at the EXPO 2000 in Hanover; developed in collaboration with Elisabeth Hiller-Woska) and James Matthew Barry (Peter Pan).

Apart from his many compositions for the stage, Wilfried Hiller wrote a large number of chamber music, choral and orchestral works. Since 1971 Hiller works as music editor at the Bavarian Radio. In 1989 he became a member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, in 1991 lecturer at the Munich Conservatory and in 1993 teacher of composition at the Richard Strauss Conservatory of Munich. Since 2005, he is president of the Bavarian Music Council. Among his prizes and awards are in 1968 the Richard Strauss Award of the City of Munich, the Music Award For Further Studies of the City of Munich in 1971 and in 1977 the Prix Brno, the Recognition Award of the City of Salzburg for the work Niobe and the Villa Massimo Scholarship. In 1978, he was awarded the Schwabing Arts Award for Music, in 1988 the Raiffeisen Award for further studies and in 1997 the Egk Prize, the arts award of the city of Donauwörth.

 Please visit the Hiller website www.wilfried-hiller.de