"Das kalte Herz" (1st version),1st symphony "Totentanz"

Born on 25th June in Mainz

Begins to study the violin at the age of five; first attempts at composition at the age of eight

Studies at the Peter-Cornelius-Konservatorium in Mainz with Günter Kehr (violin) and Günther Raphael (composition)

Studies at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Cologne
Courses with Bernd Alois Zimmermann

Performs as a clarinettist and pianist in jazz groups

Solo violinist of the Rheinisches Kammerorchester Cologne

Member of the Kehr-Trios; tours South Amerika, North Africa ans the Near East

Explores Indian Music

Member of the Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester-Frankfurt

Co-founder of the Ensembles 70 Wiesbaden

Composes incidental music for more than 20 stage plays

Förderpreis (musical award for further studies) of the Land Rheinland Pfalz

"Die Trauung", opera after Gombrowicz

String Sextett "Orphischer Gesang"

Kunstpreis of the Land Rheinland-Pfalz

"Die fünf Minuten des Isaak Babel", "Golgatha", Piano Trio

"Bildnisse I und II" for orchestra; Violin concerto; "Nachtstück"; String Quartet; "Mysterion"; "Belshazar"; Songs on texts by Goethe; Piano Sonata

World premiere of "Belshazar" at the ayerische Staatsoper Munich; "Orfeo"-Cycle, after poems by Rilke

"Das kalte Herz", new version, world première in October 1988, Munich Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz; Requiem "Messa di pace" for soloists, mixed-voice choir and orchestra, world première in Moscow in June 1990 as a part of the festival "Music Culture of Today"; "Erinys", world première in Wuppertal in April 1990; "Schibboleth"

Member of the advisory board of the Villa Musica Foundation, Mainz

Received the Gutenberg Medal of the City of Mainz

Symphony No.2 "Mythen", world première in Wiesbaden in July as part of the Rheingau Musik Festival; "Bildnisse III"

"Missa Moguntina", world première in Mainz Cathedral in November

Won the first prize of the Rheingau Music Festival Award

"Hortus magicus"; string Sextet "Gethsemani"

Composition Award of the Noedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung and the Kreissparkasse Hannover
"Inferno d'amore", first staged performance in March, Niedersächsisches Staatstheater Hannover; clarinet quartet "Exil"

"Concerto for horn and orchestra", world première at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival; "Labyrinthos", chamber opera, written for the opening of the small theatre of the Mainz Staatstheater in October 1997; "Der Leiermann"

"Aus den 53 Tagen", Passion music for the 93rd Catholics´Day; "Concerto for Oboe"; "Gesang im Feuer"; sextets "Il canto della notte" and "Gesang im Feuer"

"Memento"; "Menuha", part 2 of the Ghetto trilogy with "Der Leiermann" and "Gesang im Feuer"

Opera "Gilgamesh", world première st the Hannover Niedersächsisches Staatstheater as part of the EXPO 2000 in May


Volker Davis Kirchner lives near to Mainz