Stefan Heucke

About Stefan Heucke

With his theatrical, glistening score, which transforms the orchestra into a philosophical cosmos, the composer achieves a captivating interpretation of the old myth. […] His contemporaries have rarely grasped the sense of captivating theatre music in the way this highly gifted composer has.("Das Orchester" on the world premiere of Die Ordnung der Erde)

Stefan Heucke was born in Gaildorf (Baden-Wuerttemberg) on 24 May 1959. From 1978 to 1982 he took private piano lessons with Renate Werner (Stuttgart) before continuing his musical studies at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Detmold, where he learnt piano with Arnulf von Arnim and harmony, counterpoint and composition with Gerhart Schäfer from 1982 to 1986. He later held a teaching post for Music Theory in the same faculty from 1989 to 2002.

In 1985, Heucke first came to public attention when he won an award at GEMA’s "Forum junger deutscher Komponisten für Orchestermusik" for the world premiere of his Vier Orchesterstücke op. 5 (Saarländisches Staatsorchester Saarbrücken, Matthias Kuntzsch). For his complete œuvre he achieved the "Förderpreis der Stadt Dortmund für junge Künstler" in 1990. Heucke won first prize at the composition competition of the "Windrose" European Festival of the Ruhr Orchestras in 2002. In 2007, he was honoured with the Hans Werner Henze Prize by the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe.

Live recordings and productions have been made by various broadcasting companies (Saarländischer Rundfunk, WDR, SDR) since 1985. Heucke has received commissions from the ARD International Music Competition, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, renowned performers such as the piano duo Grau/Schumacher and numerous German orchestras and opera houses. He composed the opera Das Frauenorchester von Auschwitz op. 47 for the 2006/07 season opening at the Vereinigte Städtische Bühnen Krefeld und Mönchengladbach. For the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in 2015, Heucke condensed the most important parts of the opera into a concert version, entitled Bruchstücke, commissioned by Bremerhaven Philharmonic Orchestra, who gave the world premiere. The text for Heucke’s Pater noster – unser Vater (2010), a new translation from Latin, was written by Norbert Lammert, the president of the German Bundestag. This choral work was commissioned by the Bochum Symphony Orchestra.

Heucke’s works range from miniatures for piano to chamber and vocal music as well as pieces for choir and orchestra, solo concertos, two operas, and a ballet. Der selbstsüchtige Riese for speakers and orchestra (1995), based on the fairy-tale by Oscar Wilde, is one of his most successful works. The world premiere of his dance oratorio Die Ordnung der Erde was given by Ballett Schindowski at the Music Theatre in the Ruhr, Gelsenkirchen, in 2001. The monodrama Iokaste (2014) tells for the first time the complete myth of the Labdaceans from the perspective of the Theban queen Jocasta, mother and wife of King Oedipus. The female narrators, a singer and a speaker, alternate between the roles of the seven characters.

In the season 2010/11, Heucke was the first Composer in Residence of the Niederrheinische Sinfoniker Krefeld-Mönchengladbach. He was a focal composer in the Henze Project’s concert series "Zeit::Reise" as part of the "European Capital of Culture RUHR.2010". For the bicentenary of Richard Wagner in 2013, he wrote symphonic variations on the "Hirtenweise" from Tristan and Isolde for full orchestra, commissioned by the Richard-Wagner-Verband Dortmund. He was Composer in Residence with the Philharmonisches Orchester Bremerhaven (2014/15) and the Staunton Music Festival (2016).

Sacred cantatas are a focal point of Heucke's work. The Anneliese Brost Music Forum in Bochum opened in 2016 with the world premiere of Baruch Atá Adonaj – Gesegnet seist du Herr. Friede den Menschen (Peace for mankind) is a cantata based on a prayer from the Ravensbrück concentration camp for women in 1944, which Heucke composed for the Cologne Philharmonic Orchestra in 2022. His cantata Von Guten Mächten for alto solo, mixed choir and instrumental ensemble was premiered in Bochum's Melanchtonkirche (2022). One of his main works is Deutsche Messe, which was performed in the Mainz Cathedral and the Berlin Konzerthaus (2017). Heucke repeatedly uses traditional forms in order to interpret them in his own musical language. In his Concerto grosso No. 1 (2017) a tuba quartet performs together, and in his Concerto grosso No. 2 La nuova Follia (2022) two orchestras compete with each other. Works inspired by old masters also include the expansive piano piece Variationen mit Haydn (2017) and the ensemble piece Wind Music, Suite im alten Stil (2019).

Stefan Heucke regularly returns to the Lied genre. With Sieben Mörike-Lieder (2017) he arranged original works by Hugo Wolf for low (medium) voice and string quartet. Fünf Lieder nach Gedichten von Friedrich Hölderlin (2020) are his own compositions for various voice types. Heucke expanded his Vier Gesänge nach Gedichten von Hebbel und Mombert into a version for voice and ensemble, which premiered at the Cologne Philharmonic in 2021.

Stefan Heucke lives in Bochum and on the Italian Riviera.

• Stefan Heucke website www.heucke-stefan.de