About Volker David Kirchner

In parallel to his work as orchestra musician, he founded the Ensemble 70 in Wiesbaden in 1970 and worked as composer of incidental music at the Wiesbaden Hessisches Staatstheater from 1972-1974. Since 1988 Volker David Kirchner has worked as freelance composer; his work covers all genres, including numerous works for the music theatre and in particular chamber music and orchestral works. His opera Gilgamesh, commissioned by the Niedersächsische Staatsoper of Hanover on the occasion of the EXPO 2000, was premiered in May 2000, his latest opera Ahasver, commissioned by the Bielefeld Theatre, was firstly given in Bielefeld in May 2001.

Volker David Kirchner has been awarded numerous prizes and honours, including the Award of the Land of Rhineland-Palatinate for Young Composers, for his first opera Die Trauung (1974), the Arts Award of the Rhineland-Palatinate (1977), the Gutenberg Medal of the City of Mainz (1992), the Music Award of the Rheingau Music Festival (first prize, 1994) and, in 1995, the Composition Award of the Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung and the Kreissparkasse of Hanover. In 1992 he became a member of the advisory board of the Villa Musica Foundation in Mainz.