Mark Andre

The composer Mark Andre, born in Paris in 1964, creates existential experiential spaces in his music characterised by subtle alteration processes. At the core of his concepts is the question of vanishment in relation to all musical parameters such as tone, form and subject. In his equally delicate and concentrated chamber music compositions and works for orchestra and music theatre, the devout Protestant manifests himself as a sensitive sound explorer. After his studies in France with teachers including Gérard Grisey, Mark Andre found a new musical homeland in Germany. He described his encounter with Helmut Lachenmann, whose score of the piano concerto “Ausklang” had come to his attention more or less by chance, as an epiphany. As a consequence, he undertook an advanced study course in composition with Lachenmann in Stuttgart alongside studies in music electronics with André Richard in the experimental studios at the broadcaster SWR. It was not long before he became the recipient of scholarships and prizes including the Kranichstein Music Prize (1996), first prize at the International Competition for Composition in Stuttgart (1997) and the Composition Prize from the Opera House Frankfurt (2001). He has taught regularly at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse [Darmstadt Summer Course] since 1998. He received the sponsorship award from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation in 2002 and was admitted as participant in the DAAD artists’ programme in Berlin in 2005 where he now lives permanently.

Mark Andre attracted great attention in 2004 with the premiere of his three-part music theatre work "...22,13...” at the Biennale in Munich. The title of this work relates to a passage in the gospel of St John; his “Tryptychon” for orchestra completed in 2007 is also based on a religious theme and Mark Andre explores an aspect of the transition in the resurrection of Christ in the composition “…auf…”. The composer’s first opera “wunderzaichen” conducted by Sylvain Cambreling was a highlight of the Stuttgart opera season 2013/14 and was performed again in the city in a revised version in 2018. One of Mark Andre’s major works in recent years was the clarinet concerto “über” composed for Jörg Widmann and the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg which received the orchestral prize at the Donaueschingen Festival.

The season 2024/25 at the Donaueschingen Festival began with the premiere of “...selig ist...” for piano and electronics. “Vier Stücke für Ensemble” will be premiered by the oesterreichische ensemble fuer neue musik at the Mozarteum Salzburg. A new version of the “Sieben Stücke für Streichquartett” will be performed at the Festival Acht Brücken in Cologne by the Kuss Quartet followed by a new work for organ and double bass featuring Stephan Heuberger and Frank Reinecke at the BR series musica viva in Munich. The Baden-Baden Whitsun Festival will feature a performance of the short orchestral piece “Im Entfalten” in homage to Pierre Boulez played by the SWR Symphony Orchestra.

Mark Andre is a member of the Academy of the Arts Berlin, the Saxon Academy of the Arts and the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts and was honoured to receive the order Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2011. In 2012, he became a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin and teaches composition at the Dresden College of Music.