Matthias Hermann

Matthias Hermann, born in Ludwigsburg in 1960, specialises in the music of Helmut Lachenmann. The German musicologist, music teacher, conductor and composer was a student of Helmut Lachenmann during his studies in Stuttgart, translated his writings into Polish and has enjoyed a long-standing collaboration and friendship with Lachenmann. 

Matthias Hermann worked as a guest conductor at Zurich Opera House in the award-winning ballet production of Lachenmann’s “Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern”. He has conducted at the Frankfurt Opera and the Deutsche Oper Berlin, has made guest appearances with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Radio Televisión Española, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI Torino, the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and the SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg and has also conducted concert projects with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, the Taipei National Symphony Orchestra, the SWR Vokalensemble and the university orchestras in Stockholm and Beijing. 

Matthias Hermann has been teaching at the Stuttgart University of Music and Performing Arts since 1987, as Professor of Music Theory since 1991, and became Vice-Rector of the university in 2007. Hermann has also been involved in the development of artistic research at other European music academies for many years. He is the author of a CD that documents and explains many of the extended playing techniques in Helmut Lachenmann's work.In his publications, he deals in particular with the composers Pierre Boulez, Morton Feldman, Beat Furrer, György Kurtág, Helmut Lachenmann and Luigi Nono. 

Matthias Hermann’s compositional output includes commissioned works for festivals and ensembles as well as theatre music.