Matthias Osterwold

Artistic Director of “Klangspuren_Schwaz − Tirol Festival of New Music” since 2011. Founder and Artistic Director of “MaerzMusik − Festival for contemporary music” at Berliner Festspiele from 2001 to 2014.

Born 1950 in Hamburg, he studied sociology, national economics and urban research in Hamburg, later musicology in Berlin with Helga de la Motte, Carl Dahlhaus, Dieter Schnebel et al. In 1983 he co-founded Freunde Guter Musik Berlin e. V. (Friends of Good Music Berlin), an association for the promotion of experimental music and music performance and since then, he is still an active (executive) member of its board of directors. From 1992 to 1994 he was director of the music department at Podewil, an international centre for contemporary performing arts – music, dance, theatre, intermedia; then Artistic director in the team of “sonambiente – festival for eyes and ears” of Academy of Arts Berlin / Berliner Festspiele 1996/2006 and of the festival “Whistling in the Dark” at the International Music Festival Lucerne 1997. From 1999 to 2001 he was working as music curator at the Institute of Music and Acoustics of ZKM – Centre for Art and Media Karlsruhe, at “Festival of Vision – Berlin in Hongkong 2000”, from 2003 to 2009 as co-curator of the festival “Kontraste” at Klangraum Minoritenkirche Krems/Austria and as Honorary Artistic Director at Beijing Modern Music Festival 2007. For many years he was an advocate for the experimental arts and music-scene of Berlin as member of the Council for the Arts in Berlin, from 1994 to 2005 and from 2008 to 2014. 2014 he awarded “Officier de l’ordre des arts et des lettres” of the French Republic. Most recently he was appointed music curator in the artistic team of the Ruhrtriennale.

As of January 2018