Gordon Kampe
Arien/Zitronen

for solo voice and ensemble
Ensemble Musikfabrik, soprano: Sarah Maria Sun
conducted by Christian Eggen

for contra bass clarinet, baritone saxophone, trombone and violoncello
Ensemble I.C.E.Q.

Drei Stücke für Orchester (2015)

11. Les Adieux
12. Atutu
13. zackig /derb/King-Kong

Zwerge (2011)
für großes Ensemble
Ensemble Musikfabrik, Leitung: Johannes Fischer

Le cœur de la Grenoüille (2014)
for 28-part choir in 3 groups
SWR Vokalensemble, ex-semble (rehearsals Christoph Haßler), conducted by Marcus Creed 15. I. Nachts / Dach: Deckards Probleme
16. II. Scherzo (Aufschneiden)
17. III. Lullaby

Moritaten und Sentimentales (2015)
for trumpet, trombone, percussion, e-guitar, cello, piano Ensemble ascolta

The American literary scholar Harold Bloom de ned the word Ein ussangst (anxiety of in uence) as the fear of in uential traditions, or the weight of tradition pressing down on artists’ shoulders. In doing so, he developed the image of an artist who is so intimidated by the work of his predecessors that he is barely able to express his own thoughts. The only realistic alternative, he said, was the ‘liquidation of resistance’: a form of symbolic patricide. While Bloom applied this to literature, it can also be applied to other areas of art – (new) music in particular could be seen as a progression of such acts where patriarchs have often been declared for dead such that the birth of their descendants is all the more effective.
Gordon Kampe, however, need not metaphorically repudiate his forebear- ers in order to write his music. ‘The driving power of my music forms a positi- ve in uence in my case’, says Kampe. Indeed, his uninhibitedly delivered in u- ences are heterogeneous and often stem from ‘the sphere of leftovers and runner-up ideas’. They are formed of ‘things – sounds or tones – which have already existed, but are worth hearing again and being investigated for the present.’ The provenance of such material is disparate: from the classic-romantic musical tradition, to literary or lm sources as well as from those areas often labelled ‘popular’, which commonly represent a taboo for those of a sentimental aesthetic.

Gordon Kampe was born in 1976 in the German town of Herne where he initially completed training as an electrician. After gaining his “Abitur” and completing his civilian service he studied composition from 1998 to 2000 at the Rostock University of Music and Drama under Hans-Joachim Hespos and Adriana Hölszky. From 2000 to 2003 he continued studies under Nicolaus A. Huber at the Folkwang University in Essen. He also studied music and history at the Ruhr University in Bochum. Gordon Kampe completed his Doctorate in Musicology specializing in the fairy tale operas of the 20th century. Since 2009 he has been research assistant at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen working towards a post-doctoral project in the eld of instrumentation and performance practice in the 19th and 20th centuries. Kampe is co-editor of the journal Seiltanz – Beiträge zur Musik der Gegenwart and since 2012 has been elected member of the “Junge Akademie” at the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences/National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

Among other things Gordon Kampe received a scholarship for the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris in 2007. He was invited to a residency at Künst- lerhof Schreyahn in 2008. He also received a grant for the Experimentalstudio of SWR broadcasting in 2014. Gordon Kampe has won numerous prizes inclu- ding the 2003 Folkwang Prize and the composition prize of the regional capital of Stuttgart (2007 and 2011), the Schneider-Schott Music Price and the Rome Price for a residency at Villa Massimo in 2017/2018. Since Autumn 2017 he has been professor of composition/music theatre at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama.