Georg Katzer

Georg Katzer (born 10 January 1935) is a German composer. He was one of the pioneers of electronic new music in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany or GDR).

Katzer was born in Habelschwerdt, Lower Silesia in 1935. From 1954 to 1960 he studied piano, music theory, and composition with (amongst others) Rudolf Wagner-Régeny and Ruth Zechlin at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik in East Berlin. From 1957 to 1958 he studied in Prague with Karel Janáček. From 1961 to 1963 he was a postgraduate student of Hanns Eisler and Leo Spies at the German Academy of the Arts in Berlin (Klingberg 2001). In 1963 he became a freelance composer and musician.

From 1976 to 1977 he worked in electronic-music studios in Bratislava and Paris. In 1978 Katzer was elected to membership in the Academy of the Arts in East Berlin (Klingberg 2001). In 1982 he founded the Studio for Electroacoustical Music affiliated with the Music Department of the Academy of the Arts (the first studio of this kind in the GDR), whose artistic director he remained until 2005.

In 1987 he was appointed Professor and subsequently taught a masterclass in composition at the Academy of the Arts. From 1988 to 1991 he was President of the German Section of the C.I.M.E. (International Council for Electroacoustical Music) and from 1990 to 2001 was a presiding member of the Deutscher Musikrat (German Music Council, a member of the International Music Council). Katzer now lives in Zeuthen near Berlin.

Katzer’s compositions include works for chamber ensembles, orchestral works, solo concertos, operas, ballets, puppet plays, and oratorios. His work also encompasses electroacoustical pieces, music for radio dramas, multimedia projects, and projects involving improvised music.

• String Quartet No. 1 (1965)
• Die Igeltreppe for speaker and 13 instruments, text by Sarah Kirsch (1973)
• Das Land Bum-Bum, opera (1973)
• Schwarze Vögel, ballet (1975)
• Szene für Kammerensemble, instrumental theater (1975)
• Bevor Ariadne kommt, for tape (1976)
• Concerto for Harpsichord and Wind Quintet (1978)
• Ein neuer Sommernachtstraum, ballet (1979)
• Aide-memoire, for tape (1983)
• Gastmahl oder über die Liebe, opera, libretto by Gerhard Müller (1987)
• Antigone oder die Stadt, opera, libretto by Gerhard Müller (1989)
• Mein 1989, radio composition (1990)
• Ich bin ein anderer, Hörspiel after Arthur Rimbaud (1990)
• L'homme machine, multimedia scenic Aktion (2000)
• Medea in Korinth, oratorical scenes, libretto by Christa Wolf (after Medea: Stimmen). Premièred on 6 September 2002, at the Berlin Konzerthaus.
• Fukujamas Kiste, for tape (2002)