En­do­wed Guest Pro­fes­sor­ship Com­po­si­ti­on

George Lewis
(Photo: Alison Luntz)
Liza Lim
(Photo: Marvin Fuchs)
Annette Schmucki und Reto Friedmann sitzen an einem Tisch mit Mikrofonen und anderen technischen Geräten.
(Photo: Blablabor)
Koka Nikoladze
(Photo: Coleccion Solo Madrid)
Die Komponistin Lucia Ronchetti sitzt lächelnd und klatschend im Zuschauerraum
(Photo: Robert Schittko)
Ferneyhough Workshop mit IEMA
(Photo: Hansjörg Rindsberg)

Ge­or­ge Le­wis co­mes to the HfMDK in 2025/26 as En­do­wed Vi­si­t­ing Pro­fes­sor of Com­po­si­ti­on for three work pha­ses. Wel­co­me!

He is a suc­cess­ful im­pro­vi­sing mu­si­ci­an, a pioneer of com­pu­ter mu­sic and one of the most re­spec­ted ex­perts in the field of ar­ti­fi­ci­al in­tel­li­gence, and as an aut­hor he is a pioneer of de­co­lo­ni­za­ti­on: Ge­or­ge Le­wis. In his work, the US com­po­ser, trom­bo­nist, sci­en­tist and aut­hor has most re­cent­ly dealt with his­to­ri­cal fi­gu­res of the Af­ri­can dia­spo­ra.

Ge­or­ge Le­wis, who is co­m­ing to the HfMDK for three work pha­ses in 2025/26, is also a mul­ti­fa­ce­ted mu­si­co­lo­gist and suc­cess­ful tea­cher. He cur­r­ent­ly tea­ches as Ed­win H. Case Pro­fes­sor of Ame­ri­can Mu­sic at Co­lum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty, is a Fel­low of the Ame­ri­can Aca­de­my of Arts and Sci­en­ces, the Ame­ri­can Aca­de­my of Arts and Let­ters, a Cor­re­spon­ding Fel­low of the Bri­tish Aca­de­my and a mem­ber of the Aka­de­mie der Küns­te Ber­lin. Le­wis' other ho­nors in­clu­de the Do­ris Duke Ar­tist Award (2019) and fel­low­ships from the Ma­cAr­thur Foun­da­ti­on (2002) and the Gug­gen­heim Foun­da­ti­on (2015).

Ge­or­ge Le­wis has been a mem­ber of the As­so­cia­ti­on for the Ad­van­ce­ment of Crea­ti­ve Mu­si­ci­ans (AACM) sin­ce 1971. His works in the fields of elec­tro­nic and com­pu­ter-ba­sed mu­sic, mul­ti­me­dia in­stal­la­ti­on and no­ta­ted and im­pro­vi­sed for­mats are per­for­med by en­sem­bles world­wi­de. As a pioneer of in­ter­ac­tive com­pu­ter mu­sic, Le­wis de­ve­lops pro­grams that im­pro­vi­se tog­e­ther with hu­man mu­si­ci­ans.

Le­wis' book "A Power Stron­ger Than Its­elf: The AACM and Ame­ri­can Ex­pe­ri­men­tal Mu­sic" (Uni­ver­si­ty of Chi­ca­go Press, 2008) re­cei­ved the Ame­ri­can Book Award and the Ame­ri­can Cul­tu­re Award from the Ame­ri­can Mu­si­co­lo­gi­cal So­cie­ty. Le­wis is also co-edi­tor of "The Ox­ford Hand­book of Cri­ti­cal Im­pro­vi­sa­ti­on Stu­dies" (2016). Le­wis holds ho­no­ra­ry doc­to­ra­tes from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Edin­burgh, New Col­le­ge of Flo­ri­da, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia and Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty, among others.

The IzM is loo­king for­ward to working with Ge­or­ge Le­wis, who­se ex­tra­or­di­na­ri­ly va­ried life, mul­ti­fa­ce­ted work, so­cio-po­li­ti­cal com­mit­ment and es­prit as an ar­tist and per­son can pro­vi­de a strong im­pe­tus for stu­dents and tea­chers at the HfMDK. In three work is­lands, he will col­la­bo­ra­te with va­rious are­as of the HfMDK, such as the MA Big­Band, the IEMA, nu­me­rous in­stru­men­tal stu­dents and the com­po­si­ti­on class.

1. Work pha­se: New Mu­sic De­co­lo­ni­za­ti­on 20.10.-25.10.2025

in­clu­ding an in­au­gu­ral lec­tu­re on "New Mu­sic De­co­lo­ni­za­ti­on in Eight Dif­fi­cult Steps" (20.10.2025, 19.30h), lec­tu­re-rehe­ar­sals with in­stru­men­ta­lists from the HfMDK and the IEMA, "Ar­tis­tic In­sights" - work­shop dis­cus­sion with the MA Big­Band and a col­lo­qui­um with the com­po­si­ti­on class.

2.Work pha­se: In­ter­ac­tion with AI and crea­ti­ve ma­chi­nes 20-25.4.2026

in­clu­ding a pa­nel dis­cus­sion with Ge­or­ge Le­wis and Chris­ti­an Grü­ny (20.4.2025), block se­mi­nars and fur­ther lec­tu­re rehe­ar­sals as well as first sho­wings at the short­cut on 21.4.2026 at the HfMDK

3. Work pha­se: Im­pro­vi­sa­ti­on 8.6.-13.6.2026

In­ten­si­ve work­shop with IEMA / MA Big Band, por­trait con­cert with HfMDK stu­dents (11.6.2026, Frank­furt­Lab)

Guest stu­dents are wel­co­me at selec­ted work­shops! Re­gis­tra­ti­on and in­for­ma­ti­on at the IzM at as­sis­tenz-izm@hfmdk-frank­furt.de

Streng­t­he­ning the con­tem­pora­ry pro­fi­le: About the en­do­wed guest pro­fes­sor­ship

Sin­ce 2019, the HfMDK has es­tab­lished a uni­que en­do­wed guest pro­fes­sor­ship with the help of the HfMDK Foun­da­ti­on, which was foun­ded in 2016: Re­now­ned com­po­sers come to Frank­furt for a year at a time to work with stu­dents from all de­part­ments. The pro­gram in­clu­des work­shops with in­stru­men­ta­lists and stu­dents of com­po­si­ti­on and the per­forming arts as well as lec­tures and pu­blic per­for­man­ces, dis­cus­sions and sym­po­sia.

The Foun­da­ti­on for the Frank­furt Uni­ver­si­ty of Mu­sic and Per­forming Arts con­tri­bu­tes to the good de­ve­lop­ment of the uni­ver­si­ty and the ex­cel­lent re­pu­ta­ti­on of the HfMDK with its first pro­ject "En­do­wed Guest Pro­fes­sor­ship for Com­po­si­ti­on", which is com­pa­ra­ble to the En­do­wed Guest Pro­fes­sor­ship for Poe­tics at Goe­the Uni­ver­si­ty, and en­ri­ches the edu­ca­tio­nal pro­gram. The uni­ver­si­ty­'s exis­ting good frame­work con­di­ti­ons in the are­as of tea­ching, in­ter­pre­ta­ti­on, net­wor­king and coope­ra­ti­on will be use­ful­ly ex­pan­ded with this en­do­wed guest pro­fes­sor­ship and will streng­t­hen the con­tem­pora­ry pro­fi­le and in­ter­na­tio­nal ap­peal of the HfMDK.

Liza Lim
Ferneyhough Workshop 2019 mit IEMA
Koka Nikoladze bei der Neuen Musik Nacht 2023
Stiftungsgastprofessur Komposition 2023/24: 1. Arbeitsinsel mit Blablabor, Diskussion mit Annette Schmucki
Workshop im Rahmen der Stiftungsgastprofessur Komposition blablabor
Lucas Fels in einem Projekt von Koka Nikoladze, Neue Musik Nacht 2023

in 2019, Bri­an Fer­ney­hough was the first guest pro­fes­sor, in 2020/21 the Ita­li­an com­po­ser Lu­cia Ron­chet­ti was in Frank­furt for three lar­ge pro­ject is­lands, in 2022/23 com­po­ser and in­ven­tor Koka Ni­ko­lad­ze worked with HfMDK stu­dents and tea­chers. in 2023/24, the Swiss collec­tive bla­bla­bor with An­net­te Schmucki and Reto Fried­mann were guests at the HfMDK. 2024/25 Liza Lim held the en­do­wed guest pro­fes­sor­ship in com­po­si­ti­on. Ge­or­ge Le­wis will be at the HfMDK in 2025/26.

An in­itia­ti­ve of the In­sti­tu­te for Con­tem­pora­ry Mu­sic IzM of the Frank­furt Uni­ver­si­ty of Mu­sic and Per­forming Arts, sup­por­ted by the Foun­da­ti­on for the Frank­furt Uni­ver­si­ty of Mu­sic and Per­forming Arts (HfMDK Foun­da­ti­on)

Ques­ti­ons & Con­tact

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