Composer, pianist
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Moritz Eggert (*1965, Heidelberg) studied piano and composition at Dr.Hoch´s Konservatorium in Frankfurt (with Wolfgang Wagenhaeuser and Claus Kuehnl), at the Musikhochschule Frankfurt (with Leonard Hokanson) and in Munich at the Musikhochschule Muenchen (with Wilhelm Killmayer). He also played keyboard in various bands, together with guitarist Marcus Deml. Later he continued his piano studies with Raymund Havenith and Dieter Lallinger, and his composition studies with Hans-Jürgen von Bose in Munich. In 1992 he spent a year in London as a post-graduate composition student with Robert Saxton at the Guildhall School for Music and Drama.
Moritz Eggert has covered all genres in his work – his oeuvre includes 9 operas as well as ballets and works for dance and music theatre, often with unusual performance elements. 1997 German TV produced a feature-length film portrait about his music.
As a pianist he regularly collaborates with many artists, as soloist with orchestra, as chamber music partner in various formations and as a Lied accompanist. In 1996 he presented the complete works for piano solo by Hans Werner Henze for the first time in one concert, in 1989 he was a prizewinner at the International Gaudeamus Competition for Performers of Contemporary Music. He is a regular guest artist at festivals around the world and has been commissioning composers for various chamber music projects (like Neue Dichter Lieben or Pop Aid). He lives in Munich, Germany.
As a composer Moritz Eggert has been awarded with prizes like the composition prize of the Salzburger Osterfestspiele, the Schneider/Schott-prize, the ‘Ad Referendum’-prize in Montréal, the Siemens Förderpreis for young composers, and the Zemlinsky Prize. 2003 he became a member of the ‘Bayerische Akademie der Schoenen Kuenste’.
1991 he founded - together with Sandeep Bhagwati - the A*Devantgarde festival for new music, which took place for the 11th time in June 2011.
His concert-length cycle for piano solo, Haemmerklavier, is among his best known works and has been performed around the world. He wrote 11 operas and countless works for dance and music theatre.
Moritz Eggert’s music has often been at the center of media attention. He wrote a ‘soccer oratorio’and the music for the opening ceremony for the German FIFA World Cup 2006 (Director: Christian Stueckl, Design: Marlene Pohley). The German yellow press berated his opera The Snail (librettist and director: Hans Neuenfels) as a ‘vile porn opera’. Another of his operas, Freax (libretto: Hannah Dübgen), created a scandal around it’s director Christoph Schlingensief. A collage of all 22 Mozart operas for the Salzburger Festspiele (Oral Pole Mazy Brats – All Operas by Mozart) was greeted with controversial reactions as well as the ‘Foot Ballet’ for the Viennese Opera Ball (seen as a ‘sacrilege’ by the conservative part of the audience). For the Pop Duo 2raumwohnung he created new songs as well as orchestral remixes. Since recent years he has also incited a heated discussion about the state of contemporary music, both as creator of the ‘Bad Blog of Musick’ and in articles and lectures for various publications. Among his next projects are an international collaboration with Belgian artist Jan Fabre, new operas for Bremen (All These Days, Premiere April 2012), Berlin (Komische Oper) and Regensburg and a Faust-project with German TV talk show host Harald Schmidt and the Bochumer Symphoniker with Steven Sloane.
In October 2010 he took on a composition professorship at the University for Music and Theatre in Munich, Germany.
Premieres by Moritz Eggert were mentioned on national tv news as well as the sports news.