Thomas Schmidt-Kowalski
Encyclopedia
Thomas Schmidt-Kowalski is a German
composer
.
Schmidt-Kowalski was born at Oldenburg
in 1949. He studied composition at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Berlin
under Frank Michael Beyer (1971) and at the Musikhochschule Hannover under Alfred Koerppen (1972–77). In the course of his studies, Schmidt-Kowalski turned from the musical avant-garde and chose to write in a more traditional vein. Since the late 1970s he has worked as a freelance composer, mainly writing commissioned works for soloists and events. His compositions have been performed in London
, Oxford
, Cambridge
, Sydney
, Melbourne
, Mexico City
, and Yokohama
, and have been recorded on the Naxos
label. Schmidt-Kowalski has emerged as a conductor of his own works.
not as an era, but as transcending time, and thus does not consider his tonality
and romanticism to be at all nostalgic. His output has focused on chamber and orchestral music.
His style has been compared to those of Schumann, Dvorak, and Saint-Saëns. In the view of critic Jill Barlow, Schmidt-Kowalski "manages to bypass 20th-century modernism by doing a 'Sturm und Drang' of his own in 21st-century terms, making himself a 'must' for today's German concert, disc, and radio audiences."
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
.
Schmidt-Kowalski was born at Oldenburg
Oldenburg
Oldenburg is an independent city in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the western part of the state between the cities of Bremen and Groningen, Netherlands, at the Hunte river. It has a population of 160,279 which makes it the fourth biggest city in Lower Saxony after Hanover, Braunschweig...
in 1949. He studied composition at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
under Frank Michael Beyer (1971) and at the Musikhochschule Hannover under Alfred Koerppen (1972–77). In the course of his studies, Schmidt-Kowalski turned from the musical avant-garde and chose to write in a more traditional vein. Since the late 1970s he has worked as a freelance composer, mainly writing commissioned works for soloists and events. His compositions have been performed in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
, and Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
, and have been recorded on the Naxos
Naxos
-Places:*Naxos , an island in the Cyclades group**Naxos , a town and former municipality on the island of Naxos**Naxos , a Greek government division created from the former Cyclades Prefecture in 2011...
label. Schmidt-Kowalski has emerged as a conductor of his own works.
Tonal language
Schmidt-Kowalski's works are fully tonal, and their design and harmony is essentially derived from 19th-century practice, with emphasis on the melodic element. He sees the musical RomanticRomantic music
Romantic music or music in the Romantic Period is a musicological and artistic term referring to a particular period, theory, compositional practice, and canon in Western music history, from 1810 to 1900....
not as an era, but as transcending time, and thus does not consider his tonality
Tonality
Tonality is a system of music in which specific hierarchical pitch relationships are based on a key "center", or tonic. The term tonalité originated with Alexandre-Étienne Choron and was borrowed by François-Joseph Fétis in 1840...
and romanticism to be at all nostalgic. His output has focused on chamber and orchestral music.
His style has been compared to those of Schumann, Dvorak, and Saint-Saëns. In the view of critic Jill Barlow, Schmidt-Kowalski "manages to bypass 20th-century modernism by doing a 'Sturm und Drang' of his own in 21st-century terms, making himself a 'must' for today's German concert, disc, and radio audiences."