Sidney Corbett

Sidney Corbett (born April 26, 1960, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American composer based in Germany.

Sidney Corbett was born in Chicago in 1960, the son of a Jewish mother and a Catholic father, but grew up without a religious upbringing.

In 1968, he moved with his family to California, where he played as an electric guitarist in various bands in Los Angeles at the age of fifteen and composed his first works from 1977.

From 1978 to 1982, he studied philosophy and composition at the University of California, San Diego, with Bernard Rands and Pauline Oliveros, among others.

During his study of composition in San Diego, at UCSD, from 1978, Corbett was confronted with the most extreme forms of avant-garde music; in 1982 he began his studies at Yale University and became interested for the first time in so-called traditional music - both of which influenced the musical language of his compositions at this time.

In 1985, Corbett continued his composition studies at Yale University, where he taught as a "Teaching Fellow in Composition" and received his doctorate in 1989 with an analysis of the work Hyperprism by the French composer Edgar Varèse.

His teachers at Yale University were Jacob Druckman, whose assistant he was, as well as Martin Bresnick, Frederic Rzewski and Morton Subotnick.

Corbett was awarded the BMI Student Composer Award in 1985.

From 1985 to 1988, he studied composition with György Ligeti at the Musikhochschule Hamburg and took part in Vladimír Karbusický's doctoral seminar at the University of Hamburg's Institute of Musicology.

Corbett has lived mainly in Europe since 1985, in Hamburg, Stuttgart and Berlin.

His study in Hamburg with György Ligeti from 1985-1988 was a particularly strong influence.

At the time, Ligeti criticized Corbett's style as being too avant-garde.

Since 1991 he has regularly given guest lectures and master classes in Europe and North America.

Corbett's interest in architecture is reflected, for example, in the title of his Symphony No. 1 "Tympan" for large orchestra (1991–1992), where the tympanum, an arched decorative surface above the lintel of the portal of a cathedral, is referred to in the title.

The architectural floor plans and proportions of the 11th century cathedral in Mönchengladbach form reference points for the project Die Stimmen der Wände (The Voices of the Walls) for alto flute, saxophone, trombone, electric guitar, violin and violoncello (1993), created with the artist Brigitte Zarm.

Literary influences can be found in his compositions for music theatre, which form a focal point of his work, but also in numerous other works.

From 1994–1995 he was a visiting professor for composition and analysis of contemporary music at Duke University in Durham (North Carolina).

Examples include numerous vocal works such as Portals for tenor and guitar (1998) based on poems by Walt Whitman, Lieder aus der Bettlerschale for soprano and piano (1998) based on poems by Christine Lavant, Nova angeletta for alto and violin (1996) and for soprano and viola (2000) based on a poem by Francesco Petrarca, Kykloi for soprano and chamber ensemble (2009) based on a text fragment by Barbara Köhler and Rasch for soprano, clarinet, viola, violoncello and piano based on texts by Roland Barthes (2010).

There are also biblical figures in the operas Noach (2001) and Die Andere (2016).

As a guitarist Corbett played from 2004–2008 in the avant-garde techno/house band "Vierte Heimat" and continues to play in various improvising formations to this day.

Corbett has authored articles on musical topics for many years and has also been involved in the programming of various concert series, including the College Music Society Europe (CMSE), Cologne and Musica Nova, Stuttgart.

Corbett was elected to the Akademie der Künste, Berlin in 2022.

Corbett's compositions are published and distributed worldwide by Edition Peters, Leipzig – London – New York.

Releases of his works have appeared on Sony Classical, Cybele, Mode Records, CRI, Edition Zeitklang, Kreuzberg Records, Blue Griffen, Edition Kopernikus and Ambitus Records.

For Corbett, composing is a spiritual act, he concerns himself intensely with spiritual and theological questions and with all forms of mystical experience, including for example also Islamic mysticism.

For him, this occupation with the spiritual is a principal source of inspiration; the spiritual is inseparable from the musical.

Corbett uses texts from the Koran, for example in Die Sieben Tore (The Seven Gates) for mezzo-soprano, speaker, flute, harp, piano and percussion (2004) or refers to the Talmud, for example in Bleeding in Babylon for bass clarinet, guitar and double bass (2004).

Yaël (2004) reflects Corbett's intensive, decades-long study of the work of Franco-Egyptian poet and philosopher Edmond Jabès.

Corbett has also been inspired by mystical works, including texts by Meister Eckhart for Des Engels Licht for soprano, accordion, harp and string trio (2005) and ''Vom inneren und äußeren Menschen.

In 2006, Corbett was appointed Professor of Composition at the Mannheim University of Music and Performing Arts.

There he also directs the Forum Neue Musik, which he founded, as well as the concert series of the Gesellschaft für Neue Musik Mannheim (Society for New Music Mannheim).

Corbett's instrumental music also bears witness to the composer's literary affinity, e.g. in his Third Symphony: ″Breathing the Water″ (2006), in which texts by Denise Levertov are juxtaposed with the poetry of Amal al-Jubouri.

Corbett often uses holy scriptures as inspiration: he has for example used texts from the Old Testament, for example, Psalm 39 several times, e.g. Psalm 39 for mixed choir (2010), Canticum David for seven voices (2015) and Ein Fremdling, wie alle meine Väter ... for contrabbass clarinet (2010); instrumental variations on prophetic literature such as Three Lamentations [Of the Prophet Micah] for alto saxophone and organ (1998).

Ein Narrenspiel in 13 Inseln for soprano, baritone, speaker/actor and bible shelf (2010) and Mechthild von Magdeburg on Unsér Súnde'' for five voices (2007).

Corbett has lived with his family in Schwetzingen since 2014.

Works influenced by philosophical texts also include Aporia for chamber ensemble (2019), inspired by texts by Jacques Derrida and Utopia and Intimacy (Utopie und Nähe) for solo violin and six voices (2020) based on texts by Ernst Bloch.

Corbett is an artist who cannot be easily placed within the new music mainstream.

He is an active guitarist with considerable experience as an improvising musician in various contexts, for example with the avant-garde techno house band "Vierte Heimat", with the ensemble "Letzte Dernière" with two double basses, cello and electric guitar, in which, for example, works by Giacinto Scelsi or Rebecca Saunders were used as the basis for improvisation, and with the Lebanese musician Mazen Kerbaj He is an active guitarist with considerable experience as an improvising musician in various contexts, for example with the avant-garde techno house band "Vierte Heimat", with the ensemble "Letzte Dernière" with two double basses, cello and electric guitar, in which, for example, works by Giacinto Scelsi or Rebecca Saunders were used as the basis for improvisation, and with the Lebanese musician Mazen Kerbaj.

His musical training did not begin with classical music; he only learned to write music at the age of 17 - before that, as a guitarist, he had done everything by ear, i.e. by memorizing or improvising.

He has thus remained very open minded towards different forms and styles of musical expression.