Volker David Kirchner

Volker David Kirchner (25 June 1942 – 4 February 2020) was a German composer and violist.

After studies of violin and composition at the Peter Cornelius Conservatory, the Hochschule für Musik Köln and the Hochschule für Musik Detmold, he worked for decades as a violist in the Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt.

He was simultaneously the violist in the Kehr Trio founded by his violin teacher Günter Kehr, and a composer of incidental music at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden.

He was known for his operas which were commissioned by major German opera houses.

He studied at the Peter Cornelius Conservatory in Mainz from 1956 to 1959, violin with Günter Kehr and musical composition with Günter Raphael.

On a recommendation by Kehr, he then studied at the Hochschule für Musik Köln from 1959 to 1963, where he was influenced by composers Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez.

Kirchner was principal violist in the chamber orchestra Rheinisches Kammerorchester Köln from 1962 to 1964.

Kirchner studied further with Tibor Varga at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold from 1964 to 1965.

He played in jazz ensembles in Cologne.

He was a violist of the Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt (RSO) from 1966 to 1988.

As a chamber musician, he played viola in the Kehr Trio, with his teacher as the violinist and cellist Bernhard Braunholz, recording and touring in South America, North Africa and the Near East.

In 1970, he co-founded the Ensemble 70 in Wiesbaden.

From 1972 to 1974, he was also a composer of incidental music (Bühnenmusik) for the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden.

It prepared him for writing his operas, with a focus on the relation of text and music.

Die Trauung was premiered at Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden in 1975, Die fünf Minuten des Isaak Babel, described as a scenic Requiem, premiered at the Opernhaus Wuppertal in 1980, and Gilgamesh was commissioned for the Expo 2000 and staged at the Staatsoper Hannover.

His operas often focus on historic personalities such as Savonarola and Gutenberg.

Kirchner also composed two symphonies, concertos, keyboard music, sacred music such as the Missa Moguntina for the Mainz Cathedral, and especially chamber music.

His music has been recorded, and performed internationally.

Born in Mainz, Kirchner took his first violin lessons with his grandfather.

He became known when his first opera was premiered in 1975, Die Trauung (The Wedding), after Witold Gombrowicz's The Marriage.

It was played on 27 April 1975 at the Staatstheater Wiesbaden, conducted by Siegfried Köhler.

Kirchner was then commissioned to write more stage works.

Kirchner's Die fünf Minuten des Isaak Babel (The five minutes of Isaac Babel), subtitled A Scenic Requiem, premiered on 19 April 1980 at the Opernhaus Wuppertal, conducted by Hanns-Martin Schneidt and staged by Friedrich Meyer-Oertel.

Isaak Babel, a 1980 work, shows a person facing the Russian Revolution.

His Violin Concerto was first performed in the Berliner Philharmonie in 1984, and his Requiem Messa di pace received its first performance in Moscow 1990 for the opening of a festival.

Musicians such as violinists Ulf Hoelscher and Christian Tetzlaff, violist Tabea Zimmermann, cellists Yo Yo Ma, Wolfgang Boettcher and Martin Ostertag, and pianists Lars Vogt and Nina Tichman played his music, in collaboration with conductors such as Gerd Albrecht, Leif Segerstam and Eliahu Inbal.

Belshazar premiered in 1985 at the Bavarian State Opera, and Gilgamesch premiered for the Expo 2000 in Hanover.

The production at the Staatsoper Hannover was staged by Hans-Peter Lehmann in a set design by Ekkehard Grübler, and conducted by Stefan Sanderling.

During the 1980s, Generalmusikdirektor Siegfried Köhler promoted his operas in Wiesbaden, conducting in 1981 Das kalte Herz (The cold heart) after a fairy-tale by Wilhelm Hauff, revised in 1987 for a performance on 27 October 1988 at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich.

Kirchner moved to Mainz and became a freelance composer in 1988.

Invited by Walter Fink, he was the third composer featured in the annual Komponistenporträt of the Rheingau Musik Festival in 1992.

Kirchner composed the mass Missa Moguntina in 1993 especially for the Mainz Cathedral, reflecting his roots.

In 1997, the Kleines Haus of the Staatstheater Mainz opened with his Labyrinthos.

In 2010, he was one of five living composers, with Toshio Hosokawa, Helmut Lachenmann, Wolfgang Rihm and Jörg Widmann, whose music celebrated the 80th birthday of Walter Fink in a concert of the Rheingau Musik Festival.

His piano piece was titled Nachlese (Gleaning).

Savonarola, a 2011 opera, deals with the short reign of a religious fanatic.

Gutenberg, written in 2012, shows the genius from Mainz who had difficulties introducing his invention.

Kirchner died in Wiesbaden on 4 February 2020 at the age of 77.

Kirchner's compositions have included solo pieces, string quartets and other chamber music, symphonies and solo concertos, culminating in works for the stage.

His operas often have a political background.