© Manu Theobold
Birke J. Bertelsmeier is one of the most renowned composers of the younger generation. Born in 1981, she first studied piano and had her first pieces performed at the age of ten. After graduating from secondary school, she began studying composition with Manfred Trojahn in Düsseldorf and Wolfgang Rihm in Karlsruhe. Birke Bertelsmeier was also taught by renowned composers such as Brian Ferneyhough, Marco Stroppa, Beat Furrer, Hanspeter Kyburz, Olga Neuwirth and Adriana Hölsky. Her work so far has resulted in a voluminous list of compositions, including opera projects, oratorios, orchestral works, chamber music and solo works. Among her most recent works, Giromaniaco for Ensemble Modern and Zimzum for the Bamberg Symphony (both 2015) stand out. In 2017 Bertelsmeier wrote vom blauen himmel, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Guernica; in 2018 the quintet al di là was commissioned by the Ultraschall Festival in Berlin.