Fabian Müller

Fabian Müller (*12 February 1964 in Zurich) is a Swiss composer.

Biography

Fabian Müller is one of the leading Swiss composers of his generation. He originally comes from Lengau in the canton of Aargau and grew up in Zurich as the son of Peter and Hella Müller-Heuer (daughter of Walter Heuer), a central figure in the area of German orthography. He first studied the cello with Claude Starck at the Zurich Conservatory, but then increasingly dedicated his energies to composition. He studied composition with Josef Haselbach at the Zurich Conservatory. After completing his studies, he spent four summers at the courses of the Aspen Music Festival (Colorado). While there, he studied with Jacob Druckman, Bernard Rands and George Tsontakis.

He received decisive encouragement from David Zinman, who made a recording with the Philharmonia Orchestra, London, including "Nachtgesänge" with Swedish mezzo-soprano Malena Ernman, the Cello Concerto (1999), played by Müller's wife, the Taiwanese cellist Pi-Chin Chien and two further orchestral works. Müller's works are played internationally by well-known orchestras and ensembles and have been heard in halls such as the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Tonhalle Zurich, the Lucerne Culture and Congress Centre, the Philharmonie St. Petersburg and the Teatro Colón. He wrote commissioned works for the Lucerne Festival, the Interlaken Music Festival and the Vestfold Festspillene in Norway. His works have been performed at the Festival de musique de La Chaise-Dieu in France, at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado and at the Festival Internacional de Ushuaia in Argentina.

Fabian Müller was artistic director of the International Music Festival Lenzburgiade in Switzerland from 2009-2013 and he is very interested in ethnomusicology. He spent ten years (1991 to 2002) preparing the publication of the Hanny Christen Collection, a ten-volume anthology of folk music with over 10‘000 tunes from the 19th Century, which initiated a new era for the traditional music of his country.

Recent works

Müller's recent works include the opera «Eiger», based on a libretto by the Swiss author Tim Krohn, commissioned by the TOBS Theater Orchestra Biel Solothurn, and a concerto for heckelphone and orchestra for the Swiss oboist Martin Frutiger. Other recently written works include «Canto» for the Zurich Chamber Orchestra ZKO, as well as a Concerto for vibraphone and orchestra and «Clatterclank» for snare drum and string orchestra for Evelyn Glennie. Recent works also include the Cello Sonata No. 2 and «Dialogues Cellestes», a double concerto for two cellos and orchestra commissioned by the cellist Antonio Meneses, and the Concerto per Klee, a homage to Paul Klee, for solo cello and Chamber Orchestra for Steven Isserlis. His «Concerto for Orchestra» was presented on a tour throughout Switzerland (season 08/09) with the «Austrian-Hungarian Haydn-Philharmonic Orchestra» conducted by Christopher Hogwood and his work «Taranis» for large orchestra, was premiered by the Bern Symphony Orchestra in the season 08/09 and was on tour in Germany conducted by Andrey Boreyko in spring 2009.

Awards

• 1996 Jacob Druckman Prize
• 2006 Award of the Canton of Zurich
• 2012: Art Award of Zollikon
• 2016: Nomination for the «Swiss Music Prize» by the Federal Office of Culture
• 2021: Rimbaud for Film music (Festival «Les Rimbaud du Cinema», Paris)
• 2021: Award for the best Film music (SMR13, 6ème Festival International du Film Indépendant)

Work list

Discography

• 2020: «Strings on the Move» Concertino for piano 4 hands, cello and string orchestra; Pi-Chin Chien, violoncello, Piano Duo Zbinden, Klaipeda Chamber Orchestra Estonian Recording Production ERP
• 2019: «Tea for Two Cellos» Pi-Chin Chien & Fabian Müller, violoncello Solo Musica
• 2016: «Am Anfang - Drei Versuche die Welt zu erfinden»; Christiane Boesiger, Soprano, Zurich Ensemble ARS Produktion
• 2015: «Concerto per Klee» for Violoncello and String orchestra & 2 horns; Pi-Chin Chien, violoncello, Georgisches Kammerorchester Ingolstadt, Ruben Gazarian ARS Produktion
• 2014: «Taiwan Rhapsody» and «Six Taiwanese Songs», romantic musical settings for cello and orchestra; Pi-Chin Chien, violoncello, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Wen-Pin Chien Sony Classical
• 2013: Portrait-CD: Eiger (2004), Concerto for Orchestra (2007/08), «Dialogues Cellestes», Antonio Meneses & Pi-Chin Chien, violoncello, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Claude Villaret / ARS Produktion
• 2013: "Munchs Traum(a) for Violin Solo (2010), Henning Kraggerud, violine, / SIMAX Classics
• 2013 Fabian Müller: 20 Transcriptions of songs by Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Grieg for clarinet and string orchestra; Fabio Di Casola, clarinet, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, / Sony Classical
• 2007 Chamber music for cello and piano by Paul Juon, Othmar Schoeck and Fabian Müller; Pi-Chin Chien, cello, Adrian Oetiker, piano / Musiques Suisses
• 2006 Portrait-CD; Fabian Müller: Piano Concerto, Labyrinth, Suite for cello and string orchestra, «Lied des Einsamen», Pi-Chin Chien, cello, Adrian Oetiker, piano, Harry White, saxophone, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Ruben Gazarian, conductor; Musiques Suisses
• 2004 Fabian Müller: Chamber music for strings; Petersen Quartet; Tomasz Tomaszewski, violin; Pi-Chin Chien, cello; Andreas Wylezol, double-bass; «20th Century Portraits», / Capriccio
• 2003 Fabian Müller: Five Intermezzi for alto-saxophone solo, Harry White, saxophone; Deutsche Grammophon
• 2002 Portrait-CD; Fabian Müller: «Nachtgesänge», Cello Concerto 1999, Intrada, Gayatri-Rhapsody; Malena Ernman, mezzo-soprano; Pi-Chin Chien, cello; Philharmonia Orchestra, London; David Zinman, conductor, col legno
• 1995 Fabian Müller: Violin Concerto 1993, Suite Vaudoise, Rhapsody for String Orchestra, «Nachtgesänge»; MDS Classics

External links

• Official website
• «New Music?», Interview with art historian Margaret Jardas
• Interview at Glarean (German)
• At Klassika.info (German)
• Review by Phillip Scott, Fanfare