Steffen Wick belongs to a young generation of composers who are blurring the boundaries between different genres. He combines classical and contemporary stylistic elements into a modern, poetic sound language.
Career
Steffen Wick studied at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart and the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich. He completed his extensive studies in composition (under Professor Caspar Johannes Walter), music theory, piano and new media with top marks. He then went on to expand his composition studies in a master-class with Moritz Eggert He gained further artistic input from personal encounters with Steve Reich, Pascal Dusapin, Wolfgang Rihm and Detlev Glanert.
Orchestration
Steffen Wick’s concert works include all genres: from lavish scores for symphonic orchestras (such as Womb), chamber music (such as Inner Monologue for vocal quartet, a work commissioned by the Siemens Arts Program), to exotic compositions (such as the commissioned composition Transborder for Korean gayageums and European instruments).
Performances
Steffen Wick’s music has been performed at the Bregenzer Festspiele, the Wiener Musikverein, the Konzerthaus Berlin and Radialsystem among others. His works have been performed by the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, the Philharmonischen Orchester in Cottbus, Freiburg and Gießen as well as the “Acht Cellisten” from the Vienna Symphony. Steffen Wick’s compositions are published by Ricordi and can be enjoyed live all over the world in countries such as China, South Korea, Canada, the USA, Finland, France, Spain and Ukraine. He has albums published by Sony Classical and Universal Music.
Main area of interests
As a pianist, Steffen Wick focuses on the piano in particular in his works. In the Autumn of 2014, the White and Blue albums, on which grand piano and instrumental sounds merge with subtle electronics, were released as the start of PIANO PARTICLES, the classical electronic series, which he worked on with his artistic partner Simon Detel. The visualisation for the opening piece Aero by Stephen Malinowski/USA won the “Visual Music Award” at the Cocoon Club in Frankfurt, awarded by the Institute für Synästhesie und Neue Medien Frankfurt. For the live concert of PIANO PARTICLES, the designer Marc Engenhart designed a paper installation made of 300 individual paper objects, which received the “red dot award: communication design”. The multiple-award-winning choreographer Marco Goecke choreographed a dance performance of PIANO PARTICLES with the Ballet Ensemble of the Gärtnerplatztheater in Munich as well as with the dancer and choreographer Eric Gauthier and his company.
Concert projects
In 2008 the "video concerto" beyond vision, for which Steffen Wick wrote the music, was performed by the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra with a video installation in the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, phaeno Wolfsburg, the Kunstverein Stuttgart and the Museum für Kommunikation Frankfurt.
In summer 2009, the Soundtrack Symphony was performed in a spectacular open air concert on a floating stage in Heilbronn with over 200 performers, fireworks and a light show.
In 2013, Steffen Wick was commissioned by the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts to compose music to silent films by film pioneer Georges Méliès for the Henschel Quartet. This was curated by the film-maker Edgar Reitz.
Music Theatre
In 2012, the stage performance of Wick's music theatre piece Musicophilia, based on the novel of the same name by Oliver Sacks, was "particularly expressive" (Süddeutsche Zeitung). This production won the Music Theatre Now Prize from the International Theatre Institute in 2015.
His music theatre performance Particles, with influences from “physical theatre” and “nouveau cirque”, a work commissioned by the Friedrichsbau Varieté Stuttgart, was premièred in March 2015 and was performed 50 more times within two months.
Awards
In 2011, Steffen Wick took part in the composition competition at the Bregenzer Festspiele. In 2013, Wick and Detel won awards for their projects from the German Government as “creative pilots”. In 2014 Steffen Wick received a residency at the International House of Artists Villa Concordia, 2015 at the Cité Internationale des Arts Paris and in 2017 in the Künstlerhaus Salzwedel.