Gerald Eckert

Gerald Eckert was born on 27 December 1960 in Nuremberg. From 1985 to 1990 he studied cello, piano and conducting at the Meistersinger-Konservatorium Nürnberg, from 1987 to 1992 mathematics in Erlangen-Nürnberg as well as composition with Walter Zimmermann; from 1989 he received composition lessons from Wilfried Jentzsch, from 1992 to 1995 he studied at the Folkwang Hochschule Essen with Nicolaus A. Huber as well as electroacoustic composition with Dirk Reith and attended courses with James Dillon, Brian Ferneyhough and Jonathan Harvey. In 1996/97 he worked at the CCRMA of Stanford University; later he taught in Darmstadt, Akiyoshidai and at Chung-Ang University in South Korea, among other places. Alongside his work as a composer he appears as a cellist and has also worked in the visual arts since 1989 with painting, exhibitions and installations. Since 1989 he has lived in Eckernförde, where he works as cellist and conductor of the ensemble reflexion K; he co-founded the festivals Chiffren in Kiel (2006) and Provinzlärm in Eckernförde (2007). He was awarded the Gulbenkian-Preis in 1993, the music prize of the NDR in 1994, the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis in 1996, a first prize at the Bourges competition in 2003 and, in 2005, the Elisabeth-Schneider-Preis and a first prize at the Stuttgart composition competition; in 2010 he held a fellowship of the Villa Aurora in Los Angeles. Four albums connect him with Cybele, all in the field of electroacoustic music. Two belong to the ex machina series — le son qui s’arrête le son éclaté and tangent, both 1996 — and one to the DEGEM series, Orpheus 400 (2007). To these is added a contribution to the audiobook production Weht ein Stadtspaziergang durch den Traum (2014).