Born in Forbach in 1924, died in Bad Lippspringe in 2007; from 1946 to 1949 Günther Becker completed studies as a Kapellmeister with Gerhard Nestler at the Badische Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe, studied composition with Wolfgang Fortner from 1948 to 1956, first in Heidelberg, then at the Nordwestdeutsche Musikakademie Detmold, and there choral conducting with Kurt Thomas from 1953 to 1955. From 1956 to 1968 he lived in Greece, teaching first at the Anavryta School in Athens, from 1958 at the German Dörpfeld-Gymnasium, and in 1962 built up a studio for new music at the Goethe-Institut in Athens. In 1968 he returned to Germany and in 1969 founded the Gruppe Megaphoric for live electronics in Essen. From 1971 to 1974 he was president of the German section of the Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik. In 1973 he became a lecturer at the Robert-Schumann-Institut in Düsseldorf, which appointed him professor a year later; until 1989 he directed the seminar for electronic music there. Seven albums connect him with Cybele. In 1996 the notabu.ensemble neue musik under Mark-Andreas Schlingensiepen opened the series, in 1998 the two-part Portrait Günther Becker was added, with recordings by, among others, Michael Gielen, Ernest Bour and Herbert Henck, and in 2000 the album Incontri – Encounters with Christiane Lorenz and Thomas Leander. In 2004 the Collected Works appeared in two volumes: Electroacoustic Music as a co-production with the WDR and Magnum Mysterium with the Chor der Neanderkirche Düsseldorf under Oskar Gottlieb Blarr. The Complete Organ Works were recorded by Martin Schmeding in 2009 on the Sauer organ in Düsseldorf-Oberkassel, in “Meteoron” with Christian Roderburg on percussion; in 2017 there followed Günther Becker and the Piano as Vol. 6 of the Edition Künstler im Gespräch.
Günther Becker
Composer
