Hespos, Hans-Joachim

born march 13th 1938 in emden/ostfriesland. lives as free lance composer and auto-editor in ganderkesee,germany.

since 1967 numerous commissions in germany and abroad, numerous prizes and awards for composition
(Stichting Gaudeamus Bilthoven, Fondation Royaumont Paris, Villa Massimo Rome, ..).

masterclasses in israel (rubin academy yerushalayim), usa (indiana university, school of music, bloomington), brazil, japan, canada.lecturer at the ‚internationale ferienkurse für neue musik darmstadt‘, courses at the Instituto des Etudos Avancados at University of Sao Paulo, visiting professor at the academy of arts and music in bremen, masterclass at the hochschule für musik und theater rostock.

member of the free academy of arts hamburg.composer in residence of the staatsoperhannover X.
hespos-achive at the akademie der künste berlin.

performances and portrait concerts: ... biennale di venezia, musikverein wien, muzicki biennale zagreb, warschauer herbst, donaueschinger musiktage, queen elizabeth hall london, berliner festwochen, internationale ferienkurse für neue musik darmstadt, royan festival, pan music festival tokyo, testimonium jerushalayim, oper frankfurt, metz festival, steirischer herbst graz, nutida musik stockholm, festival d´automne paris, holland festival amsterdam, fundacio joan miró barcelona, nuova consonanza roma, bayerische staatsoper münchen, gaudeamus foundation amsterdam, centre pompidou paris, new music concerts toronto, music weeks sofia, european capital luxembourg, passages européens luzern, wiener tage für zeitgenössische klaviermusik, bremer musikfest, expo 2000 hannover, total music meeting berlin, festival utopales nantes, osterfestspiele salzburg, ultima festival oslo, galway festival irland , ignm festivals hamburg, graz, paris, jerusalem, budapest, staatsoper hannover, ...

the work catalogue contains more than 230 compositions for solos, chambermusics, ensemble, orchestra, choir, radio, electroAcoustics, film, electronics, stage (DAS TRIADISCHE BALLETT nach oskar schlemmer, 8 operas) and scene.

i O P A L – a provocative great opera – commissioned by the staatsoper hannover became an outstanding event (johannes harneit/anna viebrock) and was elected by the journal OPERNWELT for firstperformance opera of the year 2005.
Curriculum (engl.)
Born in 1938, hespos has since 1964 composed a huge number of works that are usually extreme even by the standards of the German New Music. Perhaps one of the most remarkable features of hespos' music is that there would seem to have been no discernible process of development of technique or alteration in concerns during the last thirty years. hespos writes as uncompromisingly today as he has always done and the unmediated forcefulness of his work remains almost without parallel even today.
His scores, be they verbal, graphic, more conventionally notated or some combination thereof, always constitute incitements to action rather than instructions to be executed neutrally. Inspired by Adorno and Artaud, each composition forms itself unfettered during the act of composition. Thus each work of any length would hardly be analysable as an artistic object. In hespos' own words, he composes without knowing "whither it goes in the next moment, where it ends".

This radical subjectivity should communicate itself to any audience of hespos' work, his aim being, to quote Artaud "To reach a point at which things must burst if there would be a new departure/beginning ... to lead the spirit to a frenzy, to a rising of its energies".

Hans-Joachim Hespos passed away on July 18, 2022.

Photo: Konczak