Meanwhile over 70 years old, Karlheinz Stockhausen still numbers among the truly new composers. Since the 1950´s nobody has been able to pin him down as representing a particular musical style. He caused a scandal in 1952 with his ?punktuelle Musik? in Darmstadt and Donaueschingen, the strongholds of modern music, and only one year later he launched the first trail-blazing production with electronic music. He went on in the following years with space music, music for the signs of the Zodiac and in the past few years, more and more, with esoteric cosmic-ritual music. In recent times, his name has often been mentioned in conjunction with that of Richard Wagner, whose Festival Theatre has been mentioned as a possible venue for his large-scale, seven-opera ?Light? cycle. With his works and his effect on avant-garde music since the 1950´s, Karlheinz Stockhausen ranks today as one of the decisive composers of our time.
Born on August 22, 1928 in Mödrath near Cologne