André Richard

A native of Bern who celebrated his 75th birthday in April 2019, André Richard is a conductor, composer, and specialist in the performance of live electronic music. After studying singing, music theory, and composition in Geneva, he initially taught ear training at the Geneva Conservatoire but then decided to study composition with Klaus Huber and Brian Ferneyhough in Freiburg/Breisgau. In 1980, he took over the management of the Institute for New Music at the Freiburg Academy of Music and organized a concert series titled “Horizons.” He founded the Solistenchor Freiburg in 1982 to perform Luigi Nono’s Das atmende Klarsein and remained its leader until 2005. From 1989 to 2005, Richard directed the experimental studio at SWR Freiburg, where he realized numerous new works with live electronics and in the process became committed to advancing technological developments. Nono’s oeuvre has played a particularly important role in his activities, and in 2004 he was awarded the German Record Critics’ annual prize for his interpretations of this composer. Richard has appeared as a conductor at the Warsaw Autumn, Biennale di Venezia, Holland Festival, and Huddersfield Music Festival, as well as at numerous new music series. At the Salzburg Festival, he was responsible for the spatial acoustic concept and the sound design for Nono’s Prometeo and Caminantes ... Ayacucho, for Lachenmann’s Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern, and for Stockhausen’s Helicopter String Quartet. Richard has been a freelance artist since 2006, with credits that include work for Mark Andre’s opera ...22,13... as well as Klaus Huber’s Erinnere dich an Golgatha. André Richard has been awarded the Reinhold Schneider Prize (1990), the Christoph and Stephan Kaske Foundation Prize (1994), and the European Cultural Prize for New Music (1998).

LUCERNE FESTIVAL debut on 24 August 2001 in Nono’s Prometeo.

August 2019