composer
next Concert:
January 01st, 2025
05:00 pm
«Fantasia folcloristica» for recorder & string orchestra
Switzerland, Andermatt Concert Hall
Maurice Steger, recorder - Swiss Orchestra, Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer, conductor
Works: by Joseph Stalder, Anton Heberle, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Antonio Vivaldi, Fabian Müller, Johann Strauss (son) and Johann Strauss (father)
Latest News:
November 28th, 2024
New Release: String Quartets Nos. 2 – 4 with the Galatea Quartet
In February 2025, a new album featuring Fabian Müller`s String Quartets Nos. 2, 3, and 4 will be released by the German label ARS-Produktion. These works are masterfully performed by the Swiss Galatea Quartet.
November 14th, 2024
Nomination International Classical Music Award ICMA 2025
After the nomination for the OPUS Klassik 2024, the album Uncommon Concertos is now also among the nominees for the International Classical Music Award (ICMA) 2025.
May 29th, 2024
OPUS Klassik 2024 - Nomination «Composer of the Year»
Fabian Müller, along with Liza Lim and Dejan Lazić, has been nominated for the prestigious German classical music award as «Composer of the Year.» The nomination was made on the basis of the album «Uncommon Concertos,» which features the Concerto for Pan Flute and Orchestra (soloist: Hanspeter Oggier), the Concerto for Heckelphone and Orchestra (soloist: Martin Frutiger), and the orchestral work TARANIS, performed by the ROYAL CZECH SYMPHONIA Hradec Králové under the direction of Kaspar Zehnder, and released by the label ARS Produktion.
January 15th, 2024
Press comments on the premiere of the family-opera «Heidi und das Weihnachtswunder» (Heidi feiert Weihnachten)
The author Tim Krohn has expanded Johanna Spyri`s «Heidi» for the Theater Orchester Biel Solothurn with a festive chapter. Fabian Müller`s musical language is once again intricate, rich in motifs, and variably orchestrated. Conductor Kaspar Zehnder, returning to the podium of the Sinfonieorchesters Biel Solothurn (Sobs), is familiar with Müller`s complex style and adeptly unifies the forces in the pit and on stage.
Peter König, Bieler Tagblatt
«The children`s choir plays a special role as a structuring element between the scenes in the snow. Müller has invented simple song melodies for it with detailed orchestral accompaniment and coloring. Once again, Fabian Müller has composed a very suggestive and eventful music that enjoys describing and narrating but also frequently comments or portrays emotional moods. There is a lot going on in the orchestra, and Kaspar Zehner, who leads the baton as in `Eiger,` is almost constantly challenged as a coordinator, but above all as a sound painter for Müller`s rich color palette. This music is not explicitly aimed at children, but children likely have no difficulty following its entertaining and suggestive narrative style.»
Reinmar Wagner, «Musik & Theater»
«A scenic and musical achievement. The premiere at the Stadttheater Biel was a great success because the creators skillfully avoid drowning Heidi, Peter, and Öhi in kitsch. Memories of the opera `Eiger` resurface; here, too, the mountain calls with shimmering violins and a drumbeat, the wind is suggested by imposing sound clusters that consistently maintain an atmospheric density.» Peter Wäch, Jungfrauzeitung
«Müller`s music imparts spontaneous, unaffected expressiveness to the characters in a recitative melos, and the colorfully flowing and atmospheric language of the orchestra, led by Kaspar Zehnder, resonates strongly with their feelings and situations.» Herbert Büttiker, Roccosound
November 13th, 2023
New CD release: UNCOMMON CONCERTOS – Concertos for Pan flute and Heckelphone, Taranis for large orchestra
There are instruments which, despite their great potential in terms of expressiveness and tonal possibilities, have not been able to establish themselves in the classical concert. These include the pan flute as well as the heckelphone. With just over a hundred instruments in existence worldwide, the latter has its place above all in the great opera houses, where it shines with marvellous solos in operas by Richard Strauss, but also in his Alpine Symphony. With Hanspeter Oggier, pan flute, and Martin Frutiger, heckelphone, Switzerland has two of the world`s most outstanding soloists. This CD features the first recordings of two concertos for these instruments. It also includes TARANIS, a symphonic work for large orchestra inspired by Alpine nature, performed by the ROYAL CZECH SYMPHONIA Hradec Králové under the direction of chief conductor Kaspar Zehnder. This is already the eighth CD release with works by Fabian Müller on the German label ARS Produktion and will be released in December 2023.
January 12th, 2023
Commissioned by the TOBS:
New Opera for the whole family – «Heidi und das Weihnachtswunder» (Heidi feiert Weihnachten)
Following the sensational success of the opera «EIGER» Fabian Müller and Tim Krohn present «Heidi Celebrates Christmas,» bringing another piece of Swiss history to the stages of TOBS. The direction is led by Anna Drescher (among others, «Zaïs,» «Dido and Aeneas,» and «Die Weisse Rose"), with Kaspar Zehnder at the conductor`s podium. This premiere promises to be an opera experience for the whole family!
Christmas is just around the corner. Heidi spends the winter with her grandfather down in the village. She loves the grandmother of Geissenpeter as if she were her own and is determined to visit her on Christmas Eve. A violent snowstorm prevents her from doing so. However, when the grandfather goes out for errands, Heidi can`t resist: She sets off from the village to visit the sick grandmother – and gets terribly lost. With a newborn little goat under her coat, she wanders through the wilderness and skillfully saves herself with a Christmas touch of providence…
www.tobs.ch/de/musiktheater/stuecke/stueck/prod/786/
January 10th, 2023
World premiere of «Mother Earth» for large orchestra in Taipei
At the New Year`s Concert on January 1, 2023 in the sold-out National Concert Hall, the orchestral work commissioned by the One Song Orchestra had a brilliant premiere under the baton of Lee Che-yi (李哲藝). In the same concert Pi-Chin Chien (簡碧青) played the «Taiwan Rhapsody» for cello and orchestra.
December 21st, 2021
«Highly exciting» - press comments on the premiere of the opera EIGER
«You can`t avoid seeing a new, fresh interpretation of the aging term Gesamtkunstwerk. Eiger is a thrilling evening for all the senses.» Peter König, Der Bund - “A Helvetian Masterpiece” Christian Berzins, Luzerner Zeitung - “The director brought the gripping material to the small stage in a great way. [...] The drama on the mountain gets under your skin. «Annelise Alder, Bieler Tagblatt -» Successful world premiere that captivates [...] from the first note. «Peter Wäch, Jungfrau Zeitung. - «The emotional response of the short opera echoes deeply. […] The performance brings the opera as a total work of art to the eye in a new way through a cleverly balanced interplay of all factors. That makes «Eiger» an independent contribution to the development of music theater.» Michel Schär, stimme-der.kritik.org
December 17th, 2021
Premiere of the Opera «Eiger» at the Theater Biel-Solothurn TOBS
The opera “Eiger”, commissioned by the TOBS Theater Orchester Biel Solothurn, based on a libretto by Tim Krohn, celebrates its world-premiere on December 17, 2021 at the Stadttheater Biel, followed by further performances in Biel, Solothurn and other locations. Kaspar Zehnder will be the musical director and the staging is directed by Barbara-David Brüesch. In 2004 the orchestral work “Eiger” was commissioned by the Interlaken Music Festival, a symphonic sketch of the famous Swiss mountain - premiered by Andris Nelsons and the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra. Even then, the idea of an opera based on this music was in the room with the famous climbing drama on the Eiger from 1936 as the basis of the plot. The idea for this opera was then further developed together with the Swiss writer Tim Krohn (it is already the third collaboration).
www.tobs.ch/de/musiktheater/stuecke/stueck/prod/609/
October 23rd, 2021
Winner of the «Rimbaud» for film music 2021 at the Festival Les Rimbaud du Cinema in Paris
The music for the film «A Letter to A`ma» by Hui-Ling Chen won two prizes for the best film music at the international independent film festivals «Les Rimbauds du Cinema» and «SMR13» in France. It also won the Gold Award at the International Independent Festival “Woman Makes Waves” and, in addition to numerous other nominations, was also nominated as one of the five best documentaries at the Golden Horse Film Festival 2021 in Taiwan.