Dieter Ammann
Composer, musician / *1962 / Aarau, Switzerland
Dieter Ammann has something to say - as a composer and musician, but also on social issues. He will be our Creative Chair in the 2026/27 season.
When Dieter Ammann turned to composition at the age of 30, he already had a remarkable palmarès as a musician: As a pianist or keyboardist, self-taught trumpeter and bassist, he toured Europe in the 1980s and 1990s in the field of jazz and improvised music, realised recordings with Eddie Harris and live performances with Udo Lindenberg. He still plays in a band today.
Dieter Ammann mainly composes at night. "I'm probably the slowest composer in Europe," he says about his working style. But perhaps that is precisely why his works have endured. The orchestral work "glut", which premiered with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich in 2016, has since found a permanent place in the repertoire - and should therefore not be missing from a showcase as Creative Chair.
The maturing, lengthy compositional process also results in densely woven music. Wolfgang Rihm, with whom Ammann received important impulses in masterclasses, aptly described his music: "Not a second of idleness, everything is alive and in the most beautiful sense overgrown with lines of force (...)."
Another central work in Ammann's oeuvre is the triptych "Core" - "Turn" - "Boost". It was created over a period of 10 years and its individual parts are valid as independent orchestral works. They can also be experienced in various concerts throughout the season.
In addition, Dieter Ammann's music will be heard in the family concert and he himself will give a masterclass at the ZHdK as a competent mediator of his music and lecturer.
Creative Chair supported by
Concerts
Experience Dieter Ammann's music in the following concerts:
Season opening with Paavo Järvi & Khatia Buniatishvili
Season opening with Paavo Järvi & Khatia Buniatishvili
Season opening with Paavo Järvi & Khatia Buniatishvili
Family concert: Of wild and tamed sounds
Family concert: Of wild and tamed sounds
Paavo Järvi & Hayato Sumino
Paavo Järvi & Hayato Sumino
Paavo Järvi & Hayato Sumino
Gianandrea Noseda & Sol Gabetta
Chamber music lunch concert
Gianandrea Noseda & Hilary Hahn
Gianandrea Noseda & Hilary Hahn
Hannu Lintu & Carolin Widmann
Sonic Matter: Hannu Lintu & Carolin Widmann
