Carnegie Hall

Clarinetist, composer, and conductor Jörg Widmann is one of the most versatile and intriguing artists of his generation. As holder of the 2019–2020 Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair at Carnegie Hall, his work is featured throughout the Hall’s season.

Mr. Widmann is also an artist in residence at the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Palau de la Música in Barcelona, and Bergen International Festival. His chamber music performances include concerts with longstanding collaborators Sir András Schiff, Daniel Barenboim, Mitsuko Uchida, Tabea Zimmermann, Antoine Tamestit, and the Hagen Quartet, and at venues and festivals such as the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Salzburg Festival, and Vienna’s Konzerthaus. In addition, he conducts the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa (Japan), Swedish Chamber Orchestra, and Hessian State Orchestra in Wiesbaden, Germany.

In recent seasons, Mr. Widmann has been an artist in residence at the Lucerne and Salzburg festivals, as well as the Bamberger Symphoniker, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, BOZAR, and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. He has been a featured guest at Vienna’s Konzerthaus, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Kölner Philharmonie, and Leipzig’s Gewandhaus.

As a composer, Mr. Widmann’s works have been recognized with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s 2009 Elise L. Stoeger Prize, Paul Hindemith Prize, Arnold Schönberg Prize, and Berliner Philharmoniker’s Claudio Abbado Composition Prize. Daniel Barenboim, Daniel Harding, Valery Gergiev, Kent Nagano, Christian Thielemann, Mariss Jansons, Andris Nelsons, and Sir Simon Rattle program his compositions regularly. His works have been premiered by the Berliner Philharmoniker, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, and BBC Symphony Orchestra.

As a clarinetist, Mr. Widmann performs frequently with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, and Toronto Symphony Orchestra. In 2015, he gave the world premiere of Mark Andre’s über for Clarinet, Orchestra, and Live Electronics at the Donaueschinger Festival. Other clarinet concertos dedicated to and written for him include Wolfgang Rihm’s Musik für Klarinette und Orchester and Aribert Reimann’s Cantus.

Mr. Widmann studied composition with Kay Westermann, Wilfried Hiller, and Wolfgang Rihm. He studied clarinet with Gerd Starke in Munich and Charles Neidich at The Juilliard School in New York.

The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) is an artist collective transforming the way music is created and experienced. As performer, curator, and educator, the ensemble explores how new music intersects with communities around the world. The ensemble’s 36 members are featured as soloists, chamber musicians, commissioners, and collaborators with the foremost musical artists of our time. Works by emerging composers have anchored the ensemble’s programming since its founding in 2001, and the group’s recordings and digital platforms highlight the many voices that weave music’s present.

A recipient of the American Music Center’s Trailblazer Award and a Chamber Music America / ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, ICE was also named the 2014 Ensemble of the Year by Musical America. The group currently serves as artist-in-residence at the Mostly Mozart Festival, and previously led a five-year residency at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. ICE was featured at the Ojai Music Festival from 2015 to 2017, and at recent festivals abroad at Centre National de Création Musicale de Marseille and Vértice in Mexico City. Other performance stages have included the Park Avenue Armory, The Stone, Big Ears Festival, and Greenland’s Diskotek Sessions.

OpenICE offers free concerts and interactive, educational programming wherever the ensemble performs. As the ensemble-in-residence of the Nokia Bell Labs Experiments in Art and Technology, ICE advances music technology and digital communications as an empowering tool for artists from all backgrounds. Curricular activities include a residency and coursework at The New School College of Performing Arts, along with a summer intensive program—called Ensemble Evolution—where topics of equity, diversity, and inclusion build new bridges and pathways for the future of creative sound practices.