Composer in Residence of 2026-2027 Season

Elmar LAMPSON




Renowned German composer, conductor, and music educator. Elmar LAMPSON is honorary president and senior professor of composition at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama, which he served as president from 2004 to 2022.
After studying composition with Alfred KOERPPEN at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, LAMPSON has built an impressive international career as a composer and conductor and as an initiator of cultural projects: setting up the Hamburg Orchestra Academy, working with composers such as Frank-Michael BEYER, Alfred SCHNITTKE, György LIGETI, Sofia GUBAIDULINA and Arvo PÄRT, guest conductor with various German and Eastern European orchestras. There were also teaching activities and lecture tours. He was a co-founder of the “Music Seminar Hamburg” (today the “Alfred Schnittke Academy).
In 1997, he was appointed Professor of Ensemble Conducting - New Music at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama. In 1998, he moved to the University of Witten/Herdecke as Professor of Phenomenology of Music, where he was also Dean of the Faculty of Fundamental Studies until 2004, the year he took office as President of the Hamburg University of Music and Drama.
His oeuvre as a composer includes chamber music, solo and ensemble works, a violin concerto, orchestral works - including three symphonies - as well as choral music, theater music and two operas. His music has been released on four CDs by the Viennese label col legno and there have been performances, radio and television broadcasts of his works in many European countries as well as in China, Japan, USA, Canada, Israel, Russia, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. His works are published by Peermusic Classical Europe.
Famous conductors, orchestras, ensembles and soloists commissioned and performed his works, among others: Sylvian CAMBRELING, Yoel GAMZOU, Kent NAGANO, Simone YOUNG, LIN Daye, Justus FRANTZ, TANG Muhai, CHEN Zuohuang, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, Symphoniker Hamburg, Niederrheinische Sinfoniker, Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland Pfalz, Philharmony of the Nations, International Mahler Orchestra, Staatsorchester Kassel, Ensemble Resonanz, Quatuor Danel, New Helsinki Quartet, Minguet-Quartet, Zemlinsky-Quartet, Trio di Clarone and Asya Fateyeva.
Since 2012, Elmar LAMPSON is a member of the “Freie Akademie der Künste in Hamburg”.
In 2011, he was awarded with the Dr. Günther Buch-Preis für Kulturwissenschaftemn for his achievements as the president of the HfMT. In 2016 the Shanghai Conservatory of Music awarded him with an honorary professorship of composition. In 2023 he received the Gustaf Gründgens Award in Hamburg and in 2024 the Hsiao You-Mei Award of Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He gave master classes at the Conservatories in Moscow, Beijing, Shanghai, Nagoya and Jerusalem.
Currently, Elmar LAMPSON is Composer in Residence at the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra.