Es ist mein Bestreben, der Musik neue Horizonte zu eröffnen, in welcher Funktion das auch sein mag.
René Staar
René Staar, born in Graz in 1951, studied violin, piano, composition and conducting in Stockholm, Vienna, Helsinki and Zurich. Formative for his artistic thinking were Nathan Milstein, Hans Swarovski and Roman Haubenstock-Ramati. Between 1988 and 2017 he was active in the orchestra of the Wiener Staatsoper and Wiener Philharmoniker. He worked as a teacher at the UCSB and the music universities in Graz and Vienna.
René Staar studied music theory with Prof. Walter Wasservogel in Stockholm, counterpoint, harmony and composition with Alfred Uhl and postgraduate with Roman Haubenstock-Ramati in Vienna. Above all, this influence developed his thinking and his entire work. The endeavor to develop unique methods of composition leads to own principles and positions.
His diverse work was partly determined by external events. His work as a soloist and chamber and orchestra musician leaves traces in his work. But also the different places of his work were important. His years as a freelance artist in Geneva (1981-86) he describes as the years in which he became a composer. His own teaching activities, which took him to California, Graz and Vienna, study periods in Japan and Switzerland, but of course the long years as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic and as artistic director of the Ensemble Wiener Collage, provided many important impulses for his work.
In many of his works, René Staars' multifaceted activities also appear as a tendency towards fragmentary elaboration. The composer himself describes this as "an attempt, interrupted again and again, to build the Babylonian Tower“.
Works for the Ensemble Wiener Collage:
2 Lieder nach Else Lasker-Schüler (1987–95)
für Gesang und Ensemble
Adagio im Gedenken an Nino Lo Bello (1997)
für Kammerensemble
Bagatellen auf den Namen György Ligeti op. 14 Nr. 3a (1989–96)
für Klavier
Cat-Musics I, II Op. 38 Nr. 1 und 2
für Kammerensemble
Der Tag nach dem Regen op. 22i (2006)
für Sprecher und Kammerensemble
Gemini op. 24 A1-A15 (1991-2000)
jeweils für Violine und verschiedene Instrumente
Heine-Fragmente (1997)
für Gesang und Ensemble
L´chayim In memoriam Leonard Bernstein (1991)
für Flöte, Violine und Klavier (vierhändig)
Jam-Session for Fritz (1996)
für Viola, Klarinette, Akkordeon, Klavier und Kontrabass
Minotaurus-Studie Op. 23a (1991)
für Solovioline
Monumentum pro Thomas Alva Edison erster bis fünfter Abguss Op. 34 Nr. 1 - 4 (1998-2018)
für verschiedene Besetzungen
Morgengabe op. 14 Nr. 9 (2002)
für Violoncello und Klavier
P.B. forever Op. 14 Nr. 10 (2009)
für Kammerensemble
Perspektiven paralleler und gegenläufiger Prozesse I-III (2007-2009)
für Bläser
Totenklage Op. 22p bis (2017)
für Sopran und Kammerensemble