Biography

Steffen Wick is a German composer who feels at home in all genres. He combines classical and contemporary stylistic elements into a modern, poetic sound language.

Performances

Wick’s music has been performed at prestigious venues such as the Bregenz Festival, Musikverein Wien, Konzerthaus Berlin and Radialsystem. Performers include the State Philharmonic of Rhineland-Palatinate, Basel Sinfonietta, Philharmonic Orchestras of Cottbus, Freiburg and Giessen as well as the Eight Cellists of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.
His works are published by Ricordi, Music Sales, among others, and performed worldwide, including in China, South Korea, Canada, USA, Finland, France, Spain, and Ukraine. Albums have been released by Sony Classical and Universal Music.

Orchestration

Steffen Wick’s concert works cover a wide spectrum of genres. They include large compositions for symphony orchestra like Womb and Autobiography, as well as chamber music pieces like Kaleidoskop for string quartet, and exotic ensemble combinations like Transborder for Korean kayagums and European instruments.

Concert Projects

In 2008, the video concert Beyond Vision was performed by the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra with a video installation at ZKM Karlsruhe, phaeno Wolfsburg, Kunstverein Stuttgart and Museum für Kommunikation Frankfurt.
In the summer of 2009, the Soundtrack Symphony was spectacularly staged as an open-air concert with over 200 performers, fireworks and a light show on a floating stage in Heilbronn.
In 2013, Wick composed music for silent films by Georges Méliès for the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, performed by the Henschel Quartet and curated by Edgar Reitz.

Focus of Interest

Steffen Wick places special emphasis on interdisciplinary artistic collaborations for the visual and spatial realization of his music. As avant-pop artist PIANO PARTICLES, he combines vocals and piano with orchestral and electronic elements. In his music videos, he addresses themes of diversity, participation, solidarity, and respect as a director.
The stage installation of 300 paper particles for the live concerts of the albums White and Blue received the Red Dot Design Award. Choreographic interpretations of PIANO PARTICLES’ soundscapes were developed by Marco Goecke with the ballet ensemble of Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz Munich, Eric Gauthier with his company and Tarek Assam with Tanzcompagnie Gießen.

Music Theatre

In 2015, Wick’s music theater piece Musicophilia, based on Oliver Sacks’ book, was awarded the Music Theatre Now prize by the International Theatre Institute and performed in Munich, Berlin, New York, Montreal, Shanghai, Espoo and Lviv. In the same year, his music theater performance Particles, influenced by Physical Theatre and Cirque Nouveau and commissioned by Friedrichsbau Varieté Stuttgart, had over 50 performances.

Film

Steffen Wick composed the music for the documentary film Rheingold – Faces of a River featuring Ben Becker and for the 3D animated film Manou the Swift featuring Kate Winslet and Willem Dafoe. The latter was screened in over 25 countries and won the German Film Music Award in 2019.

Awards

In 2011, Steffen Wick won the composition competition at the Bregenz Festival. In 2013, he was honored by the German government as Cultural and Creative Pilot Germany. In 2014, he received a residency scholarship at the International House of Artists Villa Concordia, followed by a residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts Paris in 2015 and at the Künstlerhaus Salzwedel in 2017.
Wick has received grants to support his artistic work from the Musikfonds, the German Music Council, the Fonds Darstellende Künste and the Free State of Bavaria, among others.

Career

Steffen Wick studied composition with Caspar Johannes Walter as well as music theory, piano and new media at the Stuttgart University of Music and Performing Arts. He then deepened his composition studies with Moritz Eggert at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich and received further artistic inspiration through personal encounters with Steve Reich, Pascal Dusapin, Wolfgang Rihm and Detlev Glanert.