German Composer Erhard Grosskopf has Died, Aged 91

Grosskopf’s works are known for their use of looping and harmonic overlapping

Born in 1934, Erhard Grosskopf studied church music and composition with Ernst Pepping and Boris Blacher in Berlin, alongside studies in medicine and mathematics. 

Between 1965 and 1970, he organized concerts with the Gruppe Neue Musik Berlin, and was a freelance composer from 1966. During this time, he was also co-editor of the Berliner Hefte magazine, and directed the “Insel Musik” concert series in Berlin. 

In his own compositions, he included serial, modal, and tonal techniques, and experimented with recorded looping patterns, which overlapped and generated harmonic constellations in a multi-layered time process. 

Published by Edition Peters since 2005, Grosskop f’s works have been performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and by many radio orchestras in Germany and Canada.

From 1982, he was regularly invited as a lecturer at the International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt. Grosskopf also taught for two years at the Berlin Conservatory, and in 1994, was made a member of the Academy of the Arts, Berlin.

Additionally, he was a longtime member of the Akademie der Künste cultural institution, where he served as Deputy Director of the Music Section in the early 2000s, and as its Director until 2012. 

“Erhard's music was always strikingly individual, following its own path, as did he,” the English composer Christopher Fox posted on Facebook. “He was always generous to his colleagues, his Insel Musik festival in West Berlin an outpost of new music before the wall came down. Thank you, Erhard, for your music and for all your kindnesses.”

Our condolences to Mr. Grosskopf’s family, friends, students, and colleagues.