Thomas Hertel

Thomas Hertel (19519December 2024) was a German composer. He was head of incidental music at the Staatsschauspiel Dresden from 1974 to 1982. In 1985, he left East Germany. He focused on musical-scenic projects, for example at the Donaueschinger Musiktage and the Lucerne Festival. He taught in Hamburg, Bochum, Frankfurt and Munich. From 2002 to 2008 he was head of incidental music at the Schauspiel Leipzig.

Life and career Hertel was born in Bad Salzungen, Thuringia, in 1951. After his Abitur in the special branch for music in Wernigerode, Hertel studied musicology in Halle from 1969 to 1973. Afterwards he was a master student for composition at the Academy of Arts, Berlin, with Siegfried Matthus. He was banned from working on and realising cross-genre projects. the opening installation for the 1996 Lucerne Festival aus der erde durch den wind – a mobile open-air music for various wind, vocal and bell ensembles and the sound transport of natural sound samples, and in 1999 the cartoon opera Das Biest des Monsieur Racine after Tomi Ungerer commissioned by the Theater Basel. In 1991, he received the Art Prize of the City of Munich for experimental theatre.

Hertel died in Leipzig after a long illness, on 9 December 2024, at the age of 73. 1991: Kunstpreis der Landeshauptstadt München