Volker David Kirchner

Volker David Kirchner (25 June 1942 – 4 February 2020) Die Trauung (The Wedding, 1974) after Witold Gombrowicz, premiered 27 April 1975, Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden Die fünf Minuten des Isaak Babel, Szenisches Requiem in zwölf Bildern (1977–79), premiered 19 April 1980 at the Opernhaus Wuppertal Das kalte Herz / Ein deutsches Märchen after Wilhelm Hauff (1980), premiered 1981 in Wiesbaden, revised in 1987 for a performance on 27 October 1988 at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz Belshazar (1986); commissioned by the Bayerische Staatsoper, premiered on 25 January 1985 Erinys, Threnos in two parts after the Oresteia by Aeschylos (1986–89), premiered on 15 April 1990 in Wuppertal Inferno d'amore (Shakespearion I) after Shakespeare and Michelangelo (1992), staged premiere on 12 March 1995, Ballhof by Niedersächsisches Staatstheater Labyrinthos (Shakespearion II) (1994/95), premiered 17 October 1997 in Mainz for the opening of the Kleines Haus of the Staatstheater Mainz Gilgamesh (2002), commissioned by the Niedersächsische Staatsoper on the occasion of the EXPO 2000, premiered on 20 May 2000 Ahasver, scenic oratorio (1998–2000), commissioned by the Theater Bielefeld, premiered in 2001 Savonarola, premiered in 2011 at the Opernhaus Kiel

A recording of his quartet Exil for clarinet, violin, cello and piano, composed in 1995, was combined on a 2015 recording Beyond Time with Fabian Müller's Am Anfang for soprano and ensemble, and Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps.

In 2016, a recording of vocal chamber music was released entitled Media vita in morte sumus (In the midst of life we are in death) – vocal chamber music by Volker David Kirchner, containing three song collections, Obsidian-Gesänge on poems by Dana Obsidian for voice, horn, violin, cello and piano (2013), Es ist ein Weinen in der Welt, setting poems by Else Lasker-Schüler, for voice and piano (2011–2013), and Media vita in morte sumus on poems by Erich Michelsberg for soprano, clarinet, horn, piano and string trio (2006–2007).

Awards Kirchner received a prize from Rhineland-Palatinate for young composers in 1974, for his first opera Die Trauung. In 1977, he was awarded the Kunstpreis Rheinland-Pfalz and in 1992 the Gutenberg Plaque of Mainz.