Beat Furrer is one of the most significant composers of recent decades. His work is characterized by an extreme attention to sound and a refined musical gesturality, in which silence, fragility, and micro-articulation constitute essential elements, giving rise to a music in which rhythm and counterpoint acquire a singular quality that results in a unique expressive force.
He has been awarded major international distinctions such as the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize (2018), the Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale (2014), and the Großer Österreichischer Staatspreis (2006). He has also developed an extensive institutional activity as founder of Klangforum Wien and as professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz.
The impact of his music is largely measured through his work in chamber music, yet his output expands through orchestral writing to the prominence achieved with numerous operas, among them Begehren, FAMA, and Violetter Schnee, in which his unique treatment of voice and drama establishes Furrer as one of the composers with one of the most distinctive voices of our time.
