composer

Hannes Dufek (*1984) is a composer, improviser and organiser from Vienna, Austria. His work ranges from orchestral, chamber and solo works to music theatre in various forms and encompasses free improvisation as well as different visual representations of music. Interested mainly in the semantic functionality and mediality of music and its potential to yield communality and unknown social spaces, his focus lies on relationships between freedom and choice, variability and deliberation, material and semantic implication.Since his degree in 2012 at the university of music and performing arts Vienna (MDW) under the tutelage of Chaya Czernowin and Michael Obst, he works as a freelancer in various fields and develops his musical perspective. He also attended masterclasses with Gerd Kühr, Steven Kazuo Takasugi and Georg Friedrich Haas and received additional tutoring from Clemens Gadenstätter who was also his primary artistic supervisor for his doctoral degree at the KUG in Graz (further supervisors included Manos Tsangaris, Christa Brüstle and Annegret Huber).

He has received commissions for new works for UMS'n'JIP (CH), Ensemble Platypus (AT), NOISE-BRIDGE (DE), ExVoCo (DE), vierhalbiert (AT), Ensemble PLENUM (AT), reconsil (AT), Ensemble mise-en (US), JVLMA (LV), Jeunesse Musicale Autrichienne (AT), Carinthischer Sommer (AT), Festival Wien modern (AT), Staatstheater Oldenburg (DE), Münchner Volkstheater (DE) and makemake produktionen (AT) as well as various performers such as Franziska Fleischanderl, Kaoko Amano, Maja Mijatovic and Tomasz Skweres, among others.

Most notable recognitions for his work include START and state grants by the Austrian ministry of education and culture (BMUKK) and the federal chancellery of Austria (BKA), STELLA prizes for outstanding music (for MOMO or The Legend of Now, 2012) and outstanding production (for Atlas of Remote Islands, 2017), a honorary mention at the ISCM World Music Days 2014 and a first prize at the RuhrTriennale composition competition. He has been selected as composer in residence at the Shanghai Music Week 2013 and was part of the compilation „Young Austrian Composers“ by the MICA. As of 2020, he is part of the growing online publishing house Babelscores.

Hannes Dufek is co-founder of Ensemble Platypus, its long-time chairman and main organiser (2006-2019). The ensemble has since its beginning laid emphasis on working with young and emerging composers, presenting new and challenging works in various contexts and concert settings and its reputation as one of the most relevant musical bodies in the Austrian New Music scene is continuing to grow.

Current projects include new commissions for Duo hemma and the exciting formation vierhalbiert, the release of the debut album by the band KAFRA, among other things. In 2019 he completed his doctoral research at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (Dr. artium).

He is father to a son and lives in Vienna, Austria.

→ homepage of Hannes Dufek

→ all works by Hannes Dufek