Thomas Blomenkamp

Since completing his studies in 1982, Thomas Blomenkamp has been working as a freelance composer and pianist. He lives near his birthplace, Dusseldorf. Born in 1955, after enjoying several chamber music successes in “Jugend musiziert” and graduating from secondary school with a certificate in classical subjects, he decided to study music: piano with Herbert Drechsel and the Rudolf Serkin pupil David Levine at the Robert Schumann Institut in Dusseldorf (final examination: graduate recital) and composition with Jürg Baur at the State Academy of Music in Cologne (degree: diploma).

He attended masterclasses in piano and chamber music with Ditta Pasztory-Bartók, Rudolf Buchbinder, Andor Foldes, Sandor Végh, Rainer Kussmaul, William Pleeth and the Amadeus Quartet, received the State of North Rhine-Westphalia advancement award for young artists and was a prize winner, for example, at the International Composition Competition in Budapest (whose jury was chaired by György Ligeti). In addition to spending time in London, Amsterdam and Vienna, he went on to receive scholarships from the charity Richard-Wagner-Verband Düsseldorf e.V. and the foundation “Stichting Culturele Uitwisseling Nederland Duitsland” and be awarded the music prizes of the City of Duisburg and the Bergische Biennale Wuppertal.

The 2001 premiere of his opera (based on Dostoevsky’s novel) “The Idiot”, commissioned to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Vereinigte Städtische Bühnen Krefeld/Mönchengladbach, brought him to public notice in Germany. Numerous commissions for orchestras (Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Duisburger Philharmoniker), ensembles (Cherubini-Quartett, Berliner Saxophon Quartett, Philharmonisches Oktett Berlin, RIVINIUS-KlavierQUARTETT) and choirs (Dommusik am Freiburger Münster, Rheinische Kantorei, ChorWerk Ruhr), as well as performances at international festivals and at important concert venues in Germany (Beethovenhaus Bonn, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Mercatorhalle Duisburg, “Glocke” in Bremen, Liederhalle Stuttgart, Gewandhaus Leipzig or Berliner Philharmonie), many other European countries, Japan and the USA, reflect the response to an oeuvre that today encompasses 90 works of all genres.

www.thomas-blomenkamp.de