updated 31 January 2022
© Martin Becker

Johannes Boris Borowski

German composer born in 1979 in Hof, Germany.

Johannes Boris Borowski studied composition with Hanspeter Kyburz in Berlin and Marco Stroppa in Paris before studying music theory with Jörg Mainka in Berlin. He was awarded the Hanns Eisler Prize for Composition in 2003 and the Stuttgart Composition Prize in 2005. In 2006, he was invited to participate in the Twenty-First Century Young Composers Project in New York. He also participated in the Third International Ensemble and Composers Academy for Contemporary Music in Graz, Austria, with Beat Furrer in 2012.

Borowski has been artist-in-residence at various institutions. In 2007, he served at the Cité internationale des arts de Paris before going to the Schloss Wiepersdorf in 2011, where he received the Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne award for young composers. In 2015, a Baldreit grant allowed him to go to the Brahms House in Baden-Baden. In 2016, he received a residency through the Salzwedelstipendium.

Borowski taught theory, analysis, and ear training at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin from 2007 to 2014. Since 2018, he has taught orchestration at the same institution.

The institutions and musicians with whom Borowski has collaborated include Ensemble Modern, the Ensemble intercontemporain, International Contemporary Ensemble, the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Boulez, Susanna Mälkki, Péter Eötvös, George Benjamin, and Daniel Barenboim.

Borowski is an admirer of Boulez, whom he worked with during his residency in Baden-Baden. Boulez commissioned and conducted Borowski’s orchestral piece change (2007-2008), while Borowski composed Wandlung (2009) in honor of Boulez’s eighty-fifth birthday. In his work, Borowski is particularly interested in the relationship between music and dramaturgy — in his words, “the manner in which music is made to speak.” He explores this relationship in his concertos for piano (2010-2011, 2016) and bassoon (2012-2013). In these pieces, critic Bernd Künzig sees two dramas devoid of action or speech. Borowski echoes the fraught social rapport between autonomy and heteronomy through a reassessment of the relationship between the soloist and the ensemble. He illustrates otherness both in his orchestration and in the type of listening experience he gives the audience. The sidestep he takes in structuring the piece purposefully destabilizes the listeners, pushing them to try to make sense of the piece and to question the writing process by trying to get into the mind of the composer. Borowski pursues this confrontation of individual experiences to enrich a sense of collective experience.

In 2021, he created his first stage piece Stories.Ikarus.

His works are published by Boosey & Hawkes.

Sources

Site du compositeur, Wergo, Ensemble Intercontemporain.

  • Solo (excluding voice)
    • Miniaturen for piano (2015-2016), 20 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Up and down for violin (2018), 10 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Lied for accordion (2020), 8 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
  • Chamber music
    • Wandlung for six instruments (2009), 14 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Variation for piano four hands (2010), 3 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Klaviertrio (2013), 15 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Streichquartett Nr.1 (2015-2016), 13 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • As if for clarinet, cello and piano (2017), 15 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Streichquartett Nr.2 (2017), 11 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Démystification for two percussionists (2019), 7 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Disparue for sextet (2019), 10 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Pas de deux for saxophone and piano (2020), Boosey & Hawkes
    • Sphinxes for five instrumentalists (2020), 8 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Twin for violin and piano (2020), Boosey & Hawkes
  • Instrumental ensemble music
    • Drähte for ensemble (2003-2004), 17 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • change for orchestra (2007-2008), 18 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Mappe for ensemble (2008-2010, 2017), 22 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Chergui for seven instruments (2012), 22 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Dex for ensemble (2015), 11 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Sérac for orchestra (2014-2015), 25 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Encore for ensemble (2016), 18 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Stretta for piano and orchestra (2016), 18 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Weinen, Klagen... for chamber orchestra (2018), 15 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Allein for ensemble (2019), 13 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Eternity for orchestra (2018-2019), 15 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Innig for ensemble (2021), 15 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
  • Concertant music
  • Vocal music and instrument(s)
    • Fog for six singers, two pianos and string quartet (2013-2014), 33 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Nobody for soprano, clarinet and piano (2017), 16 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • elec Setup 1: Passion for singer, saxophone, percussion, piano, double bass and video (2018), 12 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Ach for soprano and ensemble (2019), 15 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • elec stage Stories.Ikarus musical theater for two singers, two actors, ensemble and tape (2019-2021), 1 h 15 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
  • 2021
    • Innig for ensemble, 15 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • elec stage Stories.Ikarus musical theater for two singers, two actors, ensemble and tape, 1 h 15 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
  • 2020
    • Lied for accordion, 8 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Pas de deux for saxophone and piano, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Sphinxes for five instrumentalists, 8 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Twin for violin and piano, Boosey & Hawkes
  • 2019
    • Ach for soprano and ensemble, 15 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Allein for ensemble, 13 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Disparue for sextet, 10 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Démystification for two percussionists, 7 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Eternity for orchestra, 15 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
  • 2018
    • elec Setup 1: Passion for singer, saxophone, percussion, piano, double bass and video, 12 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Up and down for violin, 10 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Weinen, Klagen... for chamber orchestra, 15 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
  • 2017
    • As if for clarinet, cello and piano, 15 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Nobody for soprano, clarinet and piano, 16 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Streichquartett Nr.2, 11 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
  • 2016
  • 2015
    • Dex for ensemble, 11 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Sérac for orchestra, 25 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
  • 2014
    • Fog for six singers, two pianos and string quartet, 33 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
  • 2013
  • 2012
    • Chergui for seven instruments, 22 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
  • 2011
  • 2010
    • Mappe for ensemble, 22 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
    • Variation for piano four hands, 3 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
  • 2009
    • Wandlung for six instruments, 14 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
  • 2008
    • change for orchestra, 18 mn, Boosey & Hawkes
  • 2004
    • Drähte for ensemble, 17 mn, Boosey & Hawkes

Liens Internet

(liens vérifiés en janvier 2022).

Discographie

  • Johannes Boris BOROWSKI, As if, dans « Trio Catch: As if », 1 CD bastille musique, 2019, BM09.
  • Johannes Boris BOROWSKI, Fagottkonzert ; Wandlung ; Klavierkonzert ; Chergui, dans « Borowski: Fagottkonzert », 1 CD Wergo, 2016, WER 64122.
  • Johannes Boris BOROWSKI, Piano Trio, Maiko Matsuoka : violon, Christophe Mathias : violoncelle, Anne de Fornel : piano, dans « Nuit transfigurée », 1 CD Hortus, 2016, HORTUS 130.
  • Johannes Boris BOROWSKI, Sérac, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, Peter Eötvös : direction, dans « Donaueschinger Musiktage 2015 », 2 CD Neos, 2016, NEOS 11611-12.
  • Johannes Boris BOROWSKI, « Fagottkonzert / Wandlung / Klavierkonzrt / Chergui », 2 CD Wergo, 2014, WER 6412 2.
  • Johannes Boris BOROWSKI, Piano Trio ; Dex dans « Borowski, Holz, Keller: Klangrede », 1 CD bastille musique, BM04.
  • Johannes Boris BOROWSKI, change, dans « Das Erbe der Moderne weitergeben. Pierre Boulez dirigiert das Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra. Eine Phono-Monographie », livre et CD Kronos Verlag, 2009.