Stefan Beyer is a composer of experimental contemporary music from Germany. A winner of the 2017 Toru Takemitsu Award in Japan, Stefan Beyer was recognized by juror Heinz Holliger, who highlighted “his capability of mixing the timbres, and of expressing things that go beyond normal music-making … even in the negation of all the brilliance, of nice mixtures of sound.” Holliger noted that he selected Beyer’s composition because it stood “completely opposite to all the other 114 scores … a very sinister work, very dark music.”

Born in Braunschweig, Beyer studied music in Leipzig and Gothenburg, Sweden. He has lived and worked in Berlin since 2011. Numerous artistic residencies in Germany and abroad have significantly shaped his career, such as at the Villa Aurora in Los Angeles and the Cité internationale des arts in Paris. He also worked at the Künstlerdorf Schöppingen near Münster, the Künstlerhof Schreyahn in the Wendland region, Schloss Wiepersdorf in Brandenburg, and the villa of art dealer Johannes Wasmuth in Rolandseck on the Rhine. The Else Heiliger Fonds and the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes have supported his work through various stipends.

The Tokyo Philharmonic and Ensemble Modern are among the international ensembles that perform his music, which is also broadcast on radio and available on recordings.

Close collaborations with soloists inform Beyer’s compositional approach, resulting in distinctive works such as Sund (for harp, with Miriam Overlach), Hagelfeier (for bassoon, with James Aylward), Most of My Clients Come Back (for electric guitar, with Nico Couck), Schabefleisch (for guitar, with Martin Steuber), and notoriously pyratish (for accordion, with Luka Juhart). The works for chamber music, ensemble, and orchestra feature a refined experimental and research-based sound language. He demonstrates a particular affinity with brass instruments in works like Flur (for brass quintet, with Ensemble Apparat) and Strandung (for trumpet, with Simon Höfele). Breitkopf & Härtel and Bärenreiter have selected passages from his scores for their standard reference literature as examples of modern instrumental techniques.

His large instrumental and vocal ensemble compositions have been featured in the Great Hall of the Kulturpalast Dresden (performed by ensemble auditivvokal) and in the Konzerthaus Berlin (with Ensemble Unitedberlin). Heinz Holliger presented him with the Toru Takemitsu Award at the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall in 2017. In 2026, Andreas Spering will conduct the Brandenburger Symphoniker in the premiere of Beyer’s new orchestral work.

Beyer studied composition with Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf as well as Gesine Schröder and Anders Hultqvist. His composition style developed through exchanges with Steven Kazuo Takasugi and Chaya Czernowin at Summer Academy Schloss Solitude and through his participation in the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music.

As founding member and chairman of the forma Leipzig cultural association for new music and contemporary literature, he has spearheaded world premieres by composers such as Steven Kazuo Takasugi and Michelle Lou collaborating with guests including ensemble mosaik, Enno Poppe, and Séverine Ballon. In 2025, he will dedicate a portrait festival to the German-Chilean composer Juan Allende-Blin (b. 1928) in Leipzig. Beyer actively curates and organizes concerts in both contemporary and classical music, with concert projects at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, and the Theater im Delphi in Berlin.

Beyer contributes regularly to the journal Musik & Ästhetik (Klett-Cotta), serves as a juror for music for the artistic residency scholarships of the Künstlerdorf Schöppingen Foundation, and will act as an elected GEMA delegate in 2025-2027.

Artistic Residencies

• 2023 Künstlerdorf Schöppingen DE (6 months)
• 2022 Künstlerhof Schreyahn DE (6 months)
• 2018 SWR EXPERIMENTALSTUDIO Freiburg DE
• 2018 Villa Aurora Los Angeles US (3 months)
• 2017 Villa Wasmuth Rolandswerth with Beethoven-Haus Bonn DE
• 2016 Künstlerhaus Schloss Wiepersdorf DE (4 months)
• 2015-16 Cité des Arts Paris FR (6 months)

Scholarships & Grants

• 2024 Else Heiliger Fonds EHF Konrad Adenauer Foundation DE – Travel Grant
• 2024 Kunstpunkt Stiftung Herpel DE – Project Grant
• 2023 GEMA Foundation DE – Project Grant
• 2023 inm Berlin DE – Project Grant
• 2022 inm Berlin DE – Project Grant
• 2021 Else Heiliger Fonds EHF Konrad Adenauer Foundation DE – Project Grant
• 2020 Musikfonds Neustart Kultur DE – Composition Grant
• 2020 Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation DE – Composition Commission
• 2020 Berlin Senate DE – Work Grant (Arbeitsstipendium)
• 2019 inm Berlin DE – Composition Commission
• 2018 Berlin Senate DE – Work Grant
• 2014 Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation DE – Composition Commission
• 2012 Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen DE – Work Grant
• 2010-11 German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung d. dt. Volkes)
• 2010 Else Heiliger Fonds EHF Konrad Adenauer Foundation DE – Work Grant

Awards

• 2024 8. Brandenburger Biennale DE
  • New Work for Symphony Orchestra, premiere 25/26 season
  • Brandenburger Symphoniker, conductor: Andreas Spering
• 2017 Toru Takemitsu Award Tokio JP
  • for: Ich habe nie Menschenfleisch gegessen
  • with: Tokyo Philharmonic, conductor Kahchun Wong
  • Juror: Heinz Holliger
• 2017 Deutscher Musikwettbewerb DE (German Music Competition) – Finalist
  • for: Strandung
  • with: Simon Höfele, trumpet
  • Jury: Rebecca Saunders, Johannes Maria Staud, Frank Kämpfer
• 2012 Darmstädter Ferienkurse für Neue Musik DE – Call for Scores boost!
  • for: papier zirkelst blei
  • with: MAM. Manufaktur für Aktuelle Musik, conductor Susanne Blumenthal
• 2010 Franz Liszt Prize of Weimar Music University DE
• 2010 International Wind Orchestra Composition Contest Harelbeke BE
  • for: Göta
  • Head of jury: Lucas Vis
• 2006 International Orchestra Composition Competition Murcia ES
  • for: über Leichen gehen
  • Head of the jury: Fabián Panisello
• 2006 Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra SE – Call for Scores Orchestra!
  • for: über Leichen gehen
  • Head of jury: Luca Francesconi
• 2004 International Composition Competition DKV Leipzig DE
  • for: Bläserquintett Nr. 1

Educations & Further Activities

• 2011 Concert Examination Konzertexamen
  • Composition Komposition
    • Music University of Leipzig DE Hochschule für Musik und Theater
• 2008 First State Examination Erstes Staatsexamen
  • History Geschichte & Music Musik
    • University of Leipzig DE
    • Music University of Leipzig DE Hochschule für Musik und Theater
• 2010- forma Leipzig e.V. Cultural Foundation
  • New Music and Contemporary Literature
    • Founding member and director