Markus Schönewolf Composer of New Classical Music

Schönewolf’s ‘complex and extraordinarily imaginative music’ (pizzicato) is credited with ‘intellectual and emotional depth and virtuosic delight in playing’. Press, audiences and performers speak of an ‘almost magical experience’, of ‘making the impossible possible’, of the ‘beauty of unknown sound worlds’, ‘soul-filling music’, ‘music of a poetic quality, as though it were written for imaginary landscapes’.

Outstanding soloists, chamber music ensembles and orchestras perform Schönewolf’s music, which encompasses solo works – including for violin, flute, piano and organ – as well as chamber and orchestral music and concertos.

Alongside his chamber and orchestral music, Schönewolf is deeply devoted to vocal music. In addition to numerous choral works, his ‘Songs in Pictures’ for soprano and harp has been described by the press as ‘arguably the most significant cycle of harp songs’. He is currently at work on ‘Songs in the Slipping Away’, an extensive work for baritone and orchestra.

Schönewolf is a guest at numerous music festivals and works on commissions from Germany and abroad. His music has been used to introduce newly developed instruments to wider audiences, to open music festivals and to inaugurate concert venues. Speakers such as the polymath and Goethe scholar Manfred Osten have accompanied performances of Schönewolf’s works with extensive programme notes.

Markus Schönewolf studied composition, piano, music theory, school music and aural training, among other subjects, at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln. He completed his studies with distinction.

Teaching activity at the Conservatoires of Music in Cologne and Düsseldorf as well as the University of Siegen.Teaching at the Conservatoires of Music in Cologne and Düsseldorf as well as the University of Siegen.

A native of Cologne, he lives with his family in the Bergisches Land, not far from the city.