Jens Joneleit
"Music you can see and touch."
Eruptive, unconventional and powerful - these are the prominent traits of the music with which composer Jens Joneleit has made a name for himself on both sides of the Atlantic. Independent of any particular aesthetic school, Joneleit ingeniously experiments with timbre, texture and space. His work is an eclectic mix - alongside his orchestral, chamber music and vocal works, he has written several compositions for music-theatre, film or radio plays. According to setting and interpreter, he succeeds in lending every commissioned work a distinctive idea and language.
Born in 1968 in Offenbach, Jens Joneleit left Germany after graduating from high school to study fine arts and composition in the USA, from 1991 with the Bartók student Lewis Hamvas (Yankton/South Dakota) and with Robert Marek (Vermillion/South Dakota), and from 1994 in Joel Naumann's master class (University of Wisconsin, Madison), who had been a student of Stefan Wolpe. Since graduating with Master of Fine Arts in 1997, Jens Joneleit has been working as a freelance composer. Today he lives in Berlin.
Following a first and widely celebrated portrait-CD recorded by the ensemble >gelberklang<, Joneleit was commissioned to write works for orchestras and ensembles, including Gestalt im Fluss, (2004, Radio Symphony Orchestra Frankfurt) and ...von anderen Räumen - Angst - leeres Schimmern (2006, Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart). At the Munich Biennale 2008, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra premiered his orchestral work Feld.
Ensemble Modern has become one of the most important interpreters of Jens Joneleit's music. At the opening concert of the Dresdner Tage der zeitgenössischen Musik 2005 they gave the world premiere of the five-part cycle Le tout, le rien. In 2006, Joneleit composed Verve, a radio play for ensemble and multi-channel tape, which was commissioned by Ensemble Modern. The collaboration will be continued with a new orchestral work to be premiered by Ensemble Modern Orchestra under Pierre Boulez in November 2010 in Berlin.
The composer also entrusted this leading new music ensemble with his first music-theatre work Der Brand. Proscaenium emblematicum, which was premiered in 2007 at the ECLAT-Festival for New Music in Stuttgart. Subsequently in 2008, Piero - Ende der Nacht was premiered in Munich as a co-production of the Munich Biennale and the Frankfurt Opera. A co-production of the Jeugdtheater Sonnevanck Enschede and the Nationaltheater Mannheim, the children's opera Sneewitte,was successfully premiered in autumn 2008. During the current season, it will be performed at the State Theatre in Oldenburg.
Jens Joneleit was awarded the Ernst von Siemens composers' award in 2006. At the award ceremony, the Berlin Staatskapelle premiered his orchestral work Elan, conducted by Daniel Barenboim. In 2010, a new work commissioned by the orchestra, Yesh Mee'Aahin, will also be premiered under the baton of Daniel Barenboim, in addition to a new opera, with which the Staatsoper Unter den Linden will open the next season at its temporary venue, the Schillertheater.
Eruptive, unconventional and powerful - these are the prominent traits of the music with which composer Jens Joneleit has made a name for himself on both sides of the Atlantic. Independent of any particular aesthetic school, Joneleit ingeniously experiments with timbre, texture and space. His work is an eclectic mix - alongside his orchestral, chamber music and vocal works, he has written several compositions for music-theatre, film or radio plays. According to setting and interpreter, he succeeds in lending every commissioned work a distinctive idea and language.
Born in 1968 in Offenbach, Jens Joneleit left Germany after graduating from high school to study fine arts and composition in the USA, from 1991 with the Bartók student Lewis Hamvas (Yankton/South Dakota) and with Robert Marek (Vermillion/South Dakota), and from 1994 in Joel Naumann's master class (University of Wisconsin, Madison), who had been a student of Stefan Wolpe. Since graduating with Master of Fine Arts in 1997, Jens Joneleit has been working as a freelance composer. Today he lives in Berlin.
Following a first and widely celebrated portrait-CD recorded by the ensemble >gelberklang<, Joneleit was commissioned to write works for orchestras and ensembles, including Gestalt im Fluss, (2004, Radio Symphony Orchestra Frankfurt) and ...von anderen Räumen - Angst - leeres Schimmern (2006, Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart). At the Munich Biennale 2008, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra premiered his orchestral work Feld.
Ensemble Modern has become one of the most important interpreters of Jens Joneleit's music. At the opening concert of the Dresdner Tage der zeitgenössischen Musik 2005 they gave the world premiere of the five-part cycle Le tout, le rien. In 2006, Joneleit composed Verve, a radio play for ensemble and multi-channel tape, which was commissioned by Ensemble Modern. The collaboration will be continued with a new orchestral work to be premiered by Ensemble Modern Orchestra under Pierre Boulez in November 2010 in Berlin.
The composer also entrusted this leading new music ensemble with his first music-theatre work Der Brand. Proscaenium emblematicum, which was premiered in 2007 at the ECLAT-Festival for New Music in Stuttgart. Subsequently in 2008, Piero - Ende der Nacht was premiered in Munich as a co-production of the Munich Biennale and the Frankfurt Opera. A co-production of the Jeugdtheater Sonnevanck Enschede and the Nationaltheater Mannheim, the children's opera Sneewitte,was successfully premiered in autumn 2008. During the current season, it will be performed at the State Theatre in Oldenburg.
Jens Joneleit was awarded the Ernst von Siemens composers' award in 2006. At the award ceremony, the Berlin Staatskapelle premiered his orchestral work Elan, conducted by Daniel Barenboim. In 2010, a new work commissioned by the orchestra, Yesh Mee'Aahin, will also be premiered under the baton of Daniel Barenboim, in addition to a new opera, with which the Staatsoper Unter den Linden will open the next season at its temporary venue, the Schillertheater.
