Guide to Genre-Breaking Music with German Composer Sven Helbig
Sven Helbig.
German composer Sven Helbig is part of a new generation of composers for whom there are no longer any barriers between the classical world of the orchestra, experimental art, and pop music. He composes choral, orchestral, and chamber music for the classical concert stage and tours solo performing electronic music.
He is 'Composer in Residence' at the German National Theatre in Weimar, at the University of Leipzig and the National University San Martin in Buenos Aires. Sven is also a co-founder of the Dresden Symphony Orchestra, the first European orchestra devoted solely to the performance of contemporary music.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Sven on the Classical Post podcast. Most notably, he details his childhood in the East German city of Eisenhüttenstadt and how those formative years created a non-compartmentalized philosophy toward music.
People in classical music often silo themselves off from the rest of the world, unfortunately. But Sven, having had this unique background in a pre-planned East German city — growing up in the 70s and 80s — saw music as one.
Now as he reflects on his career having recorded for Deutsche Grammophon — one of the top shelf labels in classical music — and collaborating with the likes of Snoop Dog, his philosophical approach is really fresh and exciting for anyone who’s into art in the broadest sense of the word.
Be sure to check out his new album Skills on the Modern Recordings label. The work is a dissection of what it really takes to acquire a skill—from dedication, to repetition, despair to transfiguration.
For those of you who love truly aesthetic-driven short films, Sven’s music comes alive in a series of artful videos on YouTube. Watch this one in particular that he references in this podcast.
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