Born 1956 in Frankfurt/ Main, Detlef Heusinger studied composition, conducting, music theory and German studies and Philosophy, as well as Guitar, Lute and Piano at the Musikhochschules in Bremen, Cologne and Freiburg and at the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg. His most influential professors include Hans Werner Henze, Klaus Huber and Luciano Ortis (composition), Mesias Maiguashca (electronic music), Francis Travis (conducting) and Hubert Käppel (guitar).
He has received numerous prizes and stipends for his compositional work, including the Rome Award of the “Villa Massimo”, and stipends from the “Cité des Artes” (Paris), the Heinrich-Strobel-Stiftung of the SWF (SWR) and the Baldreit-Stipend of the City of Baden-Baden.
Central to his work are his pieces for the stage such as Der Turm (premiered 1989 at the Bremen Theatre), Babylon (premiered 1997 in Schwetzingen) and Schwarz Rot Gold (premiered 1998 in Frankfurt/Main), and the dance/ theatre pieces Totem + Tabu (premiered 1992 in Hannover) and Volx Muzak (premiered 1993 in Schauspielhaus Bochum) as well as being active in the realm of live electronics since 1983, when he began his discourse with Luigi Nono, Hans Peter Haller and the other associates of the Experimentalstudio. In 1993 he created – acting as producer and director – his first music film, the Video-Opera, Pandora I&II, commissioned by Radio Bremen, which was followed by Sintflut in 2001, commissioned by SWR and the SF DRS.
He has participated as a commissioned composer and conductor in festivals such as the Darmstadt New Music Days, the Styrian Autumn Festival (Graz), the Presteigne Festival (GB), Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music, the Festival Antidogma Musica-Torino, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Dresdner Tage der zeitgenössischen Musik, the Romaeuropa Festival, the Berlin Festival Weeks, the Schwetzingen Festival, the Warsaw Autumn and the Donaueschingen Music Festival.
Among interpreters of Heusingers music are such renowned names as the Arditti Quartet, the Auryn Quartet, the Ensemble Modern, ensemble recherche, Ensemble SurPlus, Yun Märkl conducting the SDR Orchestra, Lothar Zagrosek with the SWR Orchestra and Sian Edwards with the HR Orchestra.
In addition to his work as a composer, Detlef Heusinger taught from 1990-1996 at the Hochschule der Künste in Bremen and led a conducting course at the Mürztaler Musikwerkstatt.
Detlef Heusinger has been active since 1991 as a director of opera and dance in Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Austria and Switzerland, and was the artistic director of the Rossini-Festival in Rügen from 1993-1995. He has staged, among others, Handel's Orlando, Rossini's La Cenerentola and Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Donizetti's Don Pasquale and L'Elisir d'Amore, Saint-Saën's Samson und Dalila, Offenbach's Les Brigands, Britten's The Prodigal Son as well as his own worksTotem + Tabu, Volx Muzak and Schwarz Rot Gold.
Articles concerning the work of Detlef Heusinger that have been published include “Sintflut 2001” (NOMOS-Verlag, Baden-Baden 2002) and “MATERIAL Zum Werk von 1978 bis 1998” (Dt. Akademie - Villa Massimo, Rome 1999), as well as television portraits presented in ARTE.
Detlef Heusinger has been the artistic director of the EXPERIMENTALSTUDIO since October 2006.
Web: http://www.swr.de (2011)