Memorial concert Konrad Boehmer

Ten years ago, the German composer and musicologist Konrad Boehmer passed away. To commemorate his life, the New European Ensemble has compiled a programme featuring seldom-heard instrumental compositions by Boehmer and the composers he admired: Willem Breuker, Luigi Nono and Edgard Varèse. Prior to the concert, Italian musicologist Veniero Rizzardi will give a lecture on the ongoing dialogue between Nono and Boehmer.

In 1966, Konrad Boehmer (1941 - 2014) moved to the Netherlands. The Dutch avant-garde welcomed him with open arms. He taught at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague and was head of the Institute for Sonology from 1994 to 2006. In his legendary radio programme Muziekspiegel, Boehmer, as a music critic, often rightly, sometimes wrongly, attacked many of his colleagues, both those in the Netherlands and those abroad. Because of the conflicts that arose, his role as a composer has faded into the background. The Konrad Boehmer Foundation is marking the tenth anniversary of Boehmer’s death with a memorial concert featuring pieces by Boehmer that have seldom been performed in the Netherlands.