Frank Michael Beyer

Beyer was born in Berlin, the son of the author and art historian Oskar Beyer and his wife Margarete, née Löwenfeld. He spent his childhood in Dresden and on Crete, as well as in Athens and Liechtenstein and received his early training in music from his father.[1]  From 1946 to 1949 he studied composition and church music at the Kirchenmusikschule Berlin, before going on to study the piano in Leipzig from 1950 to 1953.

Beyer pursued his composition studies in Berlin under Ernst Pepping and 'virtuoso organ playing' under Joseph Ahrens at the Hochschule for Musik Berlin (now the Berlin University of the Arts). Johann Sebastian Bach and the Second Viennese School, especially Anton Webern, numbered among the composers who had the greatest influence on Beyer’s musical development. A strong focus on music in the family home also played a key role. He became acquainted with Bach’s music during his childhood while his father published a book on Bach which appeared in the Berlin Furche-Verlag in the 1920s.

From 1950 to 1963, Beyer worked as a church musician, both as performing organist and a conductor. He taught at the Kirchenmusikschule Berlin and subsequently at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin (Berlin University of the Arts). In 1964, he established the Musica nova sacra series and was a leading member of the Berliner Bach-Tage festival from 1970 to 1985. From 1986 to 2003, he was director of the music department at the Berlin University of the Arts. He founded the Institute for New Music in 1990 at the Berlin University of the Arts and the Berliner Orchesterkonferenz, which he also led.[2]  From 1986 to 2006, he was a member of the senate at the Berlin University of the Arts. Beyer was also on the supervisory board of the German collecting society for music rights GEMA.

He died in Berlin.

• 1958 Kunstpreis der Stadt Berlin for die Junge Generation (Berlin Art Prize for the Young Generation)
• 1961 Bernhard Sprengel prize for chamber music
• 1963 Villa Massimo fellowship (Rome); Villa Romana fellowship (Florence)
• 1968 fellowship from the Cité des Arts Paris
• Member of the Berlin Academy of the Arts from 1979
• Member of the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste (Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts) from 1981
• 1997 guest of honour of the Villa Massimo (Rome)

• Nikolaus Brass (1949)
• Orm Finnendahl (1963)
• Detlev Glanert (1960)
• Konstantia Gourzi (1962)
• Hanspeter Kyburz (1960)
• Marc Lingk (1964)
• Gerhardt Müller-Goldboom (1953)
• Isabel Mundry (1963)
• Thomas Schmidt-Kowalski (1949)
• Charlotte Seither (1965)
• Preethi de Silva (1942)
• Art-Oliver Simon (1966)
• André Werner (1960)

• Werner Grünzweig & Daniela Reinhold (ed.): "Frank Michael Beyer". Archive zur Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts. Vol.2. Wolke Verlag, 1998, ISBN 3-923997-82-5.
• Andreas Richter: "Der Komponist und Vorsitzende der Berliner Orchesterkonferenz Frank Michael Beyer im Gespräch", in Das Orchester 01/1995.
• Alain Pâris: Klassische Musik im 20. Jahrhundert. Instrumentalisten, Sänger, Dirigenten, Orchester, Chöre. transl. by Rudolf Kimmig, rev. by Ralf Noltensmeier. With an introduction by Peter Gülke, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 2nd edition 1997, ISBN 3-423-32501-1.

• Audio samples from compositions by Frank Michael Beyer from Boosey and Hawkes
• View scores of selected works by Frank Michael Beyer online
• Profile of Frank Michael Beyer at the Academy of the Arts (German)
• Akademie der Künste – music archive: Frank Michael Beyer | musical facsimiles & prints
• Obituary on Deutschlandradio Kultur, 22 April 2008
• "Kannst du mich komponieren?" Interview with Frank Michael Beyer by Klaus Georg Koch, Berliner Zeitung 16 June 1999