Iris ter Schiphorst

Iris ter Schiphorst was born in Hamburg into a middle-class family, her father a Dutch technician and her mother a German pianist. She describes music as her "second mother tongue" ("zweite Muttersprache").[2] She began taking piano lessons, initially from her mother, after her early hopes of becoming a dancer were thwarted by injury.

She continued her piano studies at the Bremen Musikhochschule from 1973 to 1978, and embarked on a busy schedule of concert performances. She then spent two years (1978–1980) travelling in Europe and Africa, an experience that transformed her social and musical outlook. On returning to Germany she began playing in rock bands, including Bremen's all-female Seven Kick the Can. She remained active in rock music from 1980 to 1986, as keyboardist, bassist, drummer, and sound engineer.

ter Schiphorst moved to Berlin in 1984 and from 1986 studied humanities (theatre studies, cultural studies, and philosophy) at the Freie Universität Berlin, later transferring to Humboldt-Universität. She also attended seminars with composers Dieter Schnebel and Luigi Nono and musicologist Helga de la Motte-Haber, but is otherwise self-taught in composition.

Ter Schiphorst's experience as a practising musician has been an important influence on her approach to composition. Her music is also informed by her abiding interest in dance.[3]

She began experimenting with classical composition in the 1980s while still playing in rock bands. Early works include Terrible (1982) and Postludium aus Vergessenem (1985).

Later in the decade she co-founded the zeit-Musik collective of composers and musicologists, and concentrated on music exploring the relationship between text and sound. Works from this period include the radio pieces Inside-outside II (1989) and Und was, wenn die Schlange ein Schwein gewesen wäre? (1989).

Her interest in electronic music and sampling techniques led her to form the electro-acoustic ensemble Intrors in 1990, with whom she won the Blaue Brücke composition competition in 1997 for Silence Moves (1997; with Helmut Oehring) and made two recordings, Liebesgeschwüre im Schneckenhaus (1992) and Silence Moves und Anna's Wake (1999). She performed with Intrors on keyboards, synthesiser, and sampler through the 1990s, as well as continuing to give piano concerts.

At the same time, ter Schiphorst was developing an interest in writing for stage and multimedia performance. 1055, die Welt ist noch in Ordnung (1984) is an early example, but it was only in the nineties that this became a large part of her output, beginning with Strings (1991), Anna's Wake, and Z.B. Herz (both 1992).

In 1996 she formed a composing partnership with her sometime companion Helmut Oehring,[4] which lasted until 2001: "Their joint creative activities were inaugurated in 1996 when Oehring asked to use melodic material by Schiphorst in his dance-opera The D’Amato System, premiered at the Munich Biennale. They then experimented with wholesale co-composition in the highly successful Polaroids, which was given its first performance by Ensemble Modern the same year."[5] ter Schiphorst wrote little music under her own name during this period as she focused on collaborative composition and caring for her son. If frequency of performance is any guide, Live: aus Androgyn (1997) is proving to be the most durable of the couple's collaborations.[6]

One work ter Schiphorst did produce independently in the late 1990s, and a significant milestone, was her first composition for full orchestra, Hundert Komma Null (1999). It was commissioned by musica viva Munich and shortlisted for the 2001 Prix Italia. This was followed by Gestures (2001), and a succession of compositions that demonstrate her increasing assurance and maturity.

Recent works such as Die Gänsemagd (2009), Klangrätsel (2010), Grüffelo (2011), and S.O.S. Odysseus (2012–2013; with Uros Rojko) reflect ter Schiphorst's interest in bringing the language of contemporary music to young performers and listeners. In 2016, her orchestral piece Gravitational Waves is premiered by the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain under the baton of Edward Gardner at Snape Maltings Concert Hall, with further performances at the Birmingham Symphony Hall and the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall.[7]

ter Schiphorst's music is performed regularly in her native Germany and elsewhere. Her music has been championed by renowned artists such as Martyn Brabbins, the Arditti Quartet, Salome Kammer, Peter Rundel, Roland Kluttig and Evan Christ. Performance listings can be found at ter Schiphorst's website under News and at her Boosey & Hawkes pages under Performances.

ter Schiphorst has written and lectured occasionally since the mid-1990s, particularly on the relationship between music and text. In 2011 and 2013 she was Visiting Professor of Experimental Composition at the Berlin University of the Arts,[8] Since 2015 she is professor for Media Composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.[9] In May 2013 she was elected to the Academy of Arts, Berlin.[10][11]

Her other awards and distinctions include: first prize in the Third Composition Competition for Synthesized and Computerized Music in 1992; her tenure in 2004 as artist-in-residence at Künstlerinnenhof Die Höge, a centre for female artists at Bassum near Bremen; the selection of Zerstören (2005/2006) as an official German entry for the 2007 World Music Days in Hong Kong; the special jury prize at the Internationaler Komponistinnen Wettbewerb in 2008 for Zehn Miniaturen für Cello und Akkordeon (2008); and her selection as one of four prizewinners in the 2011 ad libitum Composition Competition for Klangrätsel (2010). In the summer of 2013, ter Schiphorst was selected for the 2015 Heidelberger Künstlerinnenpreis.[12] The prize, for female composers, is presented at a concert featuring the winner's work in January or February of the prize year; the early notice of selection gives the winner the opportunity to produce a new piece for the occasion, although this is not a requirement.[13][14] She has also received many grants, scholarships, and commissions.

ter Schiphorst's independent compositions are poorly documented on record. Her collaborations with Helmut Oehring are slightly better served. Many of these recordings are out of print.