Boris Blacher

Boris Blacher (January 6 (O.S.) / January 19 (N.S.), 1903 - January 30, 1975) was a German composer.

Born in the Manchurian town of Niuzhuang (also spelt Newchwang; now called Yingkou), Blacher spent his first years in China and in the Asian parts of Russia, and in 1919, he eventually came to live in Harbin. 1922, after finishing school, he went to Berlin where he began to study architecture and mathematics. Two years later, he turned to music and studied composition with Friedrich Ernst Koch.

He later became director of the Music Academy of Berlin, and is today regarded as one of the most influential music figures of his time. His students include Aribert Reimann, Isang Yun, Maki Ishii, Fritz Geißler, and Gottfried von Einem.

Boris Blacher was one of the central figures in Berlin musical life after the 2nd World War * Important as a composer of vivid stage and orchestral works and as a teacher * Music noted for its colourful French-inspired instrumentation and its irreverence towards Austro-German tradition * Experimented with 'variable metrics' in works like Piano Concerto No.2, where serial procedures are applied to metrical units * Many stageworks based on classic texts including ballets Hamlet, Lysistrata, Der Mohr von Venedig and Tristan * Paganini Variations is a repertoire piece in German orchestral world and has been recently recorded by Solti * Blacher's pupils included Klebe, Einem, Erbse, Burt, Reimann, Yun and Klaus Huber