Life – Stiftung Christoph Delz

Christoph Delz was born in Basel on 3rd January 1950. He began to learn the piano and music theory when he was very young and while he was still at school had taken diplomas in piano teaching and piano performance. Between 1974 and 1981 he continued his education in Cologne, studying with Aloys Kontarsky (piano), Karlheinz Stockhausen (composition), and Volker Wangenheim (conducting), supplementing his composition studies with Henri Pousseur in Lüttich.

Between 1981 and 1984 he worked in the electronic studios at the Conservatoire in Cologne whilst concurrently reading Germanistics and Philosophy at the university. He remained in Cologne until 1989, but then moved to Riehen near Basel, where he died on 13th September 1993.

All his choral works and the majority of his orchestral works have been performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers, at the Almeida Festival and elsewhere.

His works have also been heard at the Donaueschinger Musiktagen, at the Biennale in Venice, twice at the prestigious Weltmusiktagen of the International Society for New Music, and broadcast on West German Radio.

The Ensemble InterContemporain have performed works by Delz in Paris, and at festivals in Lucerne and Zurich. As a pianist Christoph Delz was particularly drawn to the music of Schumann, Liszt, Mussorgsky, Debussy and Schönberg.

He gave first performances of piano works by several contemporary composers, including Klarenz Barlow, Maricio Kagel, Claude Vivier and Gérard Zinsstag.