Composer
Biography:
Max E Keller, born in 1947, played free jazz and improvised music based on concepts on the piano and electronic instruments from 1966 to 1973. Since 1973 he has written over 100 compositions for a wide variety of instrumentations, including electronic music.
He often set political texts to music: Erich Fried, Jürg Weibel, Kurt Marti, Franz Hohler, montages from texts trouvés as well as own texts. The full-length scenic cantata fontamara (Ignazio Silone) has been performed in Belgium, Germany and at the Zurich Schauspielhaus. The Miniature Opera Egon - from the life of a bank clerk (Hans Suter) experienced 29 performances in two productions. Performances and broadcasts throughout Europe, Australia, Asia, South Africa and North and South America. Since 1985 Max E. Keller has been performing again as an improvising musician.
He received numerous awards, e.g. Art prize from the Carl Heinrich Ernst Foundation in Winterthur (1997), Berlin grant from the Aargauer Kuratorium (1999), culture prize from the city of Winterthur (2006).
The works of Max E. Keller are represented on several LPs and CDs. Two CDs (col legno and Jecklin Edition) are exclusively dedicated to his chamber music, a third CD (Grammont Portrait) with five chamber music works and one orchestral work (Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich under David Zinman) was released in 2003.
Albums:
