Dirk Reith: biography

Dirk Reith (Düsseldorf, Germany, 1947)
• composer

Dirk Reith, born 1947, studied composition under Milko Kelemen at the Robert Schumann Academy of Music in Duesseldorf. He simultaneously completed a degree in sound engineering there. From 1974-1976 he studied computer composition with Gottfried Michael Koenig at the Institute of Sonolgy at the University of Utrecht. In 1975 he was charged with establishing an electronic studio at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen and with founding a special teaching program in electronic composition studies. In 1986 he was the head of the music group in the research committee which planned the ZKM (Centre for Art and Media Technology) in Karlsruhe. His compositions have been performed in Europe, the USA, the Far East and Australia. Nested loops III, his composition for piano and tape, was selected for the ICMC in The Hague and the piece verSTIMMUNG for the ICMC in Hong Kong. He has published numerous papers about the theory of composition in instrumental and electronic music and is deeply involved in research into computer music. In recent years he has mainly composed music in which the emphasis lies on the coupling of mechanical instruments and electronics and on the field of algorithmic composition. Dirk Reith is Professor of Composition at the Folkwang Hochschule and the artistic director of the ICEM (Institute for Computer Music and Electronic Media) and is also the founder of the International Festival for Computer Music and Media “EX MACHINA” in Essen.