Michael Josef Alexander Mautner

Michael Mautner is a composer, conductor, and author currently teaching Project Oriented Composition at the Mozarteum University in the Department of Composition & Music Theory. He has held significant positions including composer, music dramaturge, and musical director at the Rabenhof Theater in Vienna since 2002, academic editor at the Hermann Publishing Group since 2005, and music curator of the Konzett Gallery Vienna since 2013.

His educational background includes:

• Salzburg Music High School, Matura 1978
• 1978-1984: University of Salzburg (musicology, art history, philosophy)
• 1979-1985: Mozarteum University (composition with Gerhard Wimberger, conducting with Bernhard Conz, Mladen Basic, and Michael Gielen)
• Summer courses with Witold Lutoslawski, Henri Dutilleux, and Hans Werner Henze

Mautner's creative work focuses on contemporary composition with particular emphasis on multimedia music theater and the interfaces of perception between visual art and music. He maintains what he describes as 'stylistic ambivalence,' working with both tonal harmony and dissonant sharpness without preference for either approach. His work aims to be immediately accessible despite its complexity and uncompromising nature, while still exploring new artistic spaces and contents. He is particularly known for his COM.MEDIA project based on Dante Alighieri and his collaboration with artist Kurt Hofstetter on 'supersymmetric composition technique.'

His recent compositions demonstrate a strong trend toward interdisciplinary work at the intersection of visual art and music, with many pieces created specifically for gallery or museum contexts in collaboration with visual artists, especially Franz West. There's also a notable focus on adapting literary and historical texts into musical form, with works based on Dante, Arthur Schnitzler, and Austrian political history. Technologically, his work increasingly incorporates electronic elements and novel compositional techniques like the supersymmetric approach.

Mautner has received numerous awards for his work:

• Staatsstipendium für Komposition (1985)
• Prix du Centre Acanthes (1982)
• Silver Bear at the Berlin Festival in the youth film/music category for 'Tunnelkind' (1990)
• 1st prize in the Mozart composition competition of the City of Vienna/Austro Mechana (1991)
• Förderungspreis des Landes Salzburg (1994)

Mautner has supervised numerous composition students throughout his career, particularly during his tenure as Head of the 'Applied Composition' course at the Mozarteum University from 1994-2005 and his current role teaching Project Oriented Composition since 2015. His work has been supported by significant commissions from prestigious organizations including the Mozarteum Foundation, European Parliament, Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde Wien, ORF, Museum Moderner Kunst Wien, École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts Paris, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Wiener Festwochen, Rabenhof Theater, and the City of Salzburg.

He collaborates extensively with various ensembles and institutions, most notably the Merlin Ensemble Wien and the Konzett Gallery Vienna where he directs the KonzettKonzeptKonzert series. His current work includes the 'Supersymmetric Music' project with Kurt Hofstetter, which generates musical sequences through rotations of the space-time axis of a dot matrix corresponding to tones and durations, representing a novel approach to composition that moves beyond conventional patterns.