Luxembourg on Music Theory Print

Alexander Mullenbach

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Alexander Mullenbach (born 1949) is a Luxembourgish pianist, composer and conductor. Since 2002, he has been director of the International Summer Academy at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Career Born in Luxembourg City on 23 January 1949, Mullenbach studied piano, chamber music and composition at the Conservatoire de Paris and at the Salzburg Mozarteum, where his teachers included Gerhard Wimberger and Cesar Bresgen. From 1970, he taught piano at the Conservatoire de Luxembourg and, from 1981, composition. Since then, he has also taught at the Mozarteum. Since 1978, he has composed over 100 works, of which thirteen for symphony orchestra, as well as an opera. They have been performed at major music festivals in Salzburg, Echternach, Strasbourg, St.Petersburg, London, Vienna and Munich. Performers have included Heinrich Schiff, Boris Pergamenschikow, Marjana Lipovšek, Roberto Fabbriciani, Julius Berger, Alois Brandhofer, Irena Grafenauer, Elliot Fisk, Kurt Widmer, Edoardo Catemario, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Christina Ortiz, Ruggiero Ricci, Roberto Szidon, Edda Silvestri, Gottfried Schneider, Lewis Kaplan, Yair Kless, Frank Wibaut, Antonello Farulli, Frederico Mondelci, Maria Christina Kiehr,

Camille Kerger

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Camille Kerger (born 1957) is a Luxembourgish composer, opera singer and music teacher. In 1996, he was a founding member of the Théâtre National de Luxembourg which he directed until 2006. Since 1982, he has composed a wide variety of chamber and orchestral works. Early life Kerger was born on 9 February 1957 in Redange-sur-Attert in central Luxembourg. He studied trombone, singing and composition at the Conservatoire de Luxembourg, in Metz, and at the Mannheim and Düsseldorf Musikhochschule where he graduated in singing. Career He first played as a trombonist in various orchestras including the RTL Symphony Orchestra and the Trier Theatre Orchestra. He was twice a member of the European Youth Orchestra and played in numerous chamber ensembles. As a tenor opera singer, he has performed at a variety of venues across Europe, sharing the stage with celebrates such as Barbara Hendricks and James Bowman and working under the leadership of Leopold Hager, Pierre Cao and Robert King. In 1996, he was a founding member of Théâtre National du Luxembourg which he led until June 2006. He is currently the director of Luxembourg’s Institut Européen de Chant Choral. Since 2007, he has been a memb

Claude Lenners

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Claude Lenners (born 1956) is a Luxembourgish composer of mainly chamber and vocal works. In 1999, he founded Pyramide, an association for electronic music. Since 2004, he has headed its successor, Institut de recherche musicale. Biography Born on 11 May 1956 in Luxembourg City, Lenners specialized in computer science before deciding to return to music when he was 23. He studied music and musicology with Alexander Mullenbach at the Luxembourg Conservatory and with François-Bernard Mâche in Strasbourg. He has composed for a number of ensembles including Alter Ego, Asko Ensemble, Cambridge New Music Players, Court-circuit, Ensemble Accroche Note, Ensemble 13 and Ensemble Intercontemporain. His compositions have also been played by the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra. Soloists who have performed his works include violinist Irvine Arditti, percussionist Guy Frisch, saxophonists Pierre-Stéphane Meugé and Olivier Sliepen, pianists Oscar Pizzo and Béatrice Rauchs and flautist Manuel Zurria. *Lions Prize (Luxembourg section, 1997) Selected works *Der Turm (2011) *In a Wilderness of Mirrors (2007) *Odyssey Reloaded (2007) *HoMo XeRoX (2006) *Wi

Gast Waltzing

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Gaston “Gast” Waltzing (born 1956) is a Luxembourgish trumpeter and composer. He has created several jazz bands, including Largo and the Luxembourg National Jazz Orchestra, and has even composed music for films and television programs as well as operas combining classical music with jazz and rock. He goes by the nickname of piu. Biography Gast Waltzing was born in the city of Luxembourg on 13 August 1956. He began his music studies at the Conservatoire de Luxembourg when he was just 7 years old. He continued his classical training at the Brussels Royal Conservatoire, completing his studies at the Conservatoire de Paris. In 1982, he became professor of trumpet at the Luxembourg Conservatoire and in 1986 founded the school’s Jazz Department, which he heads. He has recorded numerous albums covering classical, jazz and dance, with groups such as “Atmosphere”, “Life’s Circle” “Largo”, all of which he created himself. As a composer, he has recorded music for the Luxembourg film A Wop Bop A Lop Bop (1989), as well as for television. The TV film The Way to Dusty Death provided an opportunity for him to compose his first orchestral movie score. Since then, he has continued to write for orch

Georges Lentz

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Georges Lentz is a contemporary composer and sound artist born in Luxembourg in 1965 and that country’s internationally best known composer. Since 1990, he has been living in Sydney, Australia. Despite his relatively small output and his reclusiveness, he is also considered one of Australia’s leading composers on the world stage. His music is inspired by the starry night sky in the Australian Outback and by Aboriginal art. He is the creator of the Cobar Sound Chapel. Life Born in Luxembourg City on 22 October 1965, Lentz grew up in the Luxembourg town of Echternach. He studied at the Luxembourg Conservatoire and later at the Paris Conservatoire (1982–1986) and the Musikhochschule Hannover (1986–1990). In 1989, he began working on a cycle of compositions titled Caeli enarrant…. His music is being recognised increasingly around the world, with performances at the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Musikverein and Konzerthaus, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall London, Carnegie Hall New York, Kennedy Center Washington, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Sydney Opera House. Many orchestras have performed his works, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Hal

Helen Buchholtz

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Charlotte Helena Geiger-Buchholtz (24 November 1877 in Esch-sur-Alzette – 22 October 1953 in Luxembourg City) was a Luxembourgish composer. She left around 136 compositions in manuscript, including 53 Lieder (settings of Luxembourgian, German, and French texts), nineteen choral works, fourteen piano sonatas, 38 character pieces and dances for piano, eight works for symphony orchestra, and six works for wind ensemble, sixteen of these published during her lifetime. The manuscript archive is held by Cid-femmes (Women’s Information Center) in Luxembourg. The center organized a three-year celebration, from 2009 to 2011, of Buchholtz’s work that included concerts, recordings, and music editions. Helen Buchholtz was born to the Esch-based Buchholtz-Ettinger family. Her father was the owner of a hardware store and the founder of the Buchholtz brewery. She started learning music from a very early age. After finishing primary school, she attended a girls’ boarding school in Longwy. On 2 April 1914, she married the German doctor Bernhard Geiger, and the couple moved to Wiesbaden. After her husband died in 1921, she returned to Luxembourg and lived in Luxembourg City in the Boulevard Paul Eys

Jean Antoine Zinnen

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Jean Antoine Zinnen (25 April 1827 – 16 May 1898) was a Luxembourgish composer, best known for the Luxembourgish national anthem, Ons Heemecht. Career Zinnen was born in Neuerburg, in the Prussian Rhineland, close to the border with Luxembourg. When he was six, his family moved to Luxembourg. After serving as a musician in the army, he naturalised as a Luxembourgish citizen in 1849. In 1851, he became the first director of the Diekirch choral society Sangerbond. In 1852, he was appointed Luxembourg City’s director of music, and, soon after, director of the city conservatoire. Ons Hémecht The following year, at the first celebration of the ALM in Ettlebrück, Ons Hémecht was sung by a choir. Michel Lentz, the national poet who was a member of the ALM’s central committee, had written the words, wishing to convey a powerful feeling of patriotism. Zinnen set the poem to music, later transforming it into a solemn hymn. On 25 June 1865, on the occasion of a music festival in Vianden, Ons Hémecht was performed for the first time with an instrumental accompaniment. Ons Heemecht was adopted as Luxembourg’s national anthem in 1895. Jean-Antoine Zinnen died in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, at the

Julien Hoffmann

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Julien Hoffmann (31 May 1924 – 2007 “Arrangement fir Gemöschte Cho’er” and “La Provence”, the last composed with Ralph Siegel. which like “La Provence” was published by Bosworth Musikverlag. Hoffmann composed the march “La marche du Grand-Duc Henri”, first performed at a special concert before the Grand Ducal family at the Grand Ducal Palace at 8 p.m. on October 7, 2000. In the darkness, the musicians of la musique militaire were surrounded by reserve soldiers bearing torches. Hoffmann was commissioned to compose the piece as part of the ceremonies for Grand Duke Jean’s abdication and Grand Duke Henry’s accession to the throne of Luxembourg. A professor of music, Hoffman was influential in Luxembourg by founding the “Chorale Jong Lëtzebuerg”, based on the model of Young Vienna and established in 1966. The choir has performed in front of royalty and on a visit to Vaduz was welcomed by the Prince of Liechtenstein. Hoffmann also served as honorary director of the St Cecilia Choir of Walferdange. His daughter is mezzo-soprano Yannchen Hoffmann. Hoffman died in 2007. References

Lou Koster

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Lou Koster (7 May 1889 – 17 November 1973) was a Luxembourgish composer and pianist. Specializing in violin and piano, she studied at the Luxembourg Conservatory until 1906, then taught there from 1908. While still young, she began to compose. Her first success was her one-act operetta An der Schemm (At the Baths), composed in 1922. From 1933, many of her orchestral works, especially her waltzes and marches, were played for radio by the RTL Grand Symphony Orchestra. Her greatest success was however the choral ballad Der Geiger von Echternach (The Echternach Fiddler) which she completed when she was 83. It was premiered in the Abbey of Echternach in July 1972 to great acclaim. Early life and education Born on 7 May 1889 in Luxembourg City, Louise Koster was the daughter of the railway official Jean Koster (1852–1919) and Emma Hoebich (1865–1950). Her maternal grandfather, Franz Ferdinand Bernhard Hoebich (1813–1900), who was born in Silesia, was the conductor of the military band in Echternach from 1842. He later directed the music corps at the grand-ducal court. After retiring in 1878 and becoming a widower in 1882, Hoebich became the music teacher of Lou and her sister Lina (1891–

Michel Reis

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Michel Reis (born 11 September 1982) is a Luxembourgish jazz pianist and composer who has performed internationally both individually and with other bands. Biography Born in Luxembourg City, Reis began to play the piano when he was 8. When he started improvising and composing in his early teens, his father enrolled him in the jazz department at the Luxembourg Conservatory where he studied harmony, composition, improvisation and ensemble. To further his musical training, Reis moved to Boston, MA to study at Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music, obtaining first a BM and then a MM in jazz piano and composition. During his training in Boston, Reis studied, worked and performed with Joe Lovano, Danilo Perez, Dave Holland, George Garzone, Ran Blake, Frank Carlberg, Esperanza Spalding, Hal Crook and Greg Hopkins. In 2010, Reis participated in the ASCAP Foundation Workshop in Memory of Buddy Baker, led by film composers Bruce Broughton, Mark Snow, Ira Newborn and David Spear, with whom he has remained a part-time student. Michel Reis has performed internationally in many of the world’s most famous venues and festivals, including the Blue Note Jazz Club, Dizzy’

Pascal Schumacher

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Pascal Schumacher (born 12 March 1979 in Luxemburg) is a Luxembourgish jazz musician, composer and percussionist who has founded a number of groups including the Pascal Schumacher Quartet. He also plays and composes classical chamber music. Career Schumacher cofounded the “Interchange” ensemble with saxophonist Nadine Kauffmann (1995) and, in 2001, the experimental percussion group “Stroke X”. From 1997, he became increasingly involved in improvised music, especially jazz, playing with a number of different bands and performing with a variety of artists. In 2002, he set up his own Pascal Schumacher Quartet with Jef Neve (piano), Christophe Devisscher (bass) and Teun Verbruggen (drums). Their first album, Change Of The Moon was released in March 2004, providing the band with opportunities to travel across Europe as well as to Australia and South Africa. Their second album, Personal Legend was released in 2005 and their third, Silbergrau in 2007. In a preview of the quartet’s contribution to the London Jazz Festival in November 2010, Thomas Gray characterized Schumacher (vibes) and Franz von Chossy (piano) as “resourceful improvisers, with an abundance of lucid ideas effortlessly art

Pierre Cao

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Pierre Cao (22 December 1937 – 14 May 2026) was a Luxembourgish composer and conductor. Background Pierre Cao was born in Dudelange on 22 December 1937. He studied composition and conducting at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. Cao died in May 2026, at the age of 88. Classical music Cao was the regular conductor of Arsys Bourgogne, with whom he recorded Biber’s Requiem and other baroque works. He taught at the Luxembourg Conservatoire until 1998 and led various vocal ensembles in Luxembourg and the surrounding region. Cao was a co-founder of the Institut Européen du Chant Choral (INECC). Eurovision Cao was the musical director for both the 1973 and 1984 Eurovision Song Contests, staged in the Grand Duchy at the Nouveau Théâtre. He conducted Luxembourg’s winning song “Tu te reconnaîtras” in 1973. Unusually, he did not conduct Luxembourg’s entry in 1984 (it was conducted by Pascal Stive), despite being the show’s musical director. He did however conduct the German and Cypriot entries. Selected discography * Liszt – piano concertos. Orchestre Symphonique de la Radio-Télé Luxembourg de France. * Giovanni Felice Sances, Johann Michael Zächer & Johann Melchior Gletle – Vespers in Vienn