composer

Peter Michael Hamel, born on July 15, 1947 in Munich, studied composition with Fritz Büchtger and Günter Bialas, and musicology with Thrasybulos Georgiades and Carl Dahlhaus. He was involved with free jazz, political cabaret, and live electronics, and worked with Josef Anton Riedl. He co-founded the improvisation group Between and the Free Music Center in Munich, collaborating with John Cage, Carl Orff, Luc Ferrari, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. He was a self-performing artist, creating applied music for stage, television, film, and radio. He published the book "Through Music to the Self" (1976/1980), and toured extensively through Asia, India, Europe, and the USA. Hamel's oeuvre includes five music theater works as well as numerous compositions for orchestra (including 13 symphonies), choir, and chamber ensemble, premiered at the Bavarian Radio's "musica viva," at the Salzburg Festival, the Berlin Festival, the Donaueschinger Musiktage, and the Munich Biennale (1988's "Die Lichtung" with the Munich Philharmonic and Celibidache). Successful premiere in June 2023 at the Berlin Philharmonie: Symphony VI (Berlin Symphony Orchestra with Hansjörg Schellenberger).

Publications with Bärenreiter, E.R.P., Schott, and the Neue Musik Berlin publishing house, among others. Recordings with WERGO and Celestial Harmonies, including "Between Free Music" (Intuition/Schott) in 2022. Member of the Free Academy of Arts, Hamburg, the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, and the Berlin Academy of Arts.
From 1997 to 2012, he held the chair of composition and music theory at the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre, and until 2021, he was director of the music department of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.

With his second wife, Monika, he has five children (*1984, 1990, 1992, 1997, 2004). He lives and works in Aschau im Chiemgau, below the Kampenwand mountain and on the Pinienberg mountain above Siesta, Santa Eulària des Riu, Ibiza. His publications are published by Allitera Verlag, Munich: "Ein neuer Ton" (2007) and "Komponisten in Bayern," Volume 61, with the CD "The Self-Tuned Piano" (2017).

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