Hans Thomalla

Hans Thomalla is a German American composer. He has written chamber music as well as orchestral works and a particular focus of his activity lies in composing for the stage. He has written three operas (Fremd, Kaspar Hauser, Dark Spring) and is working currently on a new work – Dark Fall – for the Nationaltheater Mannheim.

Thomalla is Professor of Music Composition at Northwestern University in Chicago, where he founded and directs the Institute for New Music. He studied at the Frankfurt Musikhochschule and received his doctoral degree in composition from Stanford University. From 1999-2002 he held the position of Assistant Dramaturge and Musical Advisor at the Stuttgart Opera.

Thomalla has been awarded numerous awards and fellowships, including the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis, the Composer Prize of the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. During the academic year 2014/15 he was a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. He is the co-founder and co-director of the Chicago based record label Sideband Records.

Hans Thomalla appears as a fictional character in Alexander Kluge’s story collection Anyone Who Utters a Consoling Word Is a Traitor: 48 Stories for Fritz Bauer.