Biography
Hajdu was born to Hungarian parents who had fled their country in 1956. He grew up in Cologne where he obtained diplomas in molecular biology and musical composition from the University of Cologne and the Cologne Musikhochschule, resp. A stipend by the German Academic Exchange Service enabled him to enter the graduate program in composition at the University of California, Berkeley in 1990, working closely with the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) and eventually obtaining a Ph.D. in 1994. His teachers include Georg Kröll, Johannes Fritsch, Krzysztof Meyer, Clarence Barlow, Andrew Imbrie, Jorge Liderman and David Wessel. He also audited classes with György Ligeti in Hamburg.
In 1996, following residencies at IRCAM and the ZKM, Karlsruhe, he co-founded the Ensemble WireWorks with his wife, pianist Jennifer Hymer—a group specializing in the performance of mixed-media composition. In 1999, he produced his full-length opera Der Sprung - Beschreibung einer Oper for which author and film director Thomas Brasch wrote the libretto. In May 2002, his interactive networked performance environment Quintet.net was employed in a Munich Biennale opera performance. In 2004, he instigated the development of the Bohlen–Pierce clarinet and in 2005 he co-founded the European Bridges Ensemble for networked music performance.
In addition to his compositions, which are characterized by a pluralistic attitude and have earned him several international prizes, the IBM-prize of the Ensemble Modern (1990) among them, Hajdu published articles on several topics on the borderline of music and science. His areas of interest include multimedia, microtonality, algorithmic, interactive and networked music performance. He has been directing a number of international projects with media centers and universities in Europe and the USA. Currently, Georg Hajdu is professor of multimedia composition and music theory at the Hamburg Hochschule of Music and Theater.
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