Henning Lohner - Life

Life

Born to German emigrant parents, Henning Lohner was raised near Palo Alto, California, where father Prof. Dr. Edgar Lohner taught Comparative Literature at Stanford University, and mother Dr. Marlene Lohner, ne Clewing, taught German Literature. Lohner has one brother, Peter, who is a lawyer turned writer/producer for film and television. Lohner returned to Germany to complete studies in musicology, art history, and Romanic languages at Frankfurt University, from which he graduated as MA in 1987. In 1982 Lohner took a year at the Berklee Jazz College in Boston, studying Jazz Improvisation with Gary Burton and Film Scoring with visiting lecturers Jerry Goldsmith and David Raksin. During the European Year of Music, 1985, Lohner was awarded a grant for music composition at the Centre Acanthes to study with Greek composer Iannis Xenakis, who subsequently became Lohner’s lifelong mentor. Parallel to his academic studies, Lohner became assistant to German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen in 1984; working at La Scala in Milano on Stockhausen’s opera Licht. On Stockhausen’s recommendation, Lohner went to Paris to become musical advisor and assistant director to Louis Malle on his film May Fools (1989–90, starring Michel Piccoli). Apprenticeships on Steve Reich’s multi-media oratorio The Cave (1990) and for Giorgio Strehler on his theater project Goethes Faust I + II (1990-1992) followed. Due to his commitment to the fields of contemporary music and theater as well as avant-garde filmmaking, Frank Zappa became aware of Lohner and invited him to work in California; Lohner collaborated with Zappa intermittently until his death in 1993. Lohner initialized and co-produced Zappa’s last concert performance, The Yellow Shark, along with the album of the same name, followed by the album Civilization, Phase III; both albums are based on collaborations with the Ensemble Modern, a contemporary music group from Frankfurt, Germany. Lohner’s film installation project raw material toured several important museums in Europe from 1995 until 1997, establishing Lohner as mulit-media artist. Thanks to Hans Zimmer, Lohner began composing for films, joining his Remote Control Productions in 1996. From here on in Lohner works equally in the fields of audio and visual media. Lohner lives and works in Los Angeles and Berlin. He is a Visiting Professor at the renowned Zurich Academy for Music and Theater, now ZHDK (Academy of Arts) in Switzerland.