Konrad Boehmer

Konrad Boehmer (born 24 May 1941) is a Dutch composer and writer of German birth.

Boehmer was born in Berlin. His music reflects his Marxist political agenda, which is made explicit in many of his writings from the late 1960s and 1970s (e.g., Boehmer 1970). A self-declared member of the Darmstadt School (Boehmer 1987), he studied composition in Cologne with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Gottfried Michael Koenig, and philosophy, sociology, and musicology at the University of Cologne, where he received a PhD in 1966 (Sabbe 2001). After receiving his doctorate, he settled in Amsterdam, working until 1968 at the Institute for Sonology, Utrecht University. In 1972 he was appointed professor of music history and theory at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague (Sabbe 2001).

His compositions characteristically employ serial organization or montage, sometimes with elements of jazz and rock music (as in his opera Doktor Faustus and the electronic Apocalipsis cum figuris). In other works, such as Canciones del camino and Lied uit de vert Marxist songs serve as basic material (Sabbe 2001).

In 2001 the Holland Festival commissioned Boehmer to write a composition for the rock band Sonic Youth, which they performed at both concerts during that festival in the Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam (Sanders 2001). It was the band in its 'Goodbye 20th Century' period.