Rainer Riehn

Riehn was born in Danzig, Germany (modern Gdańsk, Poland) studied music theory in Mainz, Zürich, and Berlin and composition with Gottfried Michael Koenig in Utrecht. He met the music theorist Heinz-Klaus Metzger at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse in the summer of 1965. In 1968 he founded the Ensemble Musica Negativa, in 1977 the series Musik-Konzepte, which he published until 2003 (together with Heinz-Klaus Metzger). In 1984 Metzger and Riehn received the Deutscher Kritikerpreis as editors of the Musik-Konzepte. In 1987 he was chief dramaturge at the Oper Frankfurt together with Heinz-Klaus Metzger, and initiated the first commission for an opera composition for John Cage (Europeras 1 & 2).