Hans Huyssen

Hans Huyssen (1964-) is a composer, conductor and cellist.

Biography

Born in Pretoria in 1964. Huyssen grew up in a German-speaking environment in Pretoria, exposed mainly to European culture. He attended the Deutsche Schule Pretoria (1970-81).

Training

Huyssen studied cello and composition at Stellenbosch University (1982-1985), and then went to Salzburg from 1986 to 2000 where he furthered his skills as baroque cellist and composer at the Hochschule für Musik, Mozarteum, and to Munich in 1992 to complete a Masters degree in composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München. He was awarded a PhD in composition from Stellenbosch University in 2015 (Composing (in) Contemporary South Africa: Theoretical and musical responses to cultural difference).

Career

Huyssen is a STIAS fellow, holds a NRF research rating for his work aimed at facilitating intercultural dialogues in South Africa and was a recipient of the Helgaard Steyn Award, South Africa’s most prestigious composition prize. He was a senior lecturer at the Odeion School of Music at the University of the Free State (2005 to 2012), and at the South African College of Music of the University of Cape Town (since 2014), to which he is still affiliated as associate researcher.

He is founder of mucavi records, the only South African CD-label locally producing recordings of early music on period instruments.

Performances as artistic director of the Munich-based ensemble for Early and Contemporary Music così facciamo, as well as the Cape Consort in Cape Town, require him to commute between Germany and South Africa frequently.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

He wrote the opera Masque (2005). Huyssen collaborated on the project Fynbos Calling. He has composed cantatas, orchestral works, and works for ensemble, choirs and children.