Rolf Hind

Website: http://www.rolfhind.com/
Photo of Rolf Hind

Biographical Info

Rolf Hind’s career has established him as a major force as soloist, composer, recording artist, chamber musician, pedagogue, collaborator and concert planner. He has given recitals at many of Europe’s leading new music festivals, and at Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House and on tours of Korea, Taiwan and Cuba.

Rolf has worked with many leading conductors, including Ashkenazy, Knussen, Rattle, David Robertson and Andrew Davis and appeared seven times at the BBC Proms. Orchestras he has worked with include the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Munich Philharmonic, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Malmö Symphony, and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, many appearances with the London Sinfonietta, the LPO, RPO, and with all the BBC orchestras.

Composers who have worked with Rolf or written for him include Tan Dun, John Adams, Helmut Lachenmann, Unsuk Chin, Elliott Carter, George Benjamin and James MacMillan. Rolf’s compositions include a piano concerto, Maya-Sesha (nominated for a British Composer’s Award) and a concerto for accordion, premiered at London’s Barbican Centre. Much of his music is inspired by India, where he travels often, while drawing on the technical adventurousness of performers including himself.

An interest in new dance resulted in collaborations including with choreographer Rui Horta on a large-scale tour of a new work, Danza Preparata, featuring John Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano, with dancer.

As pianist Rolf curated and performed in Occupy The Pianos, a piano festival which became a regular feature at St John’s Smith Square in London and also travelled to France and Denmark. He initiated a project in March 2020 which produced over 100 new short piano pieces from composers far and wide, intended as responses to lockdown, a fascinating range of pieces which he is now including in recital and which has been performed in London, Glasgow and Zagreb. He re-visited a masterpiece in the form of Messiaen’s Vingt Regards sur l’enfant Jesus.

His first opera, Lost in Thought, a ‘mindfulness opera’ commissioned by Mahogany Opera Group and the Barbican, was seen in London, Manchester, Bangor and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. Current composition plans include an opera about the poet Sufi Rumi, working with Rolf’s long-time collaborator Frederick Wake-Walker and the Anglo-US poet Dante Micheaux; called Sky In A Small Cage, it will have its UK premiere at the Barbican in September 2024, featuring the Riot Ensemble. Rolf is also writing a song-cycle for Elaine Mitchener and Apartment House for the Wigmore Hall in April 2024, to be premiered there on his 60th birthday! His music is exclusively published by Ricordi London.

Categories: CIPSS Part Two
Updated 11 months ago.