Martin Skamletz

Mein zweites Leben

Miraculously cured of cancer, a young man from a mountain valley in Vorarlberg sets out in search of his own music, which will lead him out into the world and, at the same time, deep into his inner self. Composer Herbert Egon Willi launched a career in the late 1980s that led to performances of his works by the finest musicians of his time. He was at home in the great concert halls and a regular presence in the media until he withdrew from the music scene and decided that, from then on, his music should speak for itself.
He is now emerging from this self-imposed isolation to share stories about the defining events of his life as a composer. Central to these stories are his encounters with the people who have accompanied him on his journey. Herbert Egon Willi, born on January 7, 1956, wrote the opera *Schlafes Bruder* on commission from the Zurich Opera House to mark the "1,000 Years of Austria" anniversary, and the orchestral work *Begegnung* for the "150 Years of the Vienna Philharmonic" celebrations. Performances of his works have taken place at Carnegie Hall in New York, the Royal Albert Hall in London, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Musikverein, the Vienna Konzerthaus, and at the Salzburg Festival. They have been performed by the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the New Japan Philharmonic, and the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra under conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Christoph von Dohnányi, Kirill Petrenko, Manfred Honeck, Christian Arming, and Gustavo Dudamel.