«His extraordinary, arresting, communicative music is one of this century’s wonders» (The Times)

Austrian composer Thomas Larcher, born in Innsbruck in 1963, studied at the Vienna University of Music and initially worked as a pianist, focusing primarily on new music. Since his early 40s, he has worked almost exclusively as a composer and is now one of the leading voices in contemporary classical music.

Having grown up surrounded by the musical worlds of Mozart, Bach and Schubert, and having been deeply fascinated in his youth by jazz greats such as Ornette Coleman or Gil Evans, Larcher’s own music combines the classical European musical tradition with free elements and rhythms drawn from various folk and improvisational musical traditions.

Larcher has written a wide range of solo and chamber music, including five string quartets and a piano sonata (2019–2024) for Paul Lewis, as well as the song cycle «Unerzählt» (2016–2020), written for Andrè Schuen, which demonstrates Larcher’s particular passion for the expressive power of the human voice – a passion that is also reflected in other, sometimes large-scale vocal works such as the opera «Das Jagdgewehr» (2016–2018) or «Love and the Fever» (2022–2023) for choir and orchestra, based on poems by Miyazawa Kenji.

His orchestral works include several solo concertos, the latest being «returning into darkness» (2023–2024), a cello concerto for Alisa Weilerstein, and «Le Rêve», a piano concerto (2021) for Kirill Gerstein, as well as, to date, three symphonies: «Alle Tage» (2010–2015) for baritone and orchestra, named after Ingeborg Bachmann’s famous anti-war poem, «Kenotaph» (2015–2016), a musical memorial to the countless refugees who have drowned in the Mediterranean, and «A Line Above the Sky» (2018–2019), whose title alludes to a climbing route first ascended by Tom Ballard, whose dream of a life in the light, surrounded by mountains, came to a tragic end.

The highlight of the 2026/2027 season is the world premiere of Larcher’s Fourth Symphony, a work commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Orchestre de Paris which will play the premiere in April 2027 under the baton of Klaus Mäkelä.

In spring 2027, ECM Records will release a new CD featuring Kirill Gerstein and Mark Padmore as soloists, alongside the Bergen Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ed Gardner, with Larcher’s piano concerto No. 2 «Le Rêve», «A Padmore Cycle» for tenor and orchestra, and «Lyrical Lights» for tenor and clarinet.

Larcher has received numerous awards for his work, including the Elise L. Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Centre (2014/15), the Ernest Krenek Prize (2018), the Prix de Composition Musicale de Monaco (2018) and the Grand Austrian State Prize (2019).

Throughout his career, Larcher has always been active as an organiser and promoter of contemporary music. In 1994, he founded the «Klangspuren» Festival of New Music, which, under his leadership, developed into a leading festival for new music; In 2004, he launched the «Musik im Riesen» festival in Wattens, Austria, at the Swarovski Crystal Worlds – a significant platform for international and young local chamber musicians, which ran until 2026, spending its final four years under the title «listening closely».