Philipp Maintz

Philipp Maintz was born in Aachen in 1977, where he began studying composition with Michael Reudenbach in 1993. From 1997, he continued his composition studies with Robert HP Platz at the Conservatorium Maastricht, graduating with distinction in 2003. He subsequently pursued further studies at the Université de Liège, IRCAM in Paris, and from 2003 to 2005 at the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz under Karlheinz Essl.

Maintz has been the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships. In 2005, he received the Advancement Award of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. This was followed by residencies at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris (2007), Akademie Schloss Solitude (2009), and the German Academy Rome Villa Massimo (2010). He was Artiste résident at the Château de Chambord in 2013 and a fellow of the Villa Concordia in 2015. Further invitations came from the Wilhelm Kempff Cultural Foundation in Positano (2018) and, in 2024, from the German Federal Government at Casa Baldi.

His first major orchestral work, heftige landschaft mit 16 bäumen, was premiered by the SWR Symphony Orchestra at the Salzburg Festival in 2005. In 2010, the Munich Biennale for New Music Theatre opened with the world premiere of his opera MALDOROR. His Cello Concerto – upon a moment’s shallow rim, written for Alban Gerhardt, was premiered by the Nuremberg State Philharmonic in 2015. Two years later, the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin (DSO) conducted by Christoph Eschenbach presented his orchestral work hängende gärten at the Berlin Philharmonie.

In 2019, his chamber opera THÉRÈSE was premiered at the Salzburg Easter Festival and later staged at the Elbphilharmonie by the Hamburg State Opera. During the 2020/21 season, he composed de figuris, a concerto for organ and orchestra commissioned by