Thomas Wilbrandt

Thomas Wilbrandt (born 1952 in Bielefeld) is a German composer and conductor.

He studied with Franco Ferrara, Hans Swarowsky and Bruno Maderna in Rome, Vienna and Salzburg and was Assistant to Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic for three years in Berlin and Salzburg.

In 1980 he founded the Berlin Chamber Academy (Berliner Kammer-Akademie), a forty-piece orchestra originally formed from players of the Berlin Philharmonic, with whom he recorded a Mozart Series for RCA/Victor.

Next to international conducting activities and cooperations with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic and the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, Wilbrandt became more involved in his own projects and recordings, concentrating on his work as a composer, especially in the field of Avant-garde and electronic music. This led to developed experimentation regarding multimedia content and expression and to the constant exploration of new forms of music presentation.

One of his first major projects was the creation of a fusion between acoustic orchestral playing and digital and electronic instruments and sounds, entitled THE ELECTRIC V., an approach to Vivaldi's concert cycle The Four Seasons. The first edition of THE ELECTRIC V. was released in 1984 in twenty countries. Wilbrandt wrote, directed, and produced THE ELECTRIC V. film between 1987 and 1990.

Wilbrandt has composed and advised music for several films and documentaries; amongst others, for the AOS project he contributed music to the soundtrack of Oliver Stone's film Natural Born Killers.

2011 saw the launch of FENNster, a Berlin-based Foundation for Contemporary Art and Multimedia Innovation, initiated by Thomas Wilbrandt.