Hauschka is one of the most respected contemporary composers. And also one of the most honoured: in 2023, he won an Oscar and a BAFTA in the category of Best Original Soundtrack for West of Nowhere. The music for the film Lion, which he composed in collaboration with Dustin O’Halloran, has been nominated for several awards, including the Oscar for Best Original Soundtrack, the Golden Globe for Best Original Soundtrack and Best Film Music at the BAFTAs.
Hauschka’s work has proven perfect for accompanying images. We’ve heard his compositions in several major films and TV series, including the soundtrack for Patrick Melrose, Showtime’s Emmy and BAFTA-nominated miniseries, and Gunpowder, HBO’s miniseries starring Kit Harington, as well as the 2020 film Ammonite, co-written with O’Halloran, which was shortlisted for an Oscar nomination in the Best Original Soundtrack category.
An innovative pianist who goes by the name Hauschka in his solo work, Volker Bertelmann has worked with the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, where he was resident artist, and with Grammy-winning violinist Hilary Hahn. In 2018, he accepted an invitation to join the Academy of Film, Arts and Sciences, of which he is an active member.
For Hauschka, the essence of his work lies in the fact that he constantly challenges himself to new musical experiences. His object of study is the grand piano, which he approaches as an acoustic body. At the beginning of his solo career, he specialised in preparing the instrument with tape, felt and other materials. He transforms clubs and concert halls into sonic laboratories, where audiences can experience the interplay between analysis and intuition. For his albums, he has repeatedly ventured into new experimental arrangements – from electronica to the purist approach of his work A Different Forest (2019). It is the diversity of our existence that he makes audible in his songs, whether it is global questions about the future in his album What If (2017), or the proliferation and decay of urban life in Abandoned City (2014).
Her live performances are special moments, appreciated by audiences and critics around the world. Filled with evocative melodies and characterful arrangements that give it profound originality, his music is undoubtedly one of the treasures of these times.