Dr Thomas Schäfer, born in Hamburg, Germany, is Director of the International Music Institute Darmstadt and Artistic Director of the Darmstadt Summer Course. At the University of Hamburg he studied Historical and Systematic Musicology, Modern German Literature and Philosophy, and co-founded the Working Group for Music in Exile at the Musicological Institute there. He also holds a doctorate from the Humboldt University in Berlin, with a thesis about the compositional influence of Gustav Mahler in contemporary music. He has previously been Dramaturge for Contemporary Music at the Wiener Konzerthaus, and Curator of the Wien Modern Festival.
Photo: IMD Archiv/ Albrecht_Haag