Peter Ablinger

Peter Ablinger (1959–2025) was a pioneering Austrian composer and sound artist whose work consistently challenged and expanded the boundaries of musical perception. Born in Schwanenstadt, Upper Austria, Ablinger first studied graphic arts in Linz before turning to jazz piano at the Music Academy in Graz, inspired by his passion for free jazz. He went on to study composition with Gösta Neuwirth in Graz and Roman Haubenstock-Ramati in Vienna, ultimately relocating to Berlin in 1982, where he lived and worked for over four decades.

Ablinger’s oeuvre is marked by a relentless exploration of the act of listening itself. His early focus on chamber music gave way in the 1990s to electroacoustic works, sound installations, and intermedia projects. Central to his output is the ongoing cycle "Weiss/Weisslich" (White/Whitish), begun in 1980, which investigates the many facets of white noise across a wide range of media: from instrumental pieces and installations to prose works and music without sound, ultimately comprising 36 parts. Ablinger’s approach often placed listeners in situations that either underwhelmed or overwhelmed their perceptual faculties, compelling them to re-examine their own attention and relationship to reality.

Ablinger’s music was performed at leading international festivals, including the Berlin and Vienna Festwochen, Darmstadt, Donaueschingen, and festivals in Istanbul, Los Angeles, Oslo, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, London, and New York. He was the founder and artistic director of Ensemble Zwischentöne (1988–2007) and collaborated with ensembles such as Klangforum Wien and United Berlin.

Ablinger taught as a guest professor at institutions including Columbia University, Bard College, the Manhattan School of Music, Yale, and Harvard, and from 2012 to 2017 served as Research Professor at the University of Huddersfield. In 2012, he was inducted into the Berlin Academy of Arts, and his archive was established there in the same year.

Ablinger’s radical questioning of sound, time, space, and the conventions of music made him a central figure in contemporary composition—a “mystic of enlightenment” whose work continues to provoke and inspire. He died in Berlin in April 2025 at the age of 66.