Despite his classically avant-garde musical language, Hefti’s prime concern is expressiveness – addressing his listener with a candid eloquence. He loves powerful contrasts and does not refrain from writing intense cantilenas. His music is capable of cumulative processes of concentration, and can unleash a vehement drive. (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
As both composer and conductor, David Philip Hefti is one of Switzerland's outstanding musical personalities. He has composed over 100 works, including orchestral music, vocal works and chamber music. In 2013, Hefti was awarded the Composer Prize of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, in 2015 the Hindemith Prize of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and in 2023 the Composer Award of the International Classical Music Awards ICMA. He has also won the International Composition Competition of the Pablo Casals Festival in Prades, the George Enescu International Competition for Composition in Bucharest, and the Gustav Mahler International Competition for Composition in Vienna. His orchestral works have been performed by conductors such as Peter Eötvös, Roberto González-Monjas, Howard Griffiths, Giancarlo Guerrero, Cornelius Meister, Kent Nagano, Jonathan Nott, Andris Poga, Michael Sanderling, Mario Venzago, Ralf Weikert, Kazuki Yamada and David Zinman.
In the 2025/26 season, David Philip Hefti presents a densely packed calendar full of world premieres, projects, and collaborations. The season opens in August with the premiere of his new orchestral work Schattenlinien for four natural horns and orchestra on period instruments – performed by Capella Augustina under the direction of Andreas Spering at the Brühl Schlosskonzerte. Hefti then serves as a mentor in a collaborative project between the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and the Murten Classics Festival. Under his guidance, young composers develop their own works, which will be premiered by the ZHdK’s Ensemble Tonflug in a concluding concert. In October, Hefti appears in Boston as a conductor. Together with musicians from the Berlin Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Ecce Ensemble, he curates a program of contemporary works by European and American composers – including a new piece of his own. In December, his trumpet double concerto Final(ment)e will be performed by the Stuttgart State Orchestra under Cornelius Meister at the Stuttgart Liederhalle. The spring of 2026 is dedicated entirely to chamber music: In March, a new duo for violin and cello will be performed at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie by Hellen Weiss and Gabriel Schwabe. The Amaryllis Quartet also turns its attention to Hefti’s work, performing his String Quartet No. 7 Ans Ende der Zeit in Basel and No. 8 Gesänge der Sehnsucht in Wettingen. Shortly thereafter, Camerata Variabile will present a new chamber work in Bern, with further performances in Zurich, Basel, and Schaffhausen. Almost seamlessly following that is the premiere of a new work for string orchestra at the Tonhalle Zurich – performed by the Zurich Chamber Orchestra under concertmaster Willi Zimmermann. Another highlight in May is the world premiere of a song cycle based on poems by Dragica Rajcic. At the LiedBasel Festival, baritone Jonathan McGovern and pianist Judit Polgar will interpret this new vocal composition. The season concludes with an a cappella work based on texts by Ovid, premiered by the Zurich Chamber Singers under Christian Erny in Winterthur – with further concerts at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie and the Sendesaal in Bremen. A preview of the coming season already promises a new large-scale orchestral work to be premiered by the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich under the direction of Paavo Järvi.
In the 2024/25 season, two of David Philip Hefti’s string quartets were performed in Berlin for the first time: His Sixth String Quartet Fünf Szenen für Gustav was performed at the Pierre Boulez Saal by the string quartet of the Staatskapelle Berlin, and his Seventh Quartet Ans Ende der Zeit at the Konzerthaus by the Amaryllis Quartet. The world premiere of his solo piece Sternenregen – mosaic for flöte took place in February 2025 as part of the Seoul Winter Music Festival at the Seoul Arts Center, performed by flutist Philipp Jundt. In May of the same year, the Zuger Sinfonietta under the direction of Daniel Huppert gave the world premiere of his new orchestral work Zerrissene Stille.
In the 2023/24 season, David Philip Hefti was Artist in Residence at the Zermatt Music Festival. The main focus was the world premiere of his octet Des Zaubers Spuren, written for the 40th anniversary of the Berlin Scharoun Ensemble. In addition, Hefti conducted the Zermatt Festival Orchestra and taught as a lecturer at the Zermatt Music Academy. At the ensemble’s anniversary concert, the octet received its acclaimed German premiere at the Berlin Philharmonie. Der Tagesspiegel wrote: “The crown belongs to David Philip Hefti.” In February 2024, his solo violin piece Feu d’artifice was premiered as the compulsory work at the second international violin competition of the Guadagnini Foundation in Stuttgart. In May 2024, the premiere of his Eighth String Quartet Gesänge der Sehnsucht by the Stradivari Quartet took place in Prague.
Hefti’s music-theatre work The Snow Queen, based on the eponymous fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, was composed for the Zurich Tonhalle Society on the occasion of its 150th anniversary. The semi-staged world première of this musical tale took place in 2018, with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra under the baton of the composer himself. Its CD recording was honoured with the Supersonic Award in 2020. In The Snow Queen, the cold takes many audible forms. There are wine glasses filled with water – they sound as clear and transparent as frozen crystals. The serial techniques that always accompany the appearance of the icy queen also come across as frosty and cool – these are academic number games that freeze into lifeless formulae. In stark contrast to all this are the micro-intervals and overtones that unite to create iridescent natural harmonies conjuring up an unsophisticated, real warmth. (Neue Zürcher Zeitung)
In May 2017, Hefti’s first opera, Anna’s Mask, was given its world première at the St. Gallen Theatre under the baton of Otto Tausk. David Philip Hefti’s musical language, which is characterised by transparency, a chamber-music intensity, and a concentrated sense of dramaturgy, is also manifested in this, his first opera. Luminous ecstasy – and this is the point of it – is no betrayal of Hefti’s aesthetic stance, which otherwise tends to fragile, pointillist drops of sound solidifying into chordal structures. (Neue Zürcher Zeitung)
Hefti’s musical partners have included Benjamin Appl, Juliane Banse, Mojca Erdmann, Viviane Hagner, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Christian Poltéra, Lawrence Power, Hartmut Rohde, Baiba Skride, Jan Vogler and Antje Weithaas. As both conductor and composer, he has worked with top-class orchestras and ensembles such as the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, the Bavarian State Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of Bavarian Radio, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Berlin Baroque Soloists, the Scharoun Ensemble, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the Tokyo Sinfonietta, the Ensemble Modern, the Amaryllis Quartett and the Leipzig String Quartet. He has been invited to renowned music festivals including Wien Modern, Beijing Modern, Ultraschall Berlin, the Lucerne Festival, the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Pablo Casals Festival in Prades, the Dvorak Festival in Prague and the Suntory Festival in Tokyo.
Recent releases in David Philip Hefti’s extensive discography include the opera The Snow Queen (NEOS) and the album Light and Shade (NEOS), which reflects his many years of close collaboration with the Amaryllis Quartet. With the CD Shades of Love: Sounds of K-Drama, Hefti made his conducting debut with Deutsche Grammophon. This album was produced under his direction together with artists such as James Galway, Daniel Hope, Philipp Jundt, Albrecht Mayer, Richard O’Neill and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, and reached number one in the Korean classical music charts.
David Philip Hefti was born in Switzerland in 1975 and studied composition, conducting, clarinet and chamber music at the music academies of Zurich and Karlsruhe, where his teachers included Cristóbal Halffter, Rudolf Kelterborn, Wolfgang Meyer, Wolfgang Rihm and Elmar Schmid.
www.hefti.net
Season 2025/26
Selected interviews, portraits and articles can be found on
David Philip Hefti's profile on Linktree.
