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Christian Jost was born on 17 October 1963 in Trier. He studied composition, analysis and conducting in Cologne with Bojidar Dimov from 1983 to 1988 and with David Sheinfeld at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 1988 to 1989. Jost received scholarships from the foundation Kulturfond des Deutschen Volkes and the artistic and cultural foundation of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Jost first caused a sensation in 1992 with the performance of his orchestral work “Magmaâ€, a commission by the State Theatre Darmstadt. Between 1996 and 1998, he made regular visits to the People’s Republic of China and undertook intensive cooperation with a variety of Chinese orchestras. In 1997, the piano concerto Der lange Weg des Drachen (rev. 2009) was premiered by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra with Jost as the soloist.
The solo concerto is a core genre in Jost’s oeuvre. A characteristic of his works is an orchestrally conceived atmospheric tonal density. Jost’s compositional impulse primarily consists of the wish to acquaint the listener with the unknown, individualism and psychological borderline experiences in a fascinating guise. His intentions can frequently be divined by the titles of his works: TiefenRausch for violin and orchestra (1997), Cosmodromion for percussion and orchestra (2002) and Heart of Darkness (“Odyssee†for clarinet and orchestra, 2007, commissioned by the Berliner Philharmoniker, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle).
Two of Jost’s operas received their first performance in 2005: the first full-length opera Vipern (“A murderous desire in four actsâ€) at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf in January and the first staged performance of the one-act work Death Knocks (2001) based on the satire of the same name by Woody Allen in the theatre in Erfurt in May.
Jost received the Ernst von Siemens Foundation Encouragement Prize in 2003. His opera Hamlet has been elected 'World Premiere of the Year 2009' by an international jury of the magazine 'Opernwelt'. The composer received invitations to become Composer in Residence from the Orchestra of the Beethovenhalle in Bonn (1999/2000). |