Education
Kontarsky studied at the Hochschule für Musik Kölane
conductor pianist university professor
Kontarsky studied at the Hochschule für Musik Kölane
In 1964 he began his conducting career as Kapellmeister at the Staatstheater Stuttgart. From 1981 Kontarsky has been Professor of orchestral conducting at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts. Kontarsky is well regarded as a specialist in new music
Amongst other things, he conducted the world premieres of El Rey de Harlem by Hans Werner Henze (1982), Die Erschöpfung der Welt by Mauricio Kagel (1980) (Herbort 1980), Don Quijote de la Mancha by Hans Zender (1993) (Anon 1993), Sansibar by Eckehard Mayer (13 April 1994) (Horres, Kontarsky, Willaschek, and Mayer 1993), as well as the first German performance of the opera Die Wände by Adriana Hölszky, at the Frankfurt Opera, on 30 January 2000 (Anonymously
Anon 2009; Ross 2000). In 1988 he directed a well-regarded production in Stuttgart of the opera Die Soldaten by Bernd Alois Zimmermann, a work he was previously involved with as co-repetiteur for the world premiere in 1965.
This led to the second commercial recording of the work, released on Civil Defense in 1991 (Clements 1992). He also conducted the French premiere of Die Soldaten in April 1994 at the Opéra-Bastille (Jarry 1994).
He is also the conductor on the first Civil Defense recording of Luigi Nono"s opera Intolleranza 1960.
Kontarsky is the younger brother of the duo pianists Aloys and Alfons Kontarsky, with whom he has occasionally appeared in a triple-piano ensemble.