Biography

Philipp Christoph Mayer (*1995) is a composer, sound artist and improvisation musician. He writes both instrument and electronic music for concerts, creates sound installations and performs music on the piano and with live-electronics.

Mayer studied composition with Isabel Mundry at the HMTM Munich, Stefano Gervasoni at the CNSM de Paris (as an Erasmus student 2015/2016) and with Martin Schüttler and Joanna Bailie at the HMDK Stuttgart. Mayer has worked with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Trio Abstract, Duo2KW, Quartetto Maurice, Petra Hofmann, Ghenadie Rotari and many others. His music has been presented at festivals such as the Munich Opera Festival, the Suntory Summer Festival Tokyo, Munich Biennale, Evimus Festival Saarbrücken, Symposium Performing Voice (Bern), Alte Schmiede Vienna, Scène National d'Orléans, Delian Music Academy (Mykonos), Festival Contemporeanea Ponferrada (Leon, Spain) and the Mozart Festival Würzburg. Mayer received residency grants at the Künstlerhaus Schluss Wiepersdorf and the residency of the Beethoven Haus in Bonn. In 2016, he was awarded the Main-Kinzig District Cultural Promotion Prize.

In addition to compositions for concerts, Mayer pursues a diverse artistic practice. He creates sound installations (e.g. Museum Ulm), works in the field of (music) theater (e.g. Staatstheater Mainz/Staatstheater Nürnberg) and performs as a musician in various constellations. He collaborates with the visual artist Oliver Arendt and is one half of the electronic music duo Shape of Mustard, with which he creates multimedia installations and plays live electronic improvisations.

From 2019 to 2023, Mayer has been studying philosophy at the University of Stuttgart in parallel to his work as a composer. Mayer received a scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation from 2017-2021. He is currently based in Stuttgart.