biography

With the founding of his GHO Orchestra, Gerd Hermann Ortler established himself quickly as a composer and arranger in the international jazz and classical music scene. In addition to other awards, the two-time winner of the American »DownBeat Student Music Award« received the Austrian »State Scholarship for Composition« and the »Promotion Prize of the City of Vienna«.

He has written works for the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Philharmonie Luxembourg, the Metropole Orchestra, the Wiener KammerOrchester, Joshua Redman, Claron McFadden, Wolfgang Puschnig, the Transart Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and the Südtirol Jazz Festival.

His composition »Passion« to pictures by Gottfried Helnwein was recorded at the Albertina Museum with the two soloists of the Vienna Philharmonic Matthias Schorn and Christoph Gigler together with the radio.string.quartet. It was released as a music film in 2021.

In 2022, his work »Urknall« - a composition commissioned by the Wiener Konzerthaus - was premiered by Olivier Latry, phil Blech Wien and the Wiener Singakademie. That same year, his music was performed at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg for the first time with the piece »Mosaic«.

His major recent projects include the music theater work »Wolf – Das Mystical« based on a libretto by Franzobel with its premiere in 2024 at the Salzkammergut-Seebühne on Lake Wolfgang, as well as the double concerto for clarinet, trumpet, and orchestra »Expedition to Paradise«. Written for the Südtirol Filarmonica, the work features soloists Andrea Götsch, clarinetist of the Vienna Philharmonic, and Bertold Stecher, trumpeter of the Berlin Philharmonic. His other recent works include the commissioned composition »Polyphonic Superpower« for the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento, which premiered during the official ceremony celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Paris Agreement in the presence of the Presidents of Italy and Austria, Sergio Mattarella and Alexander Van der Bellen.

As a conductor, Gerd Hermann Ortler has already performed at the Great Hall of the Wiener Musikverein and the Wiener Konzerthaus. At the 2019 Opera Ball he conducted the world premiere of his »Jubelfanfare - 150 Years Vienna State Opera«.

Since 2012 he teaches composition and arrangement at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

“Being a composer means to keep the inner child against all odds, after all it is the creative being in us. My mission is to let this child play with sounds every day.”

—Gerd Hermann Ortler