Gottfried Michael Koenig (*1926) was a technical employee at the electronic music studio of the (N)WDR in Cologne from 1954 to 1964. In that capacity he played a crucial role in the creation of works by Franco Evangelisti, Mauricio Kagel, György Ligeti and Karlheinz Stockhausen, among others. From 1962 he was also a course leader one week a month in the studio of the Contact Body Electronic Music (CEM) in Bilthoven. This course attracted international attention and was so successful that in 1964 Koenig was appointed artistic director of the Studio for Electronic Music (STEM) of Utrecht University, later to become the Institute of Sonology. Since then, Koenig has lived and worked in the Netherlands.

Koenig retired when the Institute of Sonology moved from Utrecht to the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague in 1986. He still follows the developments at Sonology closely and is still active as a composer and author of computer programs.

Gottfried Michael Koenig will turn 95 on October 5, 2021. This event almost coincides with the moment when the Royal Conservatoire moves to the new Amare building. With five new studios, a room for group lessons and presentations to the public in which spatial sound reproduction plays an important role, and a climate-controlled archive room, the Institute of Sonology in Amare is entering a third phase.

Koenig's birthday is celebrated with a concert in which his electronic and instrumental compositions take center stage.

Programme:
Musik für Zwei Klaviere (1950)
Maryam Mehraban, piano
Yanjun Chen, piano

Klangfiguren I (1955)
Electronic music

Zwei Klavierstücke (1957)
Akane Takada, piano

Terminus 1 (1962)
Electronic music

Intermission

from 60 Blätter für Streichtrio (1992), pages 48, 58, 17, 22, 50, 3, 16, 20, 44, 41, 8, 28, 37, 7, 12, 31, 30, 27, 36 and 6
Rada Ovcharova, violin
Emlyn Stam, viola
Willem Stam, cello

Funktion Indigo (1969)
Electronic music

Intervalle (2016)
Maryam Mehraban, piano
Yanjun Chen, piano