Norbert Ommer
Sound Director
© Wonge Bergmann
Norbert Ommer studied piano and clarinet in Cologne and music and creating news programmes music in Düsseldorf, where he graduated as a visual and sound engineer. He has worked in radio and television and collaborated closely with the Ensemble Modern (of which he has been a partner since 1997) since 1990, the WDR Big Band as sound engineer and, since 2003, the Berlin Philharmonic. His work as a sound designer and sound director has been internationally admired, including worlds premieres of music by Frank Zappa, Heiner Goebbels, Steve Reich, Helmut Lachenmann, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Robert Wilson at many international festivals including the Vienna Modern, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Ruhr Triennale, Holland Festival, Salzburg Festival, the BBC Proms, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Montreux Jazz Festival, the Edinburgh International Festival, Lincoln Center Festival and North Sea Jazz Festival Amsterdam. Norbert Ommer was awarded the 2002 Golden Bobby from the German Sound Engineers Union, and, together with the Ensemble Modern, an Echo Klassik in 2004. He has been a professor for sound direction at the International Ensemble Modern Academy since 2003 and at the HfMDK Frankfurt and has been running seminars for sound design at the Tokyo Wonder Site and Klangspuren in Schwaz since 2005.