Josef Anton Riedl

German composer Josef Anton Riedl was born in Munich on 11 June 1929 (or possibly on the same date in 1927), was attracted to music when very young, improvising pieces for piano and organ, and studied in Munich with conductor Hermann Scherchen.

Riedl was particularly interested in composing for percussion instruments, plus instruments he made himself, and making sound poetry. He worked with electronic sounds, produced experimental music and musique concrète, and also wrote film music. His output included Paper Music (1970) and Glas-Spiel (1977).

He was co-founder of the Jeunesses Musicales German division, and was director (1959-66) of the Siemens studio for electronic music. In 1960 he initiated the Neue Musik München / Klang Aktionen concert series, which is still running. In 1967 he created the Musik/Film/Dia/Licht-Galerie group and founded the Kultur Forum in Bonn in 1974, directing it until 1982.

Josef Anton Riedl died on 25 March 2016 in Murnau am Staffelsee, aged eighty-six (or possibly eighty-eight).