Torsten Rasch

Torsten Rasch was born in Dresden in 1965 and began piano lessons at the age of six. From 1974-82 he was a member of the renowned Dresdner Kreuzchor and subsequently went on to study composition and piano at the Carl Maria von Weber University in Dresden.

In 1990 he emigrated to Japan and established himself as a successful composer of film and TV scores, completing over forty to date.

Following an orchestral commission in 1999 from the Dresdner Sinfoniker - Völuspa-Der Seherin Gesicht for narrator and orchestra - Rasch was approached once again by the orchestra in 2002 for a commissioned song-cycle based on music and lyrics by the German industrial metal band Rammstein. DG recorded and released the disc of the resultant sixty-five-minute cycle Mein Herz brennt with bass René Pape, voice Katharina Thalbach and the Dresden Sinfoniker conducted by John Carewe. This followed first performances of the work in Dresden and Berlin in late 2003. In 2004 the disc was released in Japan and the USA, and was awarded Best World Premiere Recording at the Echo Classical Awards in Munich. In March 2006 the work was performed at the Helsinki Musica Nova to great acclaim.

Later that same year, Rasch was commissioned by the ICA in London to collaborate with the Pet Shop Boys on a soundtrack for the silent film Battleship Potemkin and a live, screened performance took place in London's Trafalgar Square. Meanwhile, interest in his music grew in Great Britain when he was taken up by the publisher Faber Music.

A selection of articles about Torsten Rasch

Ensemble. Centres of Excellence - Roderic Dunnett looks back to the 2017 Three Choirs Festival at Worcester, and forward to 2018 in Hereford

Punk Transformed? - Keith Bramich has lunch with Torsten Rasch, Roderic Dunnett and others, at the Three Choirs Festival

Ensemble. Quite Stunning - The 2015 Three Choirs Festival, enjoyed by Roderic Dunnett

Ensemble. Highly Successful - Roderic Dunnett looks back to Worcester's 2014 Three Choirs Festival, and forward to Hereford's Festival in July 2015

Ensemble. Cogent Achievements - Peter Maxwell Davies' tenth symphony and other British music, heard by Roderic Dunnett

Triumph and smiles - Tess Crebbin was at the Echo Classics Awards in Munich