Born in Munich in 1956, Klaus K. Hübler began his compositional career early on. He studied composition with Peter Kiesewetter and Brian Ferneyhough, and also studied musicology at Ludwig Maximilian University (Munich). Since 1975 he has written numerous works, mostly chamber music. In 1977 Hübler was awarded the Stuttgart Young Composers‘ Prize for his First String Quartet. In subsequent years, his complex and consistent output gained him further prizes, awards and scholarships. He was also invited to participate in various international composition forums: the Boswil Artists‘ House Foundation (1982-84), the Darmstadt Summer Course for New Music (1984-88) and the Pittsburgh International Music Festival (1986).
Hübler received scholarships from the Heinrich Strobel Foundation (1982), the Centre européen pour la recherche musicale (1983), the State Capital of Munich, and the State of Lower Saxony for a residency at the Schreyahn Artists‘ Colony (1988) and others.
Hübler’s works have been performed at major festivals in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands and France, with recordings produced by various broadcasting companies.
From 1975 until the sudden onset of a life-threatening illness in 1989, which interrupted his creative work for almost 6 years, Hübler’s compositional work was accompanied by numerous critical texts. These include ‘Und doch bin ich Mensch geworden’, on Karlheinz Stockhausen, and ‘Gedanke und Stil. Versuch einer kritischen Dokumentation’, on John Cage.
In 1995 Hübler made a fresh start, once again searching for an unmistakable style that would be at once his own and somehow different; but the underlying compositional idea would always be one of reduction. His works premiered at the 2001 Schreyahner Herbst included Maske, Mutmassungen für Akkordeon (1995-96) and Paravent for Ensemble (2nd version 1997-98). Subsequent performances included the orchestral piece Vanitas at the ECLAT Festival, Stuttgart in 2003; Tympanon, sonata for violin and piano, commissioned by the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (2004); Palimpsest/Konjektionen for bass flute (2004) at the 2004 Darmstadt International Summer Course for New Music, and B.B.H. for piano left hand, speaker and Jandl at Musik der Jahrhunderte, Stuttgart in 2006.
With growing recognition and new stylistic self-discovery, more works steadily followed: Abraxas for tenor saxophone, double bass and ensemble (2007), Azoth (commissioned by musica viva) for piccolo and ensemble (2008), and in 2010 Sephiroth for horn, piano, cello and piano, premiered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.