The German conductor and composer Johannes Kalitzke was born in 1959 in Cologne and studied church music there. At the Musikhochschule he studied the piano with Aloys Kontarsky, conducting with Wolfgang von der Nahmer, and composition with York Holler, with further study on a scholarship to IRCAM in Paris, where he was a pupil of Vinko Globokar, and in Cologne studied electronic music with Hans Ulrich Humpert.

He started his conducting career as chief conductor at the Gelsenkirchen Musiktheater im Revier from 1988 to 1990, while, from 1986, directing the Forum for New Music. In 1991 he became artistic director and conductor of the Musikfabrik of the North-Rhine-Westphalia regional ensemble, and has since then been a regular guest conductor of ensembles such as the Vienna Klangforum and symphony orchestras, including the North German Radio, South West Radio, BBC, Vienna Radio Symphony orchestras, and the Basel Sinfonietta, appearing at the Salzburg Festival, the Vienna Festival Weeks, the Styrian Autumn, the Munich Biennale, and the Dresden Festival, with tours to Russia, Japan, and America, in addition to a number of recordings.

As a composer he has won a number of awards, and has written two successful operas, in addition to other works. He is a regular guest-lecturer at Darmstadt, the Essen Folkwang Hochschule and the conductors’ forum of the German Music Council.