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 conduct...