My studio is my place that changes with every piece I write. I move between my room at home, the living room, my office at the university, a library, or a residency studio—always with the desire to start in a new “empty room” for each work.
What I do in one sentence: I write music—scores for musicians to be played in ever-changing spaces, situations, and interpretations.
Why I didn’t get a proper job: I actually did—teaching at a university. It pays the bills, gives me the freedom to write the music I want to write and hear, and allows me to interact with a community that constantly broadens my understanding of the world.
An artwork I dream of and I would get accomplished if space, time and money were abundant: To write a piece for a group of musicians in which we can live for an evening.
Why I do what I do: To make sense of the world and our feelings within it.
Artists, I have on my watch list (and why):Benedikt Hartl, Stefan Kaegi, Hanne Lippard, Malika Kishino, and Lola Randl—they are my friends and neighbors here at the Villa Massimo, which is my home for the year.
I am afraid of sometimes everything, often nothing, but right now—just as always at this stage of a new work—that I won’t get the piece I am writing right; that material, form, affect, and flow won’t come together to let the piece be itself. Fingers crossed, though…
I know that a piece is finished when I stop tinkering with it. (That can take decades.)
How I want to be buried resp. words I want to be written on my tombstone: That is one thing I really never think about (and don’t want to start now).
Hans Thomalla, Villa Massimo Fellow 2024/25. Studio visit in Hans’ studio at Villa Massimo in Rome.
My studio is my place that changes with every piece I write. I move between my room at home, the living room, my office at the university, a library, or a residency studio—always with the desire to start in a new “empty room” for each work.
What I do in one sentence: I write music—scores for musicians to be played in ever-changing spaces, situations, and interpretations.
Why I didn’t get a proper job: I actually did—teaching at a university. It pays the bills, gives me the freedom to write the music I want to write and hear, and allows me to interact with a community that constantly broadens my understanding of the world.
An artwork I dream of and I would get accomplished if space, time and money were abundant: To write a piece for a group of musicians in which we can live for an evening.
Why I do what I do: To make sense of the world and our feelings within it.
Artists, I have on my watch list (and why): Benedikt Hartl, Stefan Kaegi, Hanne Lippard, Malika Kishino, and Lola Randl—they are my friends and neighbors here at the Villa Massimo, which is my home for the year.
I am afraid of sometimes everything, often nothing, but right now—just as always at this stage of a new work—that I won’t get the piece I am writing right; that material, form, affect, and flow won’t come together to let the piece be itself. Fingers crossed, though…
I know that a piece is finished when I stop tinkering with it. (That can take decades.)
How I want to be buried resp. words I want to be written on my tombstone: That is one thing I really never think about (and don’t want to start now).
Hans Thomalla, Villa Massimo Fellow 2024/25. Studio visit in Hans’ studio at Villa Massimo in Rome.