Manfred Stahnke

Manfred Stahnke (b. 30 Oct 1951, Kiel) is a German microtonal composer and musicologist, Professor Emeritus of Composition and Music Theory at Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg (since Apr 2019), and a member of TonArt Ensemble.

Stahnke's teachers in composition include Wolfgang Fortner (1970–73), Klaus Huber and Hubert's assistant Brian Ferneyhough (73–74) and György Ligeti (74–79). He also studied piano with Robert Alexander Bohnke and Edith Picht-Axenfeld. In 1979, Stahnke received a doctorate in musicology under Constantin Floros with a thesis on Boulez's Third Piano Sonata in Hamburg. He began using computers and computer-supported techniques to create precise microtonal music after his 1979–80 tenure in the United States. Stahnke studied extensively with notable microtonalist Ben Johnston at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and computer music researchers John Chowning and John Melby at Stanford University, who introduced him to real-time synthesis.

In 1983, Manfred Stahnke joined the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg faculty as an associate lecturer of music theory. He became a full professor of composition and music theory in 1994. He is a notable scholar of Harry Partch, György Ligeti, Pierre Boulez, and Gérard Grisey.

Among a few critically-acclaimed groups that performed Stahnke's chamber music are Ensemble 13, Ensemble Avance, Clementi-Trio Köln, Ensemble Modern, Nieuw Ensemble, Trio Accanto, Wolpe Trio, Ensemble Est! Est!! Est!!!, and Ensemble Intégrales.