Heinz Robert Holliger (born 21 May 1939) is a Swiss composer, oboist, conductor and pianist. Known for his versatility and virtuosic technique, Grove Music Online credits him with raising the prominence of the oboe and enlarging its repertoire. A prominent figure in contemporary classical music, many leading composers have written for him, including Messiaen, Berio, Carter, Henze, Krenek, Lutosławski, Martin, Penderecki, Stockhausen and Yun.
A composer himself, Holliger has contributed his own oboe compositions, alongside works such as the opera Schneewittchen (1998).
Holliger was born in Langenthal, Switzerland. An oboist since age eleven, he studied at the conservatory of Bern before taking first prize in oboe at the Geneva International Music Competition in 1959. In 1966, he began teaching at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg.
Many composers have written works for him, including Luciano Berio, Elliott Carter, Hans Werner Henze, Ernst Krenek, Witold Lutosławski, Frank Martin, Krzysztof Penderecki, Henri Pousseur, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Sándor Veress and Isang Yun.
In 1972, Maurice Bourgue (oboe), Klaus Thunemann (bassoon), Christiane Jaccottet (continuo), Holliger, and others recorded Jan Dismas Zelenka's Six Trio Sonatas for oboe and bassoon. This recording is credited with the "Zelenka Renaissance".
He was married to the harpist Ursula Holliger, née Hänggi (1937–2014).
Holliger studied composition with Sándor Veress and Pierre Boulez, and has composed many works in a variety of genres. Many of his works have been recorded for the ECM label. Walter Fink invited him to be the 17th composer featured in the 2007 Komponistenporträt of the Rheingau Musik Festival. There, Holliger conducted music by Claude Debussy and Robert Schumann, alongside performances of his own vocal works, setting Georg Trakl poems, and Gesänge der Frühe, combining Hölderlin texts with quotations from Schumann’s music.
For New Music patron Paul Sacher's 70th birthday, Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich asked twelve composers, Sacher's friends, to write music for solo cello using the Sacher hexachord. (This musical cryptogram is eS, A, C, H, E, and Re, or "Sacher" spelled with German words for the pitch classes.) Holliger contributed a chaconne. Several of the compositions were premiered in Zurich on 2 May 1976. Czech cellist František Brikcius gave the first complete performance of the entire ‘eSACHERe’ project in Prague in May 2011.
1987: Léonie Sonning Music Prize
1991: Ernst von Siemens Music Prize
1994: The Prince Pierre of Monaco Music Composition Prize for (S)irató
2016: Honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
2017: Robert Schumann Prize of the City of Zwickau
2018: Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts
2022: Robert Schumann Prize for Poetry and Music
Sequenzen über Johannes I,32 (1962) for harp
Siebengesang (1966–1967) for solo oboe, orchestra, voices and loudspeaker*
Studie über Mehrklänge (1971) for oboe solo