de

Franz-Josef Elmer,
Theoretical Physicist, Software Developer, Composer

In 1957, I was born in Frankfurt am Main, West-Germany. My first passions were mathematics and physics.

In 1976, I therefore began to study physics at the TH Darmstadt. I pursued my second passion during my studies: Computer programming. I combined these passions with my interest in classical music and began, for example, to program the rules for Cantus Firmus melodies as a Markov process. This was the beginning of my third passion: composing music.

In 1987, I completed my studies in physics with a PhD and went to the University of Basel as a postdoc.

In 1990, one of my pieces (“Thevarimation”) was performed for the first time. The creation was supervised by René Wohlhauser.

1998-2022 I turned my second passion into a profession and worked as a software developer in the Basel area.

Since 2013 my passion for composition has intensified year by year.

Since 2017-2022 I took composition lessons with David Sontòn Caflisch.

In 2020 I did a “Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) Composition/Arrangement” at the Lucerne School of Music with Dieter Ammann.