Kevin Volans

Kevin Volans is a composer associated with the post-minimalist movement in contemporary composition, and a key figure in the Cologne School (Fox 2007, 27–28).

Biography

Kevin Volans was born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa on 6 July 1949, and even though he has spent most of his life outside his native country, is the best known South African composer active today.

In 1972, he graduated from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg with a Bachelor of Music degree, followed by post-graduate education at the University of Aberdeen. From 1973 to 1981 he lived in Cologne, where he studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen at the Musikhochschule. During this period he served as Stockhausen's teaching assistant in 1975–76 (Taylor 2001).

During this period of time, along with his contemporaries Walter Zimmermann, Gerald Barry, and Clarence Barlow, he became associated with the Cologne School, one of several musical movements sometimes also called the "New Simplicity" (Fox 2007, 27–28). These New Simplicity movements would later influence post-minimalist composition.