From 1955-64 Mr. Grosskopf was student in Frankfurt/Main and then in Berlin for composition with Pepping and Blacher. After his studies he taught at the Berliner Konservatorium for over two years. He has been a resident at the Villa Massimo in Rome, a tutor at the International Summer Courses at Darmstadt, and worked several times at the Institute for Sonologie of Utrecht University and later at the ZKM Karlsruhe. From 1978-1998 he served as artistic director of the concert series Insel Musik in Berlin. Mr. Grosskopf is member of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin.
His music has been performed at the EXPO ’70 in Osaka (Dialectics), by the Berlin Philharmonic (Hörmusik), at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Lichtknall), by several radio orchestras in Germany (DSO, RSB, HR, SWR, BR), in Tokyo (NHK), Radio Montreal, and at chamber music events throughout the world.
Among the performers of his music have been: the pianists; Frederic Rzewsky, Ursula Oppens, Marianne Schroeder, Carlos R. Alsina, Aki Takahashi and the Piano Duo Scholz-Persson; the wind players; Eberhard Blum, Hans Deinzer, Vinko Globokar, Michael Riessler, Harry Sparnaay, Roger Heaton, Marcus Weiss; the percussionists; Robyn Schulkowsky, Christian Dierstein; the string quartets; Arditti Quartet, Pellegrini Quartett, Vogler Quartett, Kairos Quartett; the ensembles; ensemble recherche, Ensemble Modern, trio accanto, KNM Berlin; and the conductors; Bruno Maderna, Michael Gielen, Jacques Mercier, Peter Rundel, Vykintas Baltakas, Friedrich Goldmann, Lorraine Vaillancourt, Maki Ishii, Peter Ablinger, Martyn Brabbins, Lucas Vis, Johannes Kalitzke.
Grosskopf has said about his music: “Just as in thoughts on body and spirit, the body appears to be more distinct, more tangible, more measurable and therefore more real, and yet the spirit shapes the body like water and wind shape the sand, so too can the spirit of a work of art change us if it touches our soul. Or to use a different image: as a composer, I am like an architect building a house for music, hoping that music will move into this house – not as content into form but as the spirit into the soul.“ (1988…)
