Thomas Schäfer

Thomas Schafer (b. 1967, Hamburg) is a writer, dramaturge, and curator working in contemporary music. He studied musicology, literature, and philosophy in Hamburg, completing a doctorate at Humboldt University Berlin, and co-founded a research group on music written in exile.

From 2000 to 2007 he served as dramaturge for contemporary music at the Vienna Konzerthaus, overseeing the Wien Modern and Horgange festivals and the generator concert series. Since 2009 he has directed the Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt and the Darmstadt Summer Course, a central institution for new music since the 1940s.