MMus - Choral Music
University of Aberdeen
BMus (Hons) - Music
University of Aberdeen
Tobias Patrick Wolf
FRSA
Tobias Patrick Wolf is an award-winning German conductor and composer based in St Andrews, Scotland. He grew up in the Rhineland area of Germany and studied in Cologne and Bonn before his move to Scotland in 2015. Tobias graduated with a Master of Music Degree from the University of Aberdeen with Distinction and has since moved on to explore contemporary and hybrid composition and performance practice as a doctoral researcher under the supervision of Professor Phillip Cooke.
Tobias’ career in the music industry started with a position at the International Beethovenfest Bonn as a liaison with international participants including the world’s most renowned orchestras, soloists, and conductors. He is the conductor of various ensembles both in the United Kingdom and in Germany, and he is the founding director of the North Studio Orchestra in St Andrews. Sought after as guest conductor and performer for concerts and projects around the globe, he brings new music to life — for audiences in the concert hall, on radio and television, and across multi-platform performances online.
Recent engagements include performances as Principal Guest Conductor for the German Winds, a jubilee concert with the State District Choir of Neuwied, Germany, as well as a concert with Pro Coro Canada in the prestigious Winspear Centre in Edmonton, Alberta. He is the recipient of various awards and scholarships, including the James Lobban Conducting Scholarship, the Professor Ogston Postgraduate Research Scholarship, the National Winner of ‘365 Places in the Land of Ideas’, and others.
Much of Tobias’ own music is inspired by nature and landscapes. He explores contemporary composition and performance techniques whilst trying to make music accessible to a wide range of performers. Tobias’ work and research in music explores Augmented and Hybrid Performance Practice, Performance Art, and Accessibility of Contemporary Music. In his most recent work, he seeks to take advantage of the digital nature of performances in a socially distanced world in which online and virtual performances have become a temporary norm.
His other research in music draws from his experiences growing up and working in a variety of different cultures and countries: Tobias explores the interdisciplinary connections between research in the musical fields of conducting and composition with the research in other fields. In a recent paper he examines ‘The Conductor as a Leader’, for instance, focusing on the musical conductor as a very prominent example in a leadership role, and the nature of and hierarchies within the relationships between conductors and musicians, examining concepts of democracy in music, impact, and potentials, as well as preferred (or national) leadership styles in different cultural contexts.
Tobias is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
