As a composer and curator, Clemens K. Thomas tells stories and negotiates pressing questions of our time. Recurring motifs in his works are the processing of our everyday media and the nostalgic transfiguration of the past. Clemens often creates encounters between musical instruments and daily life’s objects. This way, his music deals in a playful way with the aspect of literally playing music – music instruments being considered as toys. As a harpsichordist and opera fan, Clemens has an emotional relationship to the European musical tradition; in a contemporary way, he lets it clash with pop culture and Internet phenomena.

»DOLLHOUSE – a cute opera« was premiered at the Hamburg State Opera in the 2024/25 season. The work was created in the context of an artistic-research PhD on cuteness as an aesthetic category.

Clemens’ portfolio includes vocal, instrumental and music-theatrical pieces as well as installation works. He collaborates with artists such as Ensemble Intercontemporain, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Ensemble Recherche, Boglárka Pecze and the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart. His works have been performed at the Staatstheater Braunschweig, the Cité de la Musique – Philharmonie de Paris, the ECLAT Festival and Frau* Musica Nova, among others. His music has been broadcast on ARTE television and radio stations such as Deutschlandfunk, SWR 2, WDR 3 and France Musique. 

Clemens studied composition in Freiburg, Germany, with Johannes Schöllhorn and Cornelius Schwehr. From 2019 to 2022 he was Artistic Manager of Ensemble Recherche. As a freelance curator, Clemens K. Thomas works with Ensemble Resonanz and the Göttingen Symphony Orchestra, among others.