Gottfried Michael Koenig was born in Magdeburg in 1926. On leaving grammar school he studied church music at the Staatsmusikschule in Braunschweig (1947-48). From 1948 to 1950 he attended the Nordwestdeutsche Musik-akade-mie in Detmold (composition with Bialas, piano with Natermann, analysis with Maler, acoustics with Thien-haus) and the Musikhochschule in Cologne (Institut für musisch-technische Gestaltung, 1953-54) and studied computer structure and programming at the mathematical institute at Bonn University (1963-64). From 1954 to 1964 Koenig worked in the electronic studio of the Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR Radio) in Cologne. During this period (1958-64) he was an assistant in the radio drama workshop at the Musikhochschule in Cologne, also teaching electronic music (1962-64), composition and analysis (1963-64). In 1964 Koenig was appointed director of the electronic studio (the later Institute of Sonology) at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, in which country he had been giving annual courses since 1961 at the invitation of the Gaudeamus Foundation in Bilthoven. From 1966 to 1967 he taught composition and electronic music at the Rheinische Musikschule in Cologne. He has lectured extensively and participated in international congresses throughout Europe and in the United States and Canada. In 1967 he featured in a film about electronic music for Austrian educational television. In the 1960s Koenig developed compositional algorithms (Project 1, Project 2) and a computer sound generation program (SSP), in the 1980s programs for computer graphics and 1989/90 embarked on the development of 'Project 3'. Since the Institute of Sonology's move to the Conservatory of Music at The Hague in 1986, Koenig has been living and composing in the Netherlands.

 

Gottfried Michael Koenig died on Dec. 30, 2021, in his hometown of Culemborg, NL.