Jörg Widmann (born 19 June 1973) is a German composer, conductor and clarinetist. He lives and works in Berlin and Munich. His music is in part inspired by Classical and Romantic composers. Widmann was in 2018 the third most performed contemporary composer. 　　Widmann was born in Munich and first took clarinet lessons in 1980. Four years later he became a composition student of Kay Westermann.He later studied with Hans Werner Henze, Wilfried Hiller [de], Heiner Goebbels and Wolfgang Rihm. As a clarinetist, he studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München with Gerhard Starke and at the Juilliard School in New York City with Charles Neidich. After graduating with a Master's from Munich in 1997, he furthered his studies at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe. From 2001 to 2015 he taught clarinet as a Professor at the University of Music Freiburg. From 2009 to 2016 Widmann was a demi-Professor of Composition, succeeding Mathias Spahlinger, at the Institute for New Music at the University of Music Freiburg. Since 2017 Widmann has been Principal Conductor and Artistic Partner (2011–2017: Principal Guest Conductor and Artistic Partner) of the Irish Chamber Orchestra. Since 2017 Widmann holds the Edward-Said-Chair as Professor of Composition at the Barenboim–Said Akademie Berlin. 　　In most of his compositions, Widmann is in musical dialogue with Classical-Romantic composers such as Schumann, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms. He uses extended techniques.[46] Widmann has written pieces without pitches and also purely tonal pieces. 　　According to Bachtrack, in 2018 Widmann was the third most performed contemporary composer, behind Arvo Pärt and John Williams.