Irmin Schmidt

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Irmin Schmidt (born 29 May 1937) is a German keyboardist and composer, best known as a founding member of the Krautrock band Can and composer of numerous film scores. Following the death of Can's second lead vocalist Damo Suzuki in February 2024, Schmidt is one of three surviving former members of the band, alongside original vocalist Malcolm Mooney and bassist Rosko Gee. Before joining Can, Schmidt studied composition with composers as György Ligeti, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luciano Berio, Henri Pousseur, Earle Brown, and István Kertész. He started work mainly as a conductor performing concerts with the Bochum Symphony, the Vienna Symphony, and the Dortmund Ensemble for New Music. During this time, Schmidt conducted the West German premiere of John Cage's "Atlas Eclipticalis" with Bochum Symphony Orchestra and performed Cage's piano piece "Winter Music". By 1966 Schmidt got a position as Kapellmeister at the Theater Aachen, hired as docent for musical theatre and chanson, and worked at the Schauspielschule Bochum (drama school) teaching vocal technique. Since early 1980s, Schmidt produced soundtrack compositions for such TV and films as Knife in the Head (1978) and Palermo Shooting (2008). Additionally, he has recorded solo albums and written an opera, Gormenghast, based on Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast Trilogy. He received the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Chevalier) in 2015 and Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2025.