Hans Thomalla is a German American composer living in Chicago and Berlin. A particular focus of his work lies in music for the stage. He has written four operas, Fremd (Stuttgart Opera 2011), Kaspar Hauser (Freiburg and Augsburg Opera 2016), Dark Spring, and Dark Fall (both Mannheim Opera 2020 and 2024).
Thomalla studied at the Frankfurt Musikhochschule and received his doctoral degree in composition from Stanford University. He has been associated with the Darmstädter Ferienkurse for a long time, where he has served for many years on the composition faculty.
He has received numerous awards and fellowships, including the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis, the Composer Prize of the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung, the Christoph Delz Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Koussevitsky Commission. During the academic year 2014/15 he was a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and in 2024/25 he is a Fellow at the German Academy Villa Massimo in Rome. He has written music for numerous ensembles and soloists, including the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Münchener Philharmoniker, SWR- and SR-Radiosinfonieorchester, The Crossing, Talea, ICE, Ensemble Modern, Musikfabrik, Ensemble Recherche, Arditti Quartet, Spektral Quartet, Nicolas Hodges, Irvine Arditti, Sarah Sun, and many others. He is the co-founder of the Chicago based record label Sideband Records.
Hans Thomalla joined the faculty of the University of Chicago in 2024.