In 1975 he went to Vienna, where he studied composition and conducting. From 1982 he composed chamber music. In 1989 he performed the opera "Die Blinden" (The Blinds) in public. As in his later works "Narcissus" (1994) and "Begehren" (Desires, 2003) the librettos repose on different sources: Ovid, Plato, Hölderlin, Rimbaud or Pavese. Since 1991 he is professor for composition at the Musikhochschule in Graz, Austria.