Biographie
Born in Aachen, Dieter Schleip has been a guitarist and keyboardist in various bands, including "Catch 22," since around 1977, creating his own arrangements and compositions early on. From the start, he showed a strong interest in film music. In 1985, he co-founded the Aachen Film House and played an active role in organizing the Aachen Film Festival. By 1986, he composed his first film themes. In 1987, he relocated to Munich with the goal of dedicating himself entirely to film music composition. He worked as a studio guitarist, performed with multiple bands, and took on freelance technical and artistic roles in theater. He began composing film scores, initially mostly for film students, often under challenging conditions. He also spent extended periods abroad in the USA, Mexico, India, China, Greenland, Southeast Asia, and New Zealand.
Over the following years, Schleip developed close collaborations with emerging film directors such as Martin Enlen, Jobst Oetzmann, Thomas Berger, Vivian Naefe, Torsten C. Fischer, Dominik Graf, and others. In 1993, his first orchestral score was recorded with the Tessarini Chamber Orchestra Brno for the short film "Der Magier," directed by Markus Wernig. His 1995 score for "Roula" received significant recognition within the industry, leading to numerous compositions for high-budget films and TV productions featuring large orchestras. From this point forward, Schleip supported himself exclusively through his film composition work. In 1996, he was awarded a scholarship from the Filmwerkstatt Essen to attend the European Film Music Composition Workshop, led by Michael Nyman, Wojciech Kilar, and Krystof Zanussi. He received the same scholarship again in 1997 for workshops with Patrick Doyle and Randy Thom.
Schleip has increasingly contributed to education, including conducting a workshop at the 7th International Summer Academy for Film, TV, and Music in Munich in 2001. His accolades include the German Television Award in 2000 and 2003 (Best Music category), the German Film Critics Award in 2001, 2002, and 2008 for Best Film Music, the Max Ophüls Film Score Award in 2009, and the distinguished Adolf Grimme Award in 2010—the first time since 1964 that a film composer received this honor. He is a member of the Deutscher Komponistenverband (German Composers Association) and a founding member of the Deutsche Filmakademie (German Film Academy).
