Thomas Daniel Schlee, composer, organist, and long-time artistic director of the Carinthian Summer, died on Monday shortly after his 68th birthday.

Born in Vienna on October 26, 1957, Thomas Daniel Schlee studied organ and composition at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts, but also earned a doctorate in musicology and art history from the University of Vienna.

In 1986, he became music dramaturge at the Salzburg State Theater and in 1990 music director of the Brucknerhaus in Linz. At the end of the millennium, he moved to Germany, where Schlee was deputy artistic director of the Beethovenfest in Bonn from 1999 to 2003.

In 2004, he became artistic director of the Carinthian Summer and remained in this position until 2015.

Schlee was active internationally as an organist, and as a composer he was influenced not least by a stay with Olivier Messiaen in Paris. Thomas Daniel Schlee’s compositional oeuvre includes works for orchestra, ensembles, vocal and instrumental music.