German composer. His works have been associated with the minimalist style of composition, and in the late 1970s with the New Simplicity movement.
In 1970, he founded “Between”, an international group dedicated to improvisational music with whom he made 6 records on the intuition/wergo label and in 1978 in Munich, he founded the Freies Musikzentrum, an institute for musical education and therapy. In 1978, his book Through Music to the Self was published in English translation, obtaining wide circulation in Europe and the U.S.
In 1997, he became professor for composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg (Fricke 2001). His orchestra and chamber music is published by Schott, Bärenreiter and E.R.P./Celestial Harmonies. He has composed four operas; many pieces for orchestra (e.g., Gestalt); violin and piano concertos; spiritual compositions for soprano, choirs and orchestra (e.g., Missa); Shoah (a radio-composition about the Holocaust); a number of chamber-music compositions (including four string quartets); and is in demand as a performing artist (piano, prepared piano, pipe organ, voice and live-electronics). His First Symphony was premiered by Sergiu Celibidache in 1988; his Second Symphony had its first performance in Munich on April 29, 2008 with the Munich Philharmonic. In 2007 Hamel’s Of the Sound of Life for pianist Roger Woodward was published by Celestial Harmonies.

Link to Wikipedia biography