Blacher was born when his parents (of German-Estonian and Russian backgrounds) were living within a Russian-speaking community in the Manchurian town of Niuzhuang (Chinese: 牛庄镇) (hence the use of the Julian calendar on his birth record).

He spent his first years in China and in the Asian parts of Russia, and in 1919, he eventually came to live in Harbin.

[citation needed] His career resumed after 1945, and he later became president of the Academy of Arts, Berlin, and is today regarded as one of the most influential music figures of his time.

His students include Aribert Reimann, Isang Yun, Maki Ishii, Fritz Geißler, Giselher Klebe, Heimo Erbse, Richard Aaker Trythall,[2] Klaus Huber, Francis Burt, Gottfried von Einem, Kalevi Aho and Richard Wernick.

[citation needed] List of works: Blacher wrote the libretto for Gottfried von Einem's operas Dantons Tod (1947) and Der Prozeß (1953).