German avant-garde composer and pianist Hans Otte has died, his former employer Radio Bremen said Wednesday. He was 81.

Otte died on Tuesday after a long illness, the station said on its website, but the cause of death was not specified.

He led the Radio Bremen music department from 1959 to 1984.

Otte, born Dec. 3, 1926 in the eastern German town of Plauen, started playing the piano at age five.

He was trained in Germany, in Italy and at Yale University in the United States where he studied composition for a year in 1950 under Paul Hindemith.

He also was a student of pianist Walter Gieseking and organist Fernando Germani.

Radio Bremen described Otte as an "outstanding innovative spirit" who brought avant-garde composers John Cage and David Tudor to Germany in the 1970s.

Otte initiated and organized the Pro Musica Nova festival in the northern city of Bremen starting in 1961, making a name for himself as a promoter of modern music.

Otte's own output ranged from musical theatre to video productions, and included his minimalist piano work Buch der Klaenge (Book of Sounds) first performed in 1982.

He is also known for solo piano piece Stundenbuch (Hours Book) and for sound installation Atemobjekt (Breath Object).

Details of survivors and funeral arrangements were not immediately available.