Mauricio Kagel (Spanish pronunciation: [mauˈɾisjo ˈkaɣel]; December 24, 1931 – September 18, 2008) was a German-Argentine composer. He was notable for his interest in developing the theatrical side of musical performance (Grimshaw 2009).
Kagel was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, into a Jewish family which fled from Russia in the 1920s (Anon. n.d.). He studied music, history of literature, and philosophy in Buenos Aires (Grimshaw 2009). In 1957 he came as a scholar to Cologne, Germany, where he lived until his death.

From 1960–66 and 1972–76, he taught at the International Summer School at Darmstadt (Attinello 2001).

He taught at the State University of New York at Buffalo from 1964 to 1965 as Slee Professor of music theory and at the Berlin Film and Television Academy as a visiting lecturer. He served as director of courses for new music in Gothenburg and Cologne (Attinello 2001). He was professor for new music theatre at the Cologne Conservatory from 1974 to 1997.

Invited by Walter Fink, he was the second composer featured in the annual Komponistenporträt of the Rheingau Musik Festival in 1991. In 2000 he received the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize.

Among his students were Maria de Alvear, Carola Bauckholt, Branimir Krstić, David Sawer, Rickard Scheffer, Juan Maria Solare, Gerald Barry, and Chao-Ming Tung. See: List of music students by teacher: K to M#Mauricio Kagel.

He died in Cologne on September 18, 2008 after a long illness, at the age of 76 (Nonnenmann 2008).