Olga Neuwirth

Born 1968 in Graz. Composer.

As a child at the age of seven, Neuwirth began lessons on trumpet. She later studied composition in Vienna at the Vienna Academy of Music and Performing Arts under Erich Urbanner, while studying at the Electroacoustic Institute. Her thesis was written on the music in Alain Resnais's movie "L'Amour à mort." In 1985-86, she studied music and art at the Conservatory of Music in San Francisco with Elinor Armer. In 1993-94 she studied with Tristan Murail and worked at IRCAM, producing such works as "...?risonanze!..." for Viola d'amore. Earlier in her career, Neuwirth had the chance to meet with Italian composer Luigi Nono, who had similarly radical politics, and has claimed this had a strong influence on her life. In 2000, Neuwirth was appointed Composer-in-residence of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Flanders, Antwerp and in 2002, she was appointed Composer-in-residence at the Lucerne Festival (together with Pierre Boulez).

She has numerous chamber music works released on the Kairos label, and has collaborated with Elfriede Jelinek on an opera of David Lynch's film Lost Highway incorporating both live and pre-recorded audio and visual feeds, alongside other electronics. The world premiere took place in Graz in 2003, performed by the Klangforum Vienna with the electronics realized at the IEM. The American premiere of the opera took place at Oberlin College in Oberlin, OH and featured further performances at Columbia University's Miller Theater in New York City, produced by Oberlin Conservatory and The Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble. The surround recording released at Kairos was awarded the Diapason d'Or. The UK premiere took place at the Young Vic in London in April 2008, in a co-production with English National Opera, directed by Diane Paulus and conducted by Baldur Bronnimann.

In 2008 she was awarded the Heidelberger Künstlerinnenpreis.

http://www.olganeuwirth.com/
http://brahms.ircam.fr/composers/composer/2386/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_Neuwirth