Miroslav Srnka


Miroslav Srnka is a Czech composer.

Early life

Srnka studied musicology at Charles University Prague form 1993 to 1999 and composition with Milan Slavický at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague from 1998 to 2003. He continued his studies from 1995 to 1996 at Humboldt University of Berlin and in 2001 at the Conservatoire de Paris. He took composition master classes with Ivan Fedele in 2002 and Philippe Manoury in 2004, as well as a course at IRCAM in 2001. He was the composer in residence of the Theater & Orchester Heidelberg.

Career

His pieces were performed by Ensemble InterContemporain, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Prague Philharmonia and others, at festivals including Prague Spring, Ultraschall Berlin, Milano Musica, Printemps des Arts de Monte-Carlo and Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik.
His chamber opera Make No Noise premiered in June 2011 at the Munich Opera Festival, followed by a new production at the Bregenzer Festspiele in August 2016. In Dezember 2011, the Young Scene of the Semperoper in Dresden premiered his children's ‘comic book opera’ Jakub Flügelbunt, commissioned by the opera house. In 2014, this opera was added to the regular repertoire.
The opera ', written by Srnka as a commission of Bavarian State Opera on a libretto by Tom Holloway, premiered there on 31 January 2016, with Rolando Villazón as Scott, Thomas Hampson as Amundsen, conducted by Kirill Petrenko, staged by Hans Neuenfels. The opera was nominated for the International Opera Awards in 2017.
In 2017, Srnka was the featured composer of the Salzburg Dialogue Festival.
On 13 November 2018 his work Overheating premiered at the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The Los Angeles Times reported: ''...Overheating' is as exactly as uncomfortable as it needs to be, with its gusts of roiling and airless sounds. A muted trumpet wha-whas into the night. A solo cello slides down the scale like a first responder down the station pole. Still, a sense of emerging, of sparks of sound becoming fertile offers if not hope, awareness...

Recognition

Stage