Olga Neuwirth


Olga Neuwirth is an Austrian composer.

Career

As a child at the age of seven, Neuwirth began lessons on the trumpet. She later studied composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna under Erich Urbanner, while studying at the Electroacoustic Institute. Her thesis was written on the music in Alain Resnais's film L'Amour à mort. In 1985/86, she studied music and art at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with Elinor Armer. She studied painting and film at the San Francisco Art College. 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.
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 Wien with the electronics realized at the Institut für Elektronische Musik. The American premiere of the opera took place at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, and featured further performances at Columbia University's Miller Theatre 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 the English National Opera, directed by Diane Paulus and conducted by Baldur Brönnimann.
In 2008 she was awarded the Heidelberger Künstlerinnenpreis.

Works

Neuwirth's works were published mainly by Ricordi and Boosey & Hawkes:

Stage works