Essential Neuwirth
Olga Neuwirth, born in Graz in 1968, is one of the most renowned and versatile contemporary composers. Her musical output spans chamber music, orchestral works and operas, as well as sound installations, film music and radio plays.
Read more…Neuwirth started taking trumpet lessons as a child, but was forced to abandon the plan to study trumpet after a jaw injury. The virtuoso trumpet concerto "…miramondo multiplo…" is testament to this early musical focus. She went on to study music and painting in San Francisco, Vienna and Paris with teachers including Adriana Hölszky, Tristan Murail and Luigi Nono. Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek has been a long-term close collaborator, providing libretti for works such as "Todesraten", "Lost Highway" and "Bählamm’s Fest".
Neuwirth draws on a wide range of influences, including film, literature, science and visual arts, stating that, 'Ever since I was a child I’ve been interested in everything – from art to politics, from science to human psychology. Passionate about everything, I let myself be inspired in the same way by the small and the big things the world has to offer, by the wonderful diversity of life.'
Her writing incorporates unusual instrumentation such as singing saws, theremins or the 'bicycle machine' employed in "No more" and "Who am I?" as elegantly as the grand orchestral canvases of "Clinamen/Nodus" and "Masaot/Clocks Without Hands".
Throughout her career, Neuwirth has been outspoken on political and social issues, frequently drawing attention to the marginalized perspective of women composers. Her opera "Orlando" after the novel by Virginia Woolf, which Neuwirth calls her 'opus summum', was the first opera by a female composer ever to be commissioned by the Vienna Staatsoper.
Like Woolf’s writing, Neuwirth’s work combines the exploration of complex psychological dynamics with a distinctive artistic voice and superb technical craftship.