Olga Neuwirth

Who is Olga Neuwirth?

Olga Neuwirth is an Austrian 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 film L'Amour à mort. In 1985/86, she studied music and art at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music 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.

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.