Vienna – October 2017

Aleksandra Chmielewska was born in 1993 in Warsaw. She has been studying composition at Fryderyk Chopin Music University in Warsaw under the guidance of Prof. Paweł Łukaszewski since 2012. She also studies Art History at the University of Warsaw. She took part in numerous composition masterclasses led by composers such as: Simon Steen-Andersen, Martijn Padding, Philippe Manoury, Zhou Long, Zygmunt Krauze, Johannes Kreidler, Martin Bresnick, Mark Andre, Paul Mealor, Phillip Cooke, Daniel Moreira and Lowell Liebermann.
She is a member of the Circle of the Young of the Polish Composers’ Union and she co-works with Ensemblage Foundation aiming to promote new music.
Her compositions – orchestral, choral and chamber – have been performed in Poland, Germany, Ukraine and the United States by artists such as: Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra, Fryderyk Chopin University of Music Symphony Orchestra, Unplugged Orchestra, Vogler Quartett, ProMODERN vocal sextet, Grawemeyer Players, E-MEX Ensemble, Windswept Trio, Polish Chamber Choir, Poznan Chamber Choir, Latvian Kammerchor, Warsaw University of Technology Academic Choir. She has been awarded at numerous composers competitions, i.e.: Transatlantyk Instant Composition Contest 2015 [I prize], Musica Sacra Nova Composers Competition 2016 [II Prize], Opus 966 Composers Competition [2015 – distinction, 2016 – III prize], Nordhessische  Kindermusiktage Composers Competition 2011 [I prize], Fide et Amore
Composers Competition 2014 [distinction], «Sinfonietta per Sinfonietta» Composers Competition [2014, 2015 – distinctions], 57. Young Composers Competition of Tadeusz Baird 2016 [distinction].
She also has achievements as a writer. In 2014, her debut novel «Uczeń
Czarnoksiężnika» was released. In 2015, her script of the radio play «Tam, gdzie mieszka cisza» was awarded with the II prize in the competition organised by «Literacki Sopot Festival» and with the III prize in the competition organised by Miniatura Theatre in Gdansk. The following year the radio play was awarded with the I prize at «Dwa Teatry» Festival.

René Eespere was born in December 1953 in Tallinn. Since 1979 he is a teacher
of composition and music theory at the Estonian Academy of Music and
Theatre and since 2002 he is a professor.

During the 1980s René Eespere wrote a number of vocal-symphonic works
with an ethical and existential message (Passiones, Mysterium, Mediterium).
Eespere´s Latin works – Two Jubilations, Glorificatio, De amore aeterno, Festina
lente, Ritus, Origo originum have resounded in churches and cathedrals of
Germany, France, Italy, Hungary, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Croatia
and Spain. During the last 20 years instrumental concertos and chamber pieces
have been born out of orders from both Estonian and foreign interpreters and
chamber ensembles. In 2006 his opera «Gourmets» premiered in the Estonian
National Opera.

The majority of Eespere´s works have been published by Eres Edition, Antes,
edition 49, Verlag Neue Musik Berlin, Estonian Record Productions and
Edition Eisenberg. There have been 12 personal collections of Eespere´s music
released in Germany and Estonia. His music has also been included on a
number of compilation records.

He received the following orders and decorations: the Annual Estonian Music
Award (1989), the 4th class Order of the White Star of Estonia (2001), the Life
and Shine award of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia (2001-2002), Riho
Päts School Music Foundation Stipend (2004), award of composition of the
Cultural Endowment of Estonia (2008) and the award of composition of the
Estonian Music Council (2011).

Tyler Futrell, born in 1983, is an Oslo-based composer, originally from Northern
California. He studied primarily with Bent Sørensen at the Royal Danish
Academy of Music, Lee Hyla at the New England Conservatory, and Michael
Jarrell at the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

Since moving to Norway in 2010, Futrell has focused his attention there,
working with ensembles and festivals such as Ultima, Borealis, Ilios, Bit20, The
Norwegian Soloists’ Choir, Alpaca Ensemble, Telemark Chamber Orchestra,
Ensemble 96, SISU, Aksiom Ensemble and Trondheim Sinfonietta.

Outside Norway, his work has been performed by the London Contemporary
Orchestra Soloists (UK), Athelas Sinfonietta (DK), Esbjerg Ensemble (DK),
Curious Chamber Players (SE), and the Sonar (DE) and Bozzini (CA) string
quartets, among others. These collaborations and others saw venues such as
Jordan Hall (Boston), Tivoli Concert Hall (Copenhagen), King’s Place (London),
Weimar Spring Days Festival (Weimar), and Institute del Teatre (Barcelona).

Futrell is a recent recipient of a «Reststipend» (9 months) from Statens
Kunstnerstipend, as well as a recipient of the «Fordypningsstipend» (1 year)
from Komponistenes vederlagsfond. His work is published by the Norwegian
National Library.

Gerald Resch, born in Linz, Austria, in 1975, studied composition with Michael
Jarrell at the University of Music, Vienna, from 1993–2000. A scholarship at
the music university Cologne, where he worked with York Höller, stimulated
Resch’s interest for working with organic sound sculptures. From 2001 to
2002 Gerald Resch was a postgraduate student of Beat Furrer in Graz which
was an important experience for the development of musical economy.

Since 2004 he has been teaching musical analysis at the Bruckner-University
Linz. He has been a senior lecturer for harmony and counterpoint at the
University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna since 2008.

«Setting off, going on, changing direction, not knowing where one will get
to: my compositions originate from a curiosity for unknown paths. Models
from architecture, geology, horticulture or linguistics have thus initiated
compositional reflection. In every moment of the musical process, these
models are being examined on how they could be stratified, altered, confronted
or extinguished in a meaningful way. Colouring and dramaturgy, as well as
openness for the unexpected, play an essential part.»

The compositions of Gerald Resch have been performed in Europe, Northand South America and Asia.

Krešimir Seletković, born in Slavonski Brod in 1974, graduated from the Music
Academy in Zagreb, in the composition class of Professor Davorin Kempf.
He attended master classes in Semmering (Austria), Radziejowice (Poland),
Darmstadt (Germany), Szombathely (Hungary) and Grožnjan (Croatia).

His compositions are performed in Croatia, Italy, Slovenia, Russia, China,
Austria, Canada and Netherlands. Seletković holds the position of Professor
at the Zagreb Music Academy, where he also serves as a vice-dean.

He is also a member of the Croatian Composers’ Society and between 2003
and 2012 he was the editor of arc croatica editions of the same Society. He
won the Rector’s Award of the Zagreb University (1999), Boris Papandopulo
Award of the Croatian Composers’ Society (2000), award for the best music
in a children’s play at the 19th SLUK (Puppet Theatre and Puppeteer Meeting)
Osijek 2003, Stjepan Šulek Award (2004), as well as Josip Štolcer Slavenski
Award (2009). His ballet Air, choreographed by Martino Müller, was declared
the best ballet production in 2011 (Award of the Croatian Actors’ Guild).

Jennifer Fowler was born in Bunbury, Western Australia in 1939. She studied
at the University of Western Australia, where she won composition prizes and
the University’s Convocation Award. In 1968 she spent a year in Holland at the
University of Utrecht on a Dutch Government Scholarship. Since 1969, she has
been living in London where she works as a free-lance composer.

Her international prizes for composition include: Academy of Arts, Berlin,
1970; Radcliffe Award of Great Britain, 1971; International Competition
GEDOK, Mannheim, 1975; Miriam Gideon Prize, 2003; Bodman Memorial
Competition, 2006; Sylvia Glickman Memorial Prize, 2009 and Goleminov
Contest, Bulgaria, 2009.

Her output includes orchestral works, chamber pieces, solo music and vocal
ensembles of all kinds.
She has had commissions from such organisations as the BBC, the ABC, the
Perth International Arts Festival, the Music Board of the Australia Council,
the Radcliffe Award of Great Britain, the Song Company in Sydney, Donne in
Musica, Italy, Women in Music (UK) and the University of Western Australia.

Composer and conductor Lojze Lebič is considered one of the most prominent Slovene composers. He has managed to create his own, unique and recognizable music style, stretching from musical might and reflective reticence to cosmopolitan modern ingenuity and commitment to traditional values. His music is a reflection of his loyalty to art, to musical universality and to social sensitivity for the time in which he lives. He composes for a number of different music ensembles.

So far, his compositions have been performed at the ISCM World New Music Days (Brussels 1981, Zurich 1991, Bucharest 1999, Jokohama 2001, Ljubljana 2003, Växjö 2009), the Berlin Musik Biennale, the Zagreb Music Biennale, the MusikprotokolI in Graz, the Pan Music Festival (Seoul, South Korea), the Warsaw Autumn music festival, the MittelFest (Čedad/Cividale del Friuli, Italy), the EBU concerts, Danubiana (Timisoara, Romania), Unisa Transnet (Pretoria, South Africa), the Golden Gate Festival (San Francisco, USA), the Festival de Saint Denis (France), Klangforum (Vienna, Austria) and many other places.

He has received many prestigious awards for his work: First Prize at the BBC Composers’ Competition (1972), the Prešeren Fund Award (1994), the Golden Order for Services (2004) and the Kozina Award (2005). Lojze Lebič is a member of the Slovene Academy of Sciences and Arts (1995), a member of the arts section at the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts (2005) and a corresponding member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (2012).

Zlatkov was born in 1992 to the family of a musician and a painter in Schumen, Bulgaria. He began piano lessons at the age of six with renowned teacher Nadezhda Mileva, winning his first competition as an 8-year-old. In 2010, Svetlomir Zlatkov began his work with Bulgarian conductor Slavil Dimitrov as his pupil and singer in his choir «Simenonis». Since 2013 he has studied conducting at mdw – University of music and performing arts Vienna in the class of Simeon Pironkoff. He also studies choir conducting with Thomas Lang.

As a conductor he has had numerous performances with the «Simeonis» choir, the symphonic orchestra and wind orchestra in his hometown Schumen. Since autumn 2014, he directs the «Ars Vivendi Wien» choir with which he performed Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s «Te Deum» in 2015 together with the KünstlerOrchester Wien. Two concerts of Joseph Haydn’s «Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze» were conducted by him in 2016.

Since autumn 2016, he directs the choir of Saint Peter Vienna and is responsible for the arrangement of high mass, orchestra and a cappella masses. He regularly takes part in projects at the mdw – University of music and performing arts Vienna, e.g. the closing concert of the Fanny-Hensel Composition Competition and the performance of «Carmina Burana» at Schlosstheater Schönbrunn.

Born in 1991 into a musical family Lorenz Müller began his music career early. At the age of eight, he received cello lessons and soon started playing piano as well. In 2010, he passed the entry exam for composition and music theory studies at mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, where he graduated from the classes of Reinhard Karger and Ertruğul Sevsay (instrumentation). Courses with personalities such as Manfred Trojahn or Péter Eötvös round off his education. In 2013, he was admitted to studying conducting as one of only six students.

Lorenz Müller finished the first part of his studies with distinction for which he received an achievement scholarship from the university. He decided to continue his studies specialising in orchestra conducting in the classes of Mark Stringer and Barbara Moser. He regularly takes part in master classes in order to get to know different orchestras and work with renowned conductors such as Christian Ehwald, Wolfgang Dörner, Atso Almila and Jorma Panula.
Recently he conducted part of Verdi’s «Nabucco» in the frame of a class taking place in Stettin, Poland and the suite from Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s «Ein Sommernachtstraum» with the Polish Baltic Frédéric Chopin Philharmonic. Müller also regularly performs as a pianist and conducts own compositions.