Isabel Mundry

Isabel Mundry's work is characterized by a unique sonic language that investigates the relationships between time, space, and perception in rich, multi-faceted ways. In doing so, she creates new pathways and different realities in her compositions, which are explored through the timbre, harmony, and rhythms of her nuanced music.

Born in Hessen in 1963 and raised in Berlin, Isabel Mundry honed her composition skills under Frank Michael Beyer, Gösta Neuwirth, and Hans Zender, among others. This training was complemented by studies in musicology, art history, and philosophy, as well as a course in computer science and composition at the Paris IRCAM. After gaining attention in the 90s for her chamber music compositions as well as her ensemble and orchestral works, her first music theatre work was a resounding success: in 2005, the premiere of Ein Atemzug – die Odyssee at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Reinhild Hoffmann, staging; Peter Rundel, conductor), was named best premiered work of the year by the magazine Opernwelt. In this work the composer deals with layers of remembering and forgetting. Isabel Mundry’s interest in fusing musical structure to spatial presentation continued with Nicht Ich – über das Marionettentheater, a concert staged and conceived with the dancer and choreographer Jörg Weinöhl. It premiered in 2011 at the Kleistfestival in Thun in a performance by Ensemble Recherche and Vokalensemble Zürich and was subsequently shown in Zurich, Basel, Lyon, Dusseldorf, and Salzburg.

Isabel Mundry's numerous works for solo instruments and orchestras include Nocturno, first performed in 2006 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim and later interpreted by the Staatskapelle Berlin and Dresden, the RSO Vienna and the Hamburg Philharmonic. Her piano concerto Ich und Du, which premiered at the Donaueschinger Musiktage 2008 with the SWR Symphony Orchestra under Pierre Boulez, was later expanded into Non-Places, a piano concerto. For the 2013 Happy New Ears Prize award ceremony, the work was premiered by the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under Emilio Pomarico and it was subsequently awarded the German Music Authors' Prize by GEMA.

Among the world premieres of the last decade are works of various genres with diverse sources of inspiration: in Vogelperspektiven for ensemble (world premiere 2016, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks), inspired by poems by Thomas Kling, Isabel Mundry gives life to the changing perspectives of the human and animal worlds. Zu Fall, premiered by Tonhalle Orchester Zürich 2016, investigates the relationship between activity and passivity and features a shadow play of a chaotically oscillating pendulum, which conducts the conductor as it pendulates. In Sounds, Archeologies, premiered by Trio Catch at Berlin's Ultraschall Festival in 2018 and most recently performed at Wien Modern in 2023 and again at Musikfest Berlin in 2024, Mundry questions the proximity or remoteness of historical objects and cultural identities. In the a-cappella choral piece Mouhanad, based on an interview with a Syrian refugee and premiered in Donaueschingen by the SWR Vokalensemble in 2018, she examined cultural resonances and new acoustic neighborhoods. 

In February 2020, Noli me tangere, her new work for percussion solo and ensemble, was premiered in Paris with Ensemble intercontemporain and in Cologne with Ensemble Musikfabrik. In 2022, Isabel Mundry was Artiste étoile of the Mozartfest Würzburg, during which Signaturen for two pianos, percussion and strings was premiered by the GrauSchumacher Piano Duo and Ensemble Resonanz, followed by performances of the same work at Wien Modern festival and at the Elbphilharmonie. In 2022, Nils Mönkemeyer and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra under Michael Wendeberg premiered her viola concerto Gesture at the Suntory Hall Summer Festival, where Isabel Mundry held the title of Theme Composer.

2023, her composition Invisible, a spatial constellation about belonging, inclusion and exclusion had its highly acclaimed premiere by the vocal ensemble Exaudi and Ensemble PHACE at the Wien Modern festival. The German premiere of Invisible was part of a series of feature concerts at Musikfest Berlin 2024. The final versions of Figura (Ensemble Musikfabrik, Marco Blaauw and Markus Schwind) and Signaturen (GrauSchumacher Piano Duo with Ensemble Resonanz) were also premiered at three concerts in the Philharmonie's Chamber Music Hall. In March 2025 a new piano trio was launched by the young Trio E.T.A. at the Elbphilharmonie, followed in May by the trio Songlines for saxophone, piano and percussion for the Trio Abstrakt at the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid. The latter will be performed again at the Wiener Konzerthaus in May 2026. 

In the current season, Isabel Mundry is working several times at IRCAM in preparation for her new piece The I’s for mezzo-soprano, ensemble, and electronics, which will premiere in April 2026 at the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik. Klangforum Wien under Elena Schwarz and soprano Hélène Fauchère will also perform the work in May at the Wiener Konzerthaus, followed in June by a French premiere with Ensemble intercontemporain under Pierre Bleuse at the Philharmonie de Paris. An early work by Isabel Mundry is scheduled in April in Ljubljana: Michael Wendeberg will interpret the 2001 piano concerto Panorama ciego as conductor and pianist with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra. Earlier, Isabel Mundry started the season in autumn 2025 with a series of jury activities. At the Gaudeamus Award and Festival in Utrecht, she was present not only as a juror but also represented with her piece Sounds, Archeologies. For the International Hindemith Viola Competition in Munich she contributed a composition as a required piece. She also served on the jury of the German Conducting Award of the Forum Dirigieren/ German Music Council and at the competition of the Festival International de musiques sacrées in Fribourg, during which Noli me tangere was performed again. In December, at the symposium Afrodiaspora – Composing While Black, organized by the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, she will give a lecture at the Berlin Musical Instrument Museum.

Isabel Mundry's numerous awards and honours include the Kranichstein Music Prize in 1996, a 2001 Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation Composer Prize, and the 2011 Heidelberg Artists' Prize. In 2007/08 she was the Staatskapelle Dresden’s first Capell-Compositeur (composer-in-residence). Isabel Mundry is a member of the Academy of the Arts in Berlin and Munich as well as the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz. Since 1998, she has been a frequent lecturer at the Darmstadt Summer Courses. After holding a professorship at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts from 1996, she has been a professor of composition at the Zurich University of the Arts since 2004 and, since 2011, a professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich.

Season 2025/26   

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Eine Liste der Werke von Isabel Mundry finden Sie auf der Internetseite von Breitkopf & Härtel.