Vito Žuraj

Powerful and meticulously crafted compositions, tailor-made for the performers and often including scenic elements and spatial sound concepts, are characteristic of Vito Žuraj’s work. Born in Maribor in 1979, his works have quickly gained recognition at major concert halls and festivals, interpreted among others by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Modern and the RIAS Kammerchor.

In spring 2016, Vito Žuraj was awarded the Claudio Abbado Composition Prize by the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Orchestra Academy. The prize includes a commission for Alavó which will be premiered in the Berlin Philharmonie in November 2017 by the Academy Orcchestra, soprano Rinnat Moriah and pianist Jean-Frédéric Neuburger, as well as being performed in Paris and Lucerne. Vito Žuraj has also been honoured with the city of Stuttgart’s composition award and the Prešeren Advancement Award, the highest decoration for artists in Slovenia. In 2014 he was invited to be a fellow at the Villa Massimo in Rome, the Berlin Academy of Arts and the ZKM Karlsruhe.

Vito Žuraj studied composition with Marko Mihevc in Ljubljana and continued his studies with Lothar Voigtländer in Dresden and Wolfgang Rihm in Karlsruhe. His experience with the technology and aesthetics of electronic sound generation – gained during a master's programme in music technology with Thomas A. Troge and at the ZKM Karlsruhe, and consolidated through co-operations with the Experimentalstudio des SWR and IRCAM – does not only serve him for his own compositional work: as a professor of composition and music theory at the Music Academy of the University of Ljubljana since 2015, he initiated the setting up of an electronic music studio, parallel to his lectureship in Karlsruhe.

His participation in the International Ensemble Modern Academy in 2009/10 was the starting point for his close collaboration with the soloist ensemble, who have premiered many of his works including Runaround (2014), Übürall (2013), Restrung (2012) and Warm-up (2012). An avid tennis player, Vito Žuraj uses his experiences of certain game situations as a basis for a constantly growing series of works, including Changeover for instrumental groups and symphony orchestra, premiered by the Ensemble Modern and the hr-Sinfonieorchester under Johannes Kalitzke in 2011.

Numerous other ensembles and orchestras also regularly perform works by Vito Žuraj. The Klangforum Wien took his composition Fired-up, written in 2013, on tour to festivals and venues including the Festival MiTo in Milan, ORF Musikprotokoll, festival Manifeste at the IRCAM in Paris and the Wiener Konzerthaus, before performing Changeover last season with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. The semi-staged composition Insideout was premiered by the Scharoun Ensemble directed by Matthias Pintscher with Mojca Erdmann and Dietrich Henschel at the Salzburg Festival in 2013 and was performed again by the New York Philharmonic in 2014 as well as with the Ensemble intercontemporain and Yeree Suh in 2016. His opera Orlando. The Castle, produced in co-operation with the Deutsche Bank Foundation’s Academy Musiktheater heute, was premiered in Bielefeld in 2013. I-formation, a work for two orchestras commissioned by KölnMusik and written for the 30^th anniversary of the Cologne Philharmonie, was premiered in September 2016 by the WDR Symphony Orchestra under Jukka-Pekka Saraste and the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln under François Xavier-Roth. Highlights of last season included two concerts in the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie: the premiere of Stand up, commissioned by the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, as well as a portrait concert given by the Ensemble Modern conducted by the composer himself.

Recordings of Vito Žuraj’s works have been published on the label Neos, among others. A portrait CD was recently released by Wergo as part of the contemporary music edition of the German Music Council.

The current season includes several world premieres, including Interfret for guitar solo, commissioned for the ARD Music Competition as the mandatory work for the semi-final of the competition, which takes place in the autumn. 2018 begins with the premiere of Buch der Körper for soprano and chamber string orchestra after texts by the Slovenian poet Aleš Šteger, composed for the Chamber String Orchestra after Slovenian Philharmonic and the soloist Nika Gorič, and which will be performed in the Ljubljana National Gallery. As part of his residence at the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Erfurt Theater, he has written Drive for percussion trio and instrumental groups that will be premiered in early 2018. The Klangforum Wien under the direction of Emilio Pomárico will perform a new ensemble work at the Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik before performing it again in Vienna in May, this time conducted by Peter Rundel. The Philharmonia Orchestra London will dedicate a concert to the composer in April 2018 including Aftertouch as well as the world premiere of the English version of Ubuquity for soprano and ensemble – based on his previous work Üburall, which in turn is inspired by Alfred Jarry’s theatre work Ubu Roi and the composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann.

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Season 2017/2018