Jacob Mühlrad & Olga Neuwirth

Jacob Mühlrad

Swedish composer Jacob Mühlrad, b. 1991, has been commissioned and performed by Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Radio France, Vancouver Chamber Choir, Bamberger Symphoniker and WDR Rundfunkchor Cologne. He has collaborated closely with individuals such as Olga Neuwirth, Martin Fröst, Pablo Heras-Casado and Matthias Pinscher. His inventive and emotionally resonant compositions seamlessly blend his Jewish heritage with avant-garde musical exploration, incorporating elements like microtonality and liturgical scales. Mühlrad’s work covers eternal themes such as mortality, holiness, and the essence of human nature, expressing a profound connection to the foundations of the universe through music.

Particularly notable is his choral music, which authentically captures the mystical essence of Jewish tradition. Following his breakthrough with “Anim Zemirot” in 2013, Mühlrad’s compositions “Time” and “Ay Li Lu” were both commissioned by prestigious choirs across four continents.

In 2021, Deutsche Grammophon released the critically acclaimed album “Time,” featuring four standout choral works performed by the Swedish Radio Choir. Among them is the profoundly personal “Kaddish” based on Mühlrad’s grandfather’s experiences in the concentration camps. Mühlrad received a 5-star review from BBC Music magazine saying: “time, is in fact timeless, not to mention haunting and beautiful.”

Mühlrad’s repertoire expanded with the world premiere (2021) of his first large-scale orchestral work, “Rems (Rapid Eye Movement Sleep),” exploring the enigmatic realm of the unconscious dream state. This marked the beginning of a multi-year collaboration with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic. Subsequently, a short version of Rems was performed at the Suntory Hall by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.

In October 2023, Warner Classics released the album rems, coinciding with a portrait concert featuring sculptures and light projections by artist Alexander Wessely. Looking ahead to 2024, Mühlrad is set to make his debut with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, presenting the premiere performance of his “clarinet concerto – Sufi Whirling,” featuring Magnus Holmander and conducted by Martin Fröst.

Embracing cross-genre collaborations, Mühlrad has partnered with diverse artists such as Swedish rapper Silvana Imam, Swedish House Mafia. Additionally, he has ventured into film scoring, contributing to “Burn All My Letters,” directed by the acclaimed Björn Runge (The Wife). Mühlrad’s scores for theatre include “Tröstrapporter (reports of consolation),” commissioned by the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, and written and directed by best-selling author Alex Schulman.

Reflecting on his artistic journey, Mühlrad shares, “I’ve come to realize that my creative palette extends far beyond classical confines. Drawing inspiration from my Jewish heritage, Sigmund Freud’s dream theories, or even a catchy pop tune, music serves as a conduit to illuminate abstract concepts. Through this lens, I navigate life, filtering every experience and action. Music, to me, unveils the world’s essence and imbues existence with meaning.”

Jacob Mühlrad studied at the Gotland School of Composition, the Royal College of Music in London, and at a master’s level at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm.

Jacob Mühlrad is a Warner Classic artist since 2022.
Jacob Mühlrad’s music is published by Gehrmans Musikförlag, Universal Music Publishing, and since 2023 by Bosworth Music.

Olga Neuwirth

Olga Neuwirth was born in Graz, Austria, in 1968. She studied at the Academy of Music in Vienna and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. During her stay in the States she also attended an art college, where she studied painting and film. Her private teachers in composition included Adriana Hölszky, Tristan Murail and Luigi Nono. She first burst onto the international scene in 1991, at the age of 22, when two of her mini-operas with texts by Elfriede Jelinek were performed at the Wiener Festwochen, since then her artistic practice includes a multiple aesthetical experience taken from film, literature, the everyday-life, visual arts, architecture and science.

In 1998 she was featured in two portrait concerts at the Salzburg Festival within the framework of the Next Generation series.  Highlights include Clinamen/Nodus for Pierre Boulez and the London Symphony Orchestra (2000); collaborations with Nobel Prize winning novelist Elfriede Jelinek with whom she has created two radio plays and three operas, like the multi-media opera Baa-Lambs Fest (1993/1998) after Leonora Carrington and   Lost Highway, based on the film by David Lynch, which was premiered in 2003 and won a South Bank Show Award for the production presented by English National Opera at the Young Vic in 2008; two music-theatre works while living in NYC (2010/11) – The Outcast-Homage to Herman Melville and American Lulu, based on Alban Berg’s ‘Lulu’, which was premiered in Berlin in 2012; filmmusic for Das Vaterspiel (2009), the horror movie Ich seh ich seh (2014) or the silent movie Die Stadt ohne Juden (2017). In 2015 her orchestra piece Masaot/Clock without Hands written for the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra was premiered in Köln and Vienna and had its US premiere at Carnegie Hall 2016.

The Salzburg Festival presented Eleanor Suite for Blues Singer and ensemble with Klangforum Wien in Summer 2015 and in Autumn 2015 Le Encantadas, an 80 minutes surround piece for live-electronics and ensemble for the Ensemble Intercontemporain was premiered at Donaueschingen and Festival d’Automne Paris with further performances. Olga Neuwirth was, after 2002, again the 2016 Lucerne Festival’s Composer in Residence with multiple performances and the premiere of her percussion concerto Trurliade-Zone Zero. In Spring 2017 she realised a 3D-sound installation for Centre Pompidou’s ‘Imprimer Le Monde’ exhibition. February 2018 saw the premiere in Sweden of Aello- ballet mécanomorphe for flutist Claire Chase and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, subsequently performed at the BBC Proms in London.

For over 30 years Olga Neuwirth has always raised her voice against deplorable states of social-political affairs and her works have explored a wide range of forms and genres: operas, radio-plays, sound-installations, art-works, photography and film-music. Aside from composing, she has also realised sound installations, art exhibitions and short films; one of her multi-media installations was presented at the documenta 12 in Kassel in 2007.   In many works she fuses live-musicians, electronics and video into audio-visual experiences.

Among numerous prizes, she was the first-ever woman to receive the Grand Austrian State Prize in the category of music in 2010. She was awarded the Robert Schumann-Preis für Dichtung und Musik in 2021, as well as the prestigious Wolf Prize together with Stevie Wonder.  In 2022 she was the recipient of the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Prize.

Her opera Orlando after Virginia Woolf was premiered at the Vienna State Opera in December 2019, the first woman commissioned in the 150 year history of the house and was named ’World Premiere of the Year’ by the magazine ‘Opernwelt’. Orlando was awarded the 2022 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition 2022 of the University of Louisville, Kentucky. The opera was released on DVD in September  on the label Unitel.

A new work for orchestra, countertenor and children’s chorus Keyframes for a Hippogriff – in memoriam Hester Diamond was commissioned for world premiere by the New York Philharmonic in May 2020, the performance was postponed due to the outbreak of Covid-19 and is now scheduled in 2024. It was given its first performance in September 2021 by co-commissioner Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra at Musikfest Berlin conducted by Jakub Hrůša. Further co-commissioner performances will be given by BBC Proms and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in the 2022/23 season. The orchestral piece Dreydl was premiered in May 2022 as part of her residency at Orchestre National de Lyon.   During the Corona Pandemic Olga Neuwirth created a cycle of diverse pieces called CoronAtion.

Olga Neuwirth was resident composer at the Trondheim International Chamber Music Festival in September 2022 with performances of many of her works and including a world premiere of her Double Concerto According to What for cello, percussion and orchestra. She was Stockholm Philharmonic’s featured composer in November 2022; featured composer with Dresden Staatskapelle throughout 2022/23. The Festival d’Automne in Paris celebrated her music in Autumn 2022, with performances in three concerts of three major works – The Outcast, Masaot, and Encantadas.

Olga Neuwirth was appointed as a composition professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria in Autumn 2021.