Oliver Schneller

Oliver Martin Schneller (b. 26 March 1966 Cologne) is a German composer and saxophonist.

Contents

Life

Schneller grew up in Ireland, Sudan, Belgium and the Philippines. After completing a MA in musicology, political science and history at the University of Bonn, he worked for the Goethe Institute in Kathmandu, Nepal (1990–91).

In 1994 he moved to the USA, first studying composition at the New England Conservatory in Boston. From 2000-01 he lived in Paris attending a yearlong course at IRCAM/Centre Pompidou. In 2002 he received his doctoral degree in composition at Columbia University as a student of Tristan Murail, where he also taught composition and computer music as an assistant to Murail. During his time in New York Schneller developed and managed the Computer Music Studio at the Graduate Center of CUNY and taught harmony and counterpoint at Baruch College. Masterclasses with Salvatore Sciarrino, Jonathan Harvey, Brian Ferneyhough, George Benjamin, and Vinko Globokar provided important orientations. From 2002 to 2004 he was compositeur en recherche at IRCAM working on "Jardin des fleuves" a work for ensemble and live-electronic.

Oliver Schneller's music has been performed at international festivals such as Festival Agora Paris, Musica Strasbourg, Münchener Biennale, Maerzmusik Berlin, Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, Ultraschall, Wien Modern, IFNM Darmstadt, Tremplins Paris, Les Musiques Marseille, musique action Nancy, Musica nova, Wintermusic Berlin, Karnatic Lab, Alternativa Moscow, the International Computer Music Conference,[1] in Singapore and Göteborg, Musicaaoustica Beijing, Takefu Japan, Indaba, Aspen Music Festival and School, Tanglewood Music Festival, "Frankfurt 2000", and the "Millenium Stage Series" at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.

He was a Visiting Composer at the 2001 Festival of Contemporary Music at the University of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and a featured composer at Festival Résonances at IRCAM (2002).

His works have been performed by numerous ensembles including Ensemble modern, Ensemble Intercontemporain, MusikFabrik, Ictus Ensemble, Avanti!, Ensemble recherche, Speculum Musicae, Court Circuit, Ensemble Mosaik, Südwestrundfunk Orchestra, Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, Ensemble Courage, Antares,[2] the Tanglewood Symphony Orchestra, and St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble.

As a saxophonist, he has performed with the George Russell Big Band, the Gustav Mahler Youth Symphony under Seiji Ozawa, with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra as a soloist in Tan Dun's "Red Forecast", as well as with musicians such as Steve Drury, Heather O'Donnell, Jiggs Whigham (Big Band), Bernhard Lang, Ned McGowan, Robin Hayward, Vinko Globokar, and Gert Matthias Wegner.

In 2004 he was the artistic director of the "Tracing Migrations" Festival in Berlin which led to the foundation of the "Tracing Migrations Project", an ongoing documentation and permanently updated data base of contemporary compositions, recordings and newly founded music institutions from the Arab world.

In 2005 he was the curator of the project "The Musical Moment" at Berlin's House of World Cultures featuring composers Toshio Hosokawa and Helmut Lachenmann. From 2005-06 he was a guest lecturer and "mentor" in Cairo as part of the GLOBAL INTERPLAY project of Musik der Jahrhunderte, Stuttgart.[3]. At the Universität der Künste in Berlin he taught the seminar "Psychoacoustics and Acoustics for Composers".

Schneller is the artistic director of the SinusTon Festival for Experimental Music in Magdeburg which he co-founded with Carsten Gerth in 2008. In 2004, together with Jean-Luc Hervé and Thierry Blondeau, he formed the composers collective "Biotope".

From 2009-2010 Schneller held a professorship in composition at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart as a sabbatical replacement for Prof. Marco Stroppa. Since 2009 he serves as Sound Arts Curator of ha'atelier Platform for Philosophy and Art.

He is married to pianist Heather O'Donnell.

Awards

Selected works

Orchestral

Chamber Music (1-4 players)

Chamber Music (5-22 players)

Vocal

Solo

Electroacoustic + Installation

Collaborative Works

Arrangements

Publications (selection)

Translations (selection)

References

  1. ^ http://music.nus.edu.sg/events/icmc2003/os-five.php
  2. ^ http://saintpaulsunday.publicradio.org/artists/artist/index.php?ac=antares
  3. ^ http://www.mdjstuttgart.de/index.cfm?id=2263
  4. ^ http://www.villamassimo.de/de/stipendiaten/501774975f0e0de12/501774979c10e2930/index.html

External links