Olga Neuwirth
Composer in Residence 2026
When she writes music, she does so feverishly and under intense pressure. Born in Graz in 1968, Olga Neuwirth is one of Austria's most successful composers – a versatile citizen of the world who studied music, painting and film in Vienna, San Francisco and Paris. Inspired by Adriana Hölszky, Tristan Murail and Luigi Nono, among others, her work consistently transcends genre boundaries and incorporates literature, film, visual arts and natural sciences.
She achieved early success with Elfriede Jelinek, for instance in the minioperas «Der Wald» and «Körperliche Veränderungen» as well as in the musical theatre piece «Bählamms Fest». The opera «Monster’s Paradise», again based on a libretto by Jelinek, will follow in Hamburg in 2026. Neuwirth has composed for leading institutions such as the New York Philharmonic, the Lucerne Festival and the London Symphony Orchestra, while also being involved in the jazz and improvisation scene.
She has received numerous awards for her interdisciplinary work, including the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize and the Great Austrian State Prize. Her music has been performed worldwide, from Carnegie Hall to the Royal Albert Hall. With «Orlando» in 2019, she was the first woman to realise a composition commission from the Vienna State Opera for the main stage. Since 2021, she has been a professor at the mdw in Vienna. In 2026, she will influence the composer conductor workshop Ink Still Wet in Grafenegg as composer in residence.
«Zones of blue»
Auftragswerk von Bayerischer Rundfunk/musica viva, L’Auditori in Barcelona, The Cleveland Orchestra, Grafenegg Festival und Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
A meeting of generations: Music by Krzysztof Penderecki, the first Composer in Residence in Grafenegg, and Olga Neuwirth, who will be the 20th to hold this title in 2026, will be at the centre of a concert evening that also features the latest works by participants of the Ink Still Wet Composer-Conductor Workshop. The soloist for Olga Neuwirth's rhapsody for orchestra «Zones of Blue», which premiered in Munich in February 2026, is the Composer in Residence 2014, the dedicatee Jörg Widmann. The Composer in Residence 2017, Brad Lubman, will be conducting. Olga Neuwirth's score «Zones of Blue» opens with the poem «Blue Song» by Tennessee Williams, in which it reads, among other things: «I am tired. / Tired of speech and of action.» The composition was written in memory of her father, Harald Neuwirth, who passed away in 2023.
Composer in Residence's tree
The historic landscape garden of Grafenegg is characterised by a large number of tree species, some of which are exotic. Since 2007, a new tree has been added each year during the Festival, which is planted by the respective Composer in Residence.