"String-Utopia?" Composer Profiles

Hans W. Koch (*1962) (Berlin), composition, performance, (sound)installations. The search for hidden aspects of everyday-tools, like household-electronics, hairdryers, metal wool for cleaning pots and pans, old computers (and as well traditional instruments) leads, when misused in the right manner, as a side-effect to sounds and musical structures. On the other hand when working with digital media, he explores their boundaries and implicit (de)faults, in order to arrive at interactions which keep a live of their own and react to human input in an unpredictable manner. (website)

[Cut-Off-Frequencies was written for the Microscore Project in 2005. Now you can join in on the fun as well !!]


Samuel Holloway (Auckland) is a Pukekohe-born writer and composer. He studied composition with John Elmsly and Eve de Castro-Robinson at The University of Auckland where he was awarded major prizes and graduated Master of Music. In 2006 he was awarded the CANZ Trust Fund Award. His work has been performed or workshopped by the New Zealand Trio, 175 East, the Auckland Philharmonia and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. His memoir Bad Teenage Sex was recently published. Even more recently, Samuel has won the Asian Composer’s League Young Composer’s Competition in Hong Kong with his piano trio, Stapes. (website)

[Dualities: 1 was written for the Microscore Project in 2006.]


Peter Ablinger was born in Austria in 1959. He studied composition with Gösta Neuwirth and Roman Haubenstock-Ramati in Graz and Vienna. In 1982, he moved to Berlin where he initiated a series of festivals and concerts and in 1988, founded the Ensemble Zwischentöne. As a visiting professor, he has taught at the University of Music, Graz and has been a guest conductor of 'Klangforum Wien', 'United Berlin' and the 'Ensemble of the Insel Musik'. Currently, he works as a freelance musician. (website)


Pauline Oliveros' (Kingston, NY) life as a composer, performer and humanitarian is about opening her own sensibilities and others to the many facets of sound. Since the 1960's she has influenced American Music profoundly through her work with improvisation, meditation, electronic music, myth and ritual. Many credit her with being the founder of present day meditative music. All of Oliveros' work emphasizes musicianship, attention strategies, and improvisational skills. website

[String-Utopia was written for the Microscore Project in 2005.]


Serge Prokofiev... well, there's been a lot written about him here, here, here and here, so I'm not even going to go there. He's kind of established.


Jürg Frey was born on 15 May 1953 and grew up in Lenzburg. He lives in Aarau with his family. After studying the clarinet, composition and Alexander Technique in Zurich, Berne and Basle, he completed his studies at the Geneva Conservatory, under Thomas Friedli, with the Examen de Virtuosité. In the course of his extensive concert activity as a clarinettist, he has premiered numerous works by such composers as Antoine Beuger, Christian Wolff, Howard Skempton and Walter Zimmermann.

One of the co-founders of Lenzburgís "Musikalische Begegnungen" project in 1984, he also participated in the AG Komposition at the Rote Fabrik in Zurich and has run the "Moments musicaux" concert series in Aarau since 1986. Most of his works and CDs are published by the Edition Wandelweiser Berlin. (website)


James Tenney (Valencia, CA) was born in 1934 in Silver City, N.M., and grew up in Arizona and Colorado, where he received his early training as a pianist and composer. He attended the University of Denver, the Juilliard School, Bennington College and the University of Illinois. His teachers and mentors have included Eduard Steuermann, Chou Wen-Chung, Lionel Nowak, Carl Ruggles, Lejaren Hiller, Kenneth Gaburo, Edgar Varese, Harry Partch and John Cage. Most recently, he held the Roy E. Disney Chair in Composition at the California Institute of the Arts. Tenney passed away in Valencia last year.