Composer

Olga Rayeva was born in Moscow and started her first music lessons at the age of four. She studied at the Central Music School and then at the State Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow with Prof. E. Denissov and Prof. W. Tarnopolsky (Composition), Prof. N. Korndorf and Prof. Yu. Boutsko (Score), Prof. Dr. Yuri Kholopov (Music Theory), Prof. Dr. E. Sorokina, Prof. Dr.T. Tscherednitschenko, Prof. Dr. V. Stshurov and other excellent music teachers. and later completed her doctoral studies at the same conservatory.

Already during her studies, the works of Olga Rayeva began being performed in public (at the "Moscow Autumn" Festival, at the International Festival "Moscow-Modern", at the festival “Alternative”) and noted by critics to "have left a deep impression. " The composer herself was said to have an "impressive individuality" and to be "one of the most talented Russian artists of the generation."

Her compositions have since been performed at numerous prominent festivals across Europe ("Gaudeamus Music Week", "Zagreb Biennale", "Dresdner Tage für zeitgenössische Musik", "Musikprotokoll", "Klangspuren", “Wittener Tage für neue Musik”, "Internationale Ferienkurse in Darmstadt" ...) as well as in the USA, Canada, Brazil, South Korea and Israel.

Several pieces have been interpreted by the Arditti-Quartette, the Klangforum Wien, the Ensemble Modern, the Ensemble Recherche, the Schönberg-Ensemble and other well-known ensembles, soloists and conductors.

Olga has received scholarships from the Russian Culture Department, from the DAAD, from the Berlin Senate, from German Academy Rome, from Villa Aurora in Los-Angeles, from Cité de la musique in Paris. Also, Olga has received the following Prizes:

• Gran Prix at the “Goffredo-Petrassi” competition for orchestral

pieces in Parma (Italy);

• Prize of the International Composer Workshops "Forum" in

Montreal;

• Prize of the Hitzacker International Music Days;

• the "Bernd-Alois-Zimmerman" Prize of Cologne;

• Berlin-Rheinberg Composition Prize.

Olga Rayeva is a member of the Russian Association of Composers and of Russia's Association of Contemporary Music.

Her works are published by the publishers "Ricordi" (Milan), Verlag Neue Musik (Berlin), and "Donemus" (The Hague).

The majority of the composer's oeuvre is written in the chamber-instrumental and symphony genres; also, she has been a part of the operatic-theatre project "Minotaurus Dream" (in collaboration with the writer Vladimir Sorokin).

Olga lives in Berlin, working and as a freelance composer.

→ homepage of Olga Rayeva

→ all works by Olga Rayeva