Michael Ostrzyga

Michael Ostrzyga (* 1975 in Castrop-Rauxel ) is a German conductor and composer who lives in Cologne .

Career

Michael Ostrzyga, born and raised in Castrop-Rauxel in the Ruhr area , received his first musical training ( organ , piano , choir) from the Herne church musician Bruno Zaremba . He continued a school music course he had begun in Dortmund with , among others, Andreas Küper (piano) and Klaus Haffke (vocals), after moving to the Cologne University of Music in 1999 (piano with Peter Degenhardt). He also studied conducting with Marcus Creed and composition with Friedrich Jaecker , including piano (instrumental pedagogy) with Peter Degenhardt at the Cologne University of Music. Today Michael Ostrzyga works mainly as a conductor and composer. As head of the Collegium musicum at Cologne University, he designs and realizes numerous musical events and programs, mainly in Cologne and the surrounding area. In 2008 he launched the concert series University Concerts at Cologne University, and in 2009 he was artistic director of the George Crumb Festival NRW together with Martin Herchenröder .

conductor

Michael Ostrzyga has been University Music Director at the University of Cologne since April 2008 and artistic director of the Brühl Oratorio Choir since 2007 . He performs the great oratorios and choral symphonic works, under Ostrzyga's direction in recent years z. B. Joseph Haydn's Creation , Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's Paulus and Elias , JS Bach's St. John Passion and Johannes Brahms' A German Requiem . As university music director, Ostrzyga heads the Collegium musicum, an institution that primarily operates the university's musical ensembles. He is the conductor of the choir, chamber choir, symphony orchestra and chamber orchestra of the university. He appears in many concerts, especially in the Cologne area, as well as in festivals such as AchtBbridges and the Limburg Orchestra Festival and concert series such as the Cologne Choirs, the Gereonsfestwochen and in the annual program of the Trinity Church in Cologne.

Concert tours as a conductor have taken him to other German cities such as Münster, Hanover and Koblenz as well as abroad, for example to New York City, Boston, Wales, Bari and Prague. His repertoire includes a range of medieval chants through Renaissance and Baroque music to romantic symphonic and choral music (Verdi's Requiem, Mahler's Resurrection Symphony) and also symphonic film music. New music plays a major role. Ostrzyga conducted world premieres by Friedrich Jaecker, Martin Herchenröder, Anno Schreier and Jan Masanetz, for example.

Before his appointment as university music director, he headed the St. Marien choir group, Bonn, from 2003 to 2005, and from 2001 to 2008 he was conductor and répétiteur at the Collegium musicum of the University of Bonn . He has worked with the New Westphalia Philharmonic and the New Rhenish Chamber Orchestra, among others. Regular collaboration as a conductor and composer connects him with the Cologne vocal soloists and their director Fabian Hemmelmann. With Fabian Hemmelmann, Ostrzyga launched the concert series GegenSätze in 2013, in which the Cologne vocal soloists perform vocal music with a focus on new music together with the chamber choir of the university. The singers Ostrzyga has worked with include Natalie de Montmollin, Uta Grunewald, Elena Fink, Martina Schilling, and Kay Stiefermann, Mirko Roschkowski, Phillip Langshaw, Vincent Schirrmacher, Martin Homrich and Thomas Bonni.

Pianist / organist / chamber musician

Before his activities concentrated on conducting and composing, he also gave concerts as a soloist, chamber musician and song accompanist as well as in orchestras on keyboard instruments (for example he played basso continuo in Bach's Passions or the large organ in Bruckner's Te Deum) at home and abroad. In 2005 he co-founded the chamber ensemble sforzato , which performed extraordinary programs in the border area between the latest and traditional music of all genres. Among other things, Sforzato presented three full-length programs: After the debut with a Christmas program Have yourself a merry little Christmas , Enchanté Amadé followed in 2006 with music by and about Mozart for his 250th birthday and finally Solveig's songs with music by Edvard Grieg in 2008 . The programs were characterized by the inclusion of extra-musical elements (such as reading and acting) and unusual casts.

Music pedagogue

From 2005 to 2008 Michael Ostrzyga was a lecturer for composition at the Cologne University of Music , from 2006 to 2008 artistic director of the Papageno music school in Cologne-Rondorf, where he also taught piano and composition. In 2007 he was also a lecturer for choir at the Alanus University for Art and Society in Alfter. From 2008 to 2010 he taught choir and ensemble conducting at the University of Siegen , and since 2008 music theory / composition at the Musicological Institute of the University of Cologne .

composer

As a composer, Ostrzyga has become known for choral music in recent years, with commissions from the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival , the International New Music Festival Streams in Brauweiler and internationally renowned ensembles such as the via-nova-chor Munich and the Consono chamber choir , the Latvian choir "Kamēr ..." and the YL Male Voice Choir. In his first years he gained impulses from his composition teacher Friedrich Jaecker, as well as from the collaboration with the composers Martin Herchenröder and George Crumb (USA), whom he met on a master class in Montepulciano. Choral works have been published by Carus (Stuttgart), Ferrimontana (Frankfurt am Main) and Helbling (Rum / Innsbruck, Esslingen). A collection of piano miniatures for young pianists has been published by Breitkopf & Härtel under the title The Singing Wind - 22 Little Piano Scenes and was awarded the “Best Edition 2011” prize. His Red Cape Sketches and Cycles were premiered in the Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen as part of the Westphalian Music Festival of the WDR in 2006, and his a cappella work Harmonia at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival 2009 .

plant

Compositions (selection)

• Trio for flute, violoncello and piano (2000)
• Sweet, stay awhile for solo quartet, oboe and strings - based on a lute song by John Dowland (2001)
• Solanum for flute, oboe, violin, viola and piano (2002, rev. 2003)
• All quiet in sweet peace for youth choir (2003)
• Berceuse for piano (2003)
• Three Mörike songs for a cappella choir (2002/2004)
• Nocturnal journey for soprano and piano (2004)
• St. John's Passion for speaker and choir (2005)
• Night piece for two pianos (2005)
• Suite for prepared piano (1999, rev. 2005/2006)
• ... ad vitam ... for soprano, flute, violin, piano and CD tape (2006)
• Feather for choir SSAATTBB (2006)
• Finistère for violin solo (2006)
• Cycles for flute (also picc.), Cor anglais, violoncello, percussion and CD playback (2006)
• Red Cape Sketches for S / S / MS - solo and choir a cappella (2006)
• Charon for soprano, flute, clarinet, violoncello, piano and percussion (2006)
• Iuppiter for choir a cappella (2007)
• our little life is rounded with a sleep for choir a cappella (2007)
• Verbum Dei for choir and audience (2007, premiered as part of the 31st German Evangelical Church Congress in Cologne )
• wind resonances for choir and percussion (2007, world premiere during the 3rd Cologne Music Night on September 15, 2007)
• on the beach at night, alone for choir, violin and piano (2007)
• Solveigs Sang (E. Grieg, from Peer Gynt, op. 23) version for soprano, flute, violany and piano by Michael Ostrzyga (2007)
• Drøm (om morgenen) for soprano, flute, violin and piano - Edvard Grieg / Michael Ostrzyga (2007) (based on "Morgenstimmung" from op. 23 by E. Grieg)
• And round about were the wistful stars for mezzo-soprano, baritone and electro-acoustic piano (2008)
• Stern for choir and baroque ensemble (2008)
• Im-Puls-ar Toccata for piano (2008/2009)
• Moon and light for choir and chamber orchestra
• Harmonia for choir a cappella (commissioned by the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival 2009)
• Chant for choir a cappella, 2009 (commissioned by the LandesJugendChores Rheinland-Pfalz)
• Seven last (and first) words , 2009 (commissioned by the Cologne vocal soloists)
• Trinity - Triple Variations (Image) for organ, 2009/2010 (commissioned by the Ev. Kirchenberband Cologne and Region)
• On Leaving for vocal soloists, violin and double bass
• finally for Schlagwerk, 2010 (commissioned by Thomas Hübner for the ARD television service on Easter Monday 2010)
• Virgen de las Nieves for a cappella choir, 2010 (commissioned by the International New Music Festival Streams)
• Mercurius for choir a cappella, 2010 (first performance by the client - Kammerchor Consono, conductor Harald Jers - as part of a special concert of the German Choir Competition 2010 in Dortmund on May 14, 2010)
• Seven last (and first) words , 2011 - version for vocal quartet, baroque orchestra and tam-tam (commissioned by the Cologne vocal soloists)
• Drift for choir a cappella, 2011/2012 (commissioned by the New Choir Berlin for its 25th anniversary)
• Resounds for vocal quartet, choir and baroque orchestra, 2012 (commissioned by the via-nova-choir Munich)
• Pied Beauty for choir a cappella 2011/2012 (commissioned by the Chamber Choir of Asia)
• fern for soprano solo and piano 2012
• Kaladu for choir a cappella 2013 (commissioned by "Kamēr ...")
• Stabat mater for choir a cappella 2014 (commissioned by the Vienna Chamber Choir)
• Saturn for a cappella choir 2013/2014 commissioned by via-nova-chor Munich for the opening of the German Choir Competition in Weimar
• Laudate eum omnes stellae luminis for women's choir and saxophone quartet (commissioned by the Freiburger Dommusik, premier by the girls' choir at the Freiburg Cathedral and the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet under the direction of Martina van Lengerich on October 19, 2014 as part of the Musical Innovations concert in the Freiburg Cathedral)
• Aerobatics for saxophone quartet, 1st movement (commissioned by the Freiburger Dommusik, premier by the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet on October 19, 2014 as part of the "Musical Innovations" concert in the Freiburg Cathedral)
• Deus in adjutorium , Dixit Dominus , Lauda Jerusalem for a cappella choir, 2014 (commissioned works by the Bavarian State Youth Choir, world premiere as part of the Novae "Vesperi Beatae Mariae Virginis" project, a vespers of Mary based on the model of Monteverdi, on November 16, 2014 in the large concert hall the University of Music and Theater Munich with the Bavarian State Youth Choir under the direction of Gerd Guglhör)
• Nine Echoes of Ancient Trees for male choir, approx. Half-hour nine-movement cycle (2014), commissioned by Ylioppilaskunnan Laulajat (YL Male Voice Choirs)
• Fraktal I - eleven permutations for solos, overtone solos and choir, composed for the Chamber Choir of the University of Cologne and the Cologne Vocal Soloists, premiered on January 21, 2015 as part of the concert series GegenSätze in the Trinity Church in Cologne. The conductor was Walter L. Mik, among others the overtone specialist Lothar Berger took part.
• Aerobatics for saxophone quartet, world premiere of the three-movement complete version (the first movement was already premiered on October 19, 2014, see above) by the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet on April 13, 2016 in Cologne
• Endymion for female choir (2016)
• Mid Rain, and many a summer sun for male choir (2016)
• Canticum Novum (... from extremis terrae) for overtone soloist and choir, premiered on July 2, 2016 in Lübeck by Anna-Maria Hefele and the chamber choir I Vocalisti under the direction of Hans-Joachim Lustig
• Psalm 116 for girls 'choir (2016), commissioned by Cologne Cathedral Music for the girls' choir at Cologne Cathedral
• Ave Generosa for female choir (2017), commissioned by Vocalia Taldea under the direction of Basilio Astulez
• Repercussiones (2017) for the two organs of the Emmanuelkirche Cologne-Rondorf (Teschemacher organ: approx. 454 Hz, Gerhardt organ: approx. 438 Hz), commissioned by the presbytery of the Protestant parish of Rondorf to say goodbye to Pastor Thomas Hübner, world premiere on 7 July 2017 by Johannes Geffert and Boleslav Martfeld
• In The Highest for choir (2017), commissioned by the S: t Jacobs vocal ensemble on the occasion of the 10th anniversary, world premiere in St. Jacobs Church in Stockholm on November 18, 2017 under the direction of Mikael Wedar
• Puer Natus est (2016/2017) for soloists, choir and large orchestra, commissioned by the Monteverdi Choir Würzburg, world premiere in the Neubaukirche Würzburg on December 9, 2017 under the direction of Matthias Beckert https://m.mainpost.de/ueberregional/kulturwelt / culture / A-new-look-at-the-events-in-the-stable; art3809,9817353
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Requiem, completed by Michael Ostrzyga (2017/2018) in the style of Mozart from 1791, Mozart's intentions derived from materials by Franz Xaver Süßmayr, Maximilian Stadler and Joseph Eybler from 1791/1792, commissioned by Harvard University for the Harvard Summer Chorus and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.
• Excelsis (2018) for choir and organ, six-movement cycle, commissioned by the Collegium Vocale Hannover for the inauguration of the English organ in the Nazareth Church in Hanover, world premiere on February 3rd by Christoph Bornheimer (organ) and Collegium Vocale Hannover under the direction of Florian Lohmann
• Neptunus (2018) for a cappella choir, premiered by the Junge Consortium Berlin under the direction of Vinzenz Weißenburger at the 16th International Chamber Choir Competition Marktoberdorf on June 9, 2019
• CGV - Chorale à Grande Vitesse for choir (2018), commissioned by the chamber choir of the Collegium Musicum Berlin, world premiere in the Sophienkirche in Berlin on June 27, 2019 under the direction of Donka Miteva
• Pulchra es (2019), commissioned by El León de Oro under the direction of Marco A. García de Paz for the choir competition Florilège Vocal de Tours 2019, France. Special award for the best new plant in the competition.

Web links

• Works by and about Michael Ostrzyga in the catalog of the German National Library
• Michael Ostrzyga's website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2017/07/26/mozart-requiem-completed-anew/B6N1t1ZMlMX0oERIsH2baP/story.html
2. ↑ http://florilegevocal.com/en/prize/