Karola Obermüller
Jury Kranichstein Music Prize
Karola Obermueller’s composing, described by the New York Times as “hyperkinetic music”, is constantly in search of the unknown. After obtaining composition degrees in Nuremberg, Saarbrücken, and the University Mozarteum Salzburg, her sense of rhythm and form was forever changed by studying Carnatic and Hindustani classical music in Chennai and Delhi, India.
Winner of the Heidelberger Künstlerinnenpreis, she has received commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, Fromm Music Foundation, Ensemble Modern, International Contemporary Ensemble, Theater Bielefeld, Theater Bonn, Theater und Orchester Heidelberg, Staatstheater Nürnberg, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Saarländischer Rundfunk, and the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. She has been a visiting artist at ZKM, Deutsche Akademie Rom, Centro Tedesco di studi Veneziani, Akademie Schloss Solitude, and IRCAM.
Since receiving a doctorate from Harvard University, Obermüller has co-directed the composition area at the University of New Mexico. Her music is on CD (WERGO) and online at karolaobermueller.net.