Olga Neuwirth

Olga Neuwirth (; born 4 August 1968) is an Austrian contemporary classical composer, visual artist and author. She is famed especially for her operas and music theater works, many of which have treated sociopolitical themes. She has emphasized an open-ended, interdisciplinary approach in her work, collaborating frequently with Elfriede Jelinek, exploiting live electronics, and incorporating video. In her opera Lost Highway, she adapted David Lynch’s surrealist film with the same name. She has also written music for historic and contemporary films. Luigi Nono inspired her both musically and politically. Biography Youth Neuwirth was born in Graz, the daughter of Griseldis Neuwirth and pianist Harald Neuwirth. She is the niece of Gösta Neuwirth and the sister of sculptor Flora Neuwirth. As a child at the age of seven, Neuwirth began lessons on the trumpet but was forced to abandon her original plans to study trumpet after an accident that left her with a jaw injury. Studies and formative experiences As a high school student, Neuwirth took part in composition workshops with Hans Werner Henze and Gerd Kühr. The then-17-year-old composer named her first commissioned composition Die gelbe