Oliver Waespi
Biography
Oliver Waespi (b. 1971, Zurich, Switzerland) is a Swiss composer.
He took guitar and trombone lessons at the Conservatory of Winterthur and won a prize in 1989 at the final of the Swiss National Competition for Young Musicians with the classical guitar.
Being first self-taught as a composer, he wrote various works in his youth. He studied composition at the Musikhochschule Zurich (with Gerald Bennett and Andreas Nick), and attended composition master classes with Alfred Reed and Klaus Huber as well as a conducting master class with Sylvia Caduff. Beginning in 2005, he pursued studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Several of his works have been awarded prizes at composition contests, e.g., in 1999 a prize at the international composing contest of Corciano, Italy; in 2003 the International George Enescu Composition Prize for Symphonic Music; in 2005 the London Scholarship of the Zuger Kulturstiftung Landis + Gyr.
He receives commissions on a regular basis, e. g., for several music associations and festivals as well as from other performers, such as the Berne Chamber Orchestra. His works have been performed and recorded in Switzerland and in several other countries, such as Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Singapore, the UK and the United States. He has appeared at international festivals such as WASBE World Conferences in Lucerne, Schladming and Singapore, the 2005 George Enescu Festival, the 2005 Festival of the Swiss Composers Association, festivals in Valencia and Kerkrade, etc. His works have been performed by symphony orchestras such as the Berne Chamber Orchestra, the Iasi Philharmonic or the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Kon-stanz, prestigious wind ensembles such as the Rundfunkblasorchester Leipzig, the Lan-desblasorchester Baden-Württemberg, the Orchestra di fiati della Svizzera Italiana, the Yorkshire Building Society Brass Band, and brass players of the Royal Northern College of Music (Manchester) as well as contemporary music groups such as the ensembles opera nova (Zurich) and Phoenix (Basle).
Within the circle of interpreters it is clear that Oliver Waespi maintains a wide and diversified interest in music. Besides composing, he is active as a clinician and teaches at the Hochschule der Künste Bern. Central to his interest is the investigation of various, apparently contradictory aesthetic possibilities in order to illuminate certain musical ideas from differing sides. It is thus that abstraction and clarity, linear and vertical orientated thinking, art music and folk music all combine in the works of Oliver Waespi.
Works for Winds
- Audivi Media Nocte (2011/2013)
- Berglicht (2008)
- Canzun (2008)
- Divertimento (Waespi) (2011)
- Eastbound (2019/2020)
- Fanfare and Funk (2006)
- Il Cantico (2005)
- Out of Earth (2015)
- Silberen (2019)
- Skies (2000)
- Suite for Wind Orchestra (1998)
- Temples (2006)
- Traversada (2013/2015)
Resources
- Oliver Waespi website Accessed 16 July 2023
- Oliver Waespi. Wikipedia. Accessed 10 November 2012
- Robblee, Timothy J. "Il Cantico." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 9, edit. & comp. by Richard Miles, 928-933. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2013.
- Tan, Leonard. "Audivi Media Nocte." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 11, Compiled and edited by Richard Miles, 697-705. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2018.
- Wollam, Seth F. "Temples." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 11, Compiled and edited by Richard Miles, 1050-1060. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2018.