Muntendorf, Brigitta

studied composition in Bremen with Younghi Paagh-Paan and Günther Steinke and in Cologne with Krzysztof Meyer, Rebecca Saunders and Johannes Schöllhorn. During her studies she founded Ensemble Garage to create an independent platform for musicians, composers and artists of different professions to develop new works and concert formats through the process of collective and cooperative rehearsing.

In her work as a composer as well as the artistic director of Ensemble Garage, Brigitta Muntendorf follows the vision of a music that refers through multilayered contextualisation to different art forms and modes of expression. Furthermore she works on the translation of social phenomena into music by exploring rhizomatic settings. These ideas are mirrored in different music theatre works that she composed in collaboration with the art director Thierry Bruehl for the pocket opera festival in Salzburg since 2011. With her public privacy series for solo performer, YouTube-performers and electronics she established the concept of “social composing” and experienced with different formats of artistic collaboration in public spaces. In 2016 the Wittener Kammermusiktage will present the series as a three-day performance with an additional audiovisual installation. Her current projects include music theatre works for the Munich Biennale (2016) and ECLAT Festival in Stuttgart (2017) and a commission for the City Dance Cologne (a twelve-hour performance for 300 musicians and 80 dancers).

She has received commissions from various festivals in Germany such as Acht Brücken Festival in Cologne or ensemble:europa (WDR), and has been awarded prizes including the Bernd Alois Zimmermann Prize, Carl von Ossietzky Prize, and 1st Prize of the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne. In 2014 she received the Förderpreis der Ernst von Siemens Foundation and presented her first CD, it may be all an illusion, which will be supplemented by an online platform with her most recent video pieces.

Apart from her close collaboration with Ensemble Garage, she has worked with different ensembles such as Ensemble Mosaik, oh-Ton, Asko/Schönberg, PHACE, Calefax, Decoder, Klangforum Wien, Musikfabrik, and Ensemble Modern. She teaches composition at the University of Siegen. She also was a guest lecturer at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne and runs regular composition workshops. She lives in Cologne and Vienna.

Selected works: Conzerrt in Streifen for tape and video (2005), Klangviren for orchestra (2006), Chicken&Chickets / Latexkonzert, performance (2008), moving in between, video and sound composition (with Julia Weissenberg, 2008–9), Crack for large orchestra (2008–9), Hinterhall for saxophone, percussion, video and lights (2009), Überhall for clarinet, violin, saxophone, trombone, double bass, percussion, recorded sounds and video (2009), Poe-try for saxophone, trombone, cello, double bass, electric guitar, voice, synthesiser and two percussionists (2009), Hörzu for 11 instruments (2009), Die Leute, sound installation for the World’s Fair in Hanover (2009–10), reinhören for ensemble (2010), durchhören for five woodwinds (2011), Yes, Master for four performers and recorded sounds (2011), ...und auch woanders, music theatre for narrator, conductor and ensemble (2011), Wer zum Teufel ist Gerty, music theatre for two actors, two singers and ensemble (2011), Etikette for alto saxophone and bass clarinet (2011), Sweetheart, Goodbye for voice, mono speaker and eight instruments (2011–12), Abschminken for video, mezzo-soprano, bass flute, piano, percussion, viola and cello (2012), Rundumschlag for flute, electric guitar, piano, percussion, violin and cello (2012), Hello Body, video installation for actress and voice (2012), In Sync for two large ensembles (2012), behind her back for percussion, flute, clarinet, viola, trombone, piano and lights (2012–13), shivers on speed for bass flute, bass clarinet, violin, cello and piano (2012–13), missing T for thirteen instruments (2013), Endlich Opfer for four singers, children’s choir, actor, ensemble, video and recorded sounds (2013), Public Privacy #1 Piano Cover for keyboard, video and recorded sounds (2013), Public Privacy #2 Flute Cover for flute, video and recorded sounds (2013), Public Privacy #3 Trumpet Cover for trumpet, video, recorded sounds and live electronics (2013), Public Privacy #City, performance in public space (2014), Islands of Light, performance (2014), Key of Presence for two pianos, electronics and recorded sounds (2014–15), Public Privacy #4 Leap In the Dark for electric guitar, video and recorded sounds (2015), Living Thesis, audiovisual installation (2015), Free Play, audiovisual installation for three performers (2015)