Biography Katharina Roth
Katharina Roth, born in 1990, is a freelance composer with a focus on chamber and vocal music and in the field of music theatre.
She started composition in 2003 when she met Tilo Medek. In 2009 she began her studies at the University of Music in Lübeck with Dieter Mack and from 2011-2012 she studied composition with Daniel D’Adamo at the Conservatoire de Reims (France). She finished her composition studies with Dieter Mack in 2014 and her piano studies with Jacques Ammon, which she did at the same time, in 2015. After a study visit to India in 2015/16, where Katharina explored Northern Indian vocal music and in particular dhrupad singing, her path led her to Austria. From 2018-2021 Katharina studied with Carola Bauckholt in Linz, where she increasingly dedicated herself to music theatre creation and working with voices. At the end of her studies, she founded Lizard – the Linz Ensemble for Contemporary Music.
Through studies and internships in concert organization, as well as in music-therapy and -pedagogic, she enriched her studies. Masterclasses with Samuel Adler, Sandeep Bhagwati, Oscar Bianchi, Anton Safronov, Rebecca Saunders, Kaija Saariaho and Johannes Schöllhorn were very important for her musical development.
Her current compositional emphasis is in the field of chamber music, as she writes extremely fragile, nuanced, intimate music. She likes to explore the borders of instruments/voices to arrive at very fine, fragile sonic textures in these areas. She has been particularly involved with percussion and voice lately, out of a conviction that these are the two “most primal instruments”. Her intense involvement with Indian music has also influenced Katharina’s thinking about musical form and improvisation, as well as her work with the voice.
In recent years she has created works such as Gute Reise! for 4 percussionists, Mahakala for 5 voices and live electronics, lila Nachtigallen for voice and piano and music-theatrical works such as fort:une for 3 female voices, bass clarinet and zither and Vodka Lemon or Gin Tonic? for voice, bass flute, violin, trombone, percussion, dancer and live electronics.
She has worked with the ensembles L’Instant Donné, Analogue Translation, IEMA, hand werk, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Reflexion k, Schlagquartett Köln, and Schallfeld, and has received commissions from the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung, Young Euro Classic, the Landesmusikrat Rheinland-Pfalz, and the LandesTirol, among others. Her works have been performed at festivals such as Weimarer Frühlingstage für zeitgenössische Musik, Voix nouvelles Royaument, Blurred Edges Hamburg, Neckar-Musikfestival, Tage für Neue Musik Krefeld, Musiktheaterfestival “Die sieben Leben des Maximilian”, Leicht über Linz, Chiffren-Festival Kiel, Neuköllner Urtöne, International Review of Composers Belgrade, Madrid Actual_Konekt@rte as well as in concerts in France, Denmark, Netherlands, Finland, Spain, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore.
In 2020 she received a working scholarship from the Austrian Federal Government, in 2019 the Kunstförderstipendium of the city of Linz and the working scholarship of the Künstlerhaus Otte 1 Eckernförde. She was awarded the Karlsruhe Composition Prize as well as the Aribert Reimann Fellowship. In 2021 she received a scholarship from Künstlerhaus Lukas for a working stay in Skagaströnd, Iceland. In addition, she has been a fellow of the Akademie Musiktheater heute since 2021.