Kroupova, Olga

Oľga Kroupová (*1966) was born in Bratislava.

She began her composition studies at the Conservatory in Bratislava with Juraj Pospíšil and continued at the Academy of Performing Arts (VŠMU) with Ivan Hrušovský and Miro Bázlik. During this period, she attended composition courses with Gija Kancheli and Louis Andriessen. After two years, she transferred to the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, where she studied with József Soproni and graduated summa cum laude. Her other teachers included Emil Petrovics, Sándor Szokolay and Zoltán Pongrácz, with whom she specialised in electronic composition and completed a one-year internship at the Electronic Studio of Hungarian Radio. At the Liszt Academy, she also attended courses with Clarence Barlow and Nikolaus A. Huber. She successfully completed her postgraduate studies in composition with Martin Christoph Redel at the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold.

Since then, she has lived in Detmold, where she works as a freelance composer. As a freelance music editor, she collaborates with renowned publishers and institutions including Schott-Wega, Bärenreiter, Peters, Marc Reift, WDR, Eurobottega and the Schubert Society.

A particular focus of her compositional work is symphonic music. Her works have been performed by numerous renowned orchestras, including the NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg with “Bericht über den letzten Stand der Dinge” conducted by Peter Ruzicka; the Raschèr Saxophone Orchestra with “Anxieta” for saxophone orchestra under Bruce Weinberger; the Orchestre symphonique et lyrique de Nancy with “Nachtträume” under Sebastian Lang-Lessing; the Magdeburg Philharmonic with “Bericht über den letzten Stand der Dinge” under Adrian Prabava; and the Sächsische Philharmonie Chemnitz with “Epheméra” under Fabrice Bollon.

The Detmold Chamber Orchestra has also performed several of her works, including the “Sinfonietta”, “Introduzione, Cadenza e Finale” for violin and orchestra – with Eckhard Fischer as soloist and Alexander Sumski conducting – and “Gryllus musicalis” under the direction of Alfredo Perl. Further performances have been given by the MÁV Symphony Orchestra Budapest in collaboration with the Hungarian State Choir, the Hungarian Strings, the Ljubljana Philharmonic Orchestra, the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra in Bratislava and the State Philharmonic Košice.

With her chamber opera “Katze mit Hut”, Kroupová became a prizewinner of the International Composition Competition for (Children’s) Chamber Opera in Vienna in 2000, whose artistic director was Claudio Abbado.

Chamber and vocal music occupy an equally important place in her oeuvre. Performers of her works include such distinguished artists as Milan Paľa, Jolana Fogašová, Ondrej Veselý, Ladislav Fantzowitz, Alfredo Perl, Eckhard Fischer, Caroline Thomas, Gerhild Romberger, Catalina Bertucci, Heike Porstein, Lars Woldt, Andreas Wolf, Andreas van Zoelen and Isabell Schau, as well as ensembles including Tetraphonics, Weimarer Werkstatt, Ensemble Horizonte and the Vienna Glass Harmonica Duo.

Performances of her music have taken place in numerous countries throughout Europe and overseas, including the United States, Canada and Chile, as well as France, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Hungary and Slovenia.

With “Gryllus musicalis”, she was selected for the World New Music Days of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) in Ljubljana in 2015, where the work was performed. In 2017, she was represented at the ISCM World New Music Days in Vancouver with “Quintessenz”.

“Quintessenz”, dedicated to violin virtuoso Milan Paľa, was released on CD in his interpretation as part of the Edition Slovak Works (Pavlik Records, 2001). In the same year, her guitar concerto “Eo ipso” was also released on CD by the Hevhetia label, featuring soloist Ondrej Veselý, conductor Marián Lejava and the State Philharmonic Košice.

At the 2022 festival Týždeň Slovenskej súčasnej hudby (Week of Slovak Contemporary Music) in Bratislava, her piano concerto “Concerto (s)fortunato” was performed by Ladislav Fantzowitz, to whom the work is dedicated, together with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Marián Lejava.

In 2021, Kroupová undertook the complete reconstruction, orchestration and completion of Mikuláš Schneider-Trnavský’s “Missa solemnis Tyrnaviensis” for soloists, choir and orchestra. The reconstructed work received its world premiere in 2022 at the Basilica of St Nicholas in Trnava.

At the suggestion of composer Hans Sommer’s grandson, she orchestrated Sommer’s final song, “Erinnerung”. The work was released posthumously on CD in an outstanding interpretation by Mojca Erdmann and the Berlin Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Guillermo García Calvo on the Pentatone label in 2022.

As part of the Mosaiken Festival 2022 in Detmold, her work “Comments on Plath Poems” for oboe and string quartet received its world premiere. The premiere was given in an outstanding performance by József Kiss, to whom the work is dedicated.

In 2023, “De profundis” for four solo voices and string quartet was premiered by the ZOE Chamber Ensemble under the direction of Marián Lejava at the Franciscan Church in Bratislava.

Her “Requiem” for soloists, mixed choir and orchestra, composed in 2023, is regarded as her most significant work to date and is still awaiting its world premiere.

Kroupová’s works are published by the Berlin-based Edition Gravis.

In 2018, Oľga Kroupová also published her collection of poetry “Pohrúženosť utrpenia” (“Immersion in Suffering”) with NO&MI.