Donemus网上商店 — Oorebeek, Christina Viola

Christina Viola Oorebeek was born in New Work, on November 7, 1944. Since 1972, she lives in Amsterdam.

Education: Christina immersed herself in music as a profession at 21, teaching herself as much as possible about jazz and blues music. In this period, she went on to study classical Indian music at the school of Ravi Shankar in Los Angeles, and sang in an semi-acoustic rock band from 1967-1969 in San Francisco.

She worked for a long period as a teacher and improvising pianist at the Department for Dance at the Arts College in Amsterdam. During these years, in which she earned a degree at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with pianist Willem Brons, she decided that ‘making’ autonomous music was the most important thread which she wanted to follow.

At age 50 she commenced officially on her career as a composer studying at the Rotterdam Conservatory with Klaas de Vries. At the Conservatory of Amsterdam, she studied instrumentation with Theo Verbey.

She participated in master classes with Magnus Lindberg in Amsterdam and Toshio Hosokawa at the Akiyoshidai Music Festival in Japan.

Career: These experiences have formed a pluriform pool of musical influences and experiences for her composing work. Her ideal is to exist in a continual state of (re)discovery and invention.

Oorebeek was invited to teach workshops at the New Music Indaba Festival in South Africa in June, 2003 with Theo Loevendie and Kevin Volans.

Compositions: Her work has been played in Barcelona, the Music Factory Festival in Norway, the Feniks Festival in Antwerp, the 2002 ISCM World Music Days in Yokohama, Japan, the New Music Indaba in South Africa, in Italy, France, and the United States.

In the Netherlands, her work has been played recently in the Gaudeamus Music Theatre Festival (2004), the Festival “Live” festival for electro-acoustic music (2006), the Concertgebouw (2006), and in many other venues in the country.

Christina has had commissions from, among others, Nieuw Ensemble, Aurelia Saxophone Quartet, Ivo Janssen, the Doelenensemble, Ensemble Insomnio, Calefax, Multifoon and Arnold Marinissen.

Her recent interest in electro-acoustic music has been supported by temporary residencies at STEIM in Amsterdam, in 2002, 2004 and 2006 for:

- ‘…and God Invented Dice’ (a semi-theatrical concert piece);

- ‘The Pitch Shifter’ (her science fiction chamber opera);

-‘Chromotoy I - III’ (for various combinations of piano, toy piano, midi-toy piano, Disklavier, and live electronics).

“In ‘Tuning Studies’, Christina expanded the possibilities of the piano through technique… The sounds of the computer-driven grand piano were divided over 8 speakers around the audience, so that you felt that you were in the middle of a giant instrument through which the music moved. By using different timbres, the total sound was of a great richness.” (René van Peer in the Brabants Dagblad, 2001)

Awards: Christina was granted the Composition Prize upon graduation in 1999.

Furthermore, she won the third prize in the International Dutilleux Concours in 1999 for ‘Tremors and Quakes’ and the first prize at the Gaudeamus Young Composers Workshop in the Netherlands in 1997 for ‘The Heart of the Matter’.

Christina Viola Oorebeek werd op 7 november 1944 in Port Washington, New York, geboren. Zij heeft de Amerikaanse en Nederlandse nationaliteit en woont sinds 1972 in Nederland.

Opleiding
Na twee jaar Theaterwetenschappen te hebben gestudeerd aan de University of California in Los Angeles, besloot zij als 21-jarige het formele onderwijs te verlaten om te leren improviseren op piano en gitaar in jazz, blues en pop. Zij studeerde gedurende drie jaar Indiase klassieke muziek op de scholen van Ravi Shankar en Ali Akbar Khan in Los Angeles en San Francisco (1965-1967). In Nederland heeft zij bij Willem Brons piano gestudeerd aan het Sweelinck Conservatorium te Amsterdam. Van 1994 tot 1999 studeerde zij compositie bij Klaas de Vries en Peter-Jan Wagemans aan het Rotterdams Conservatorium en instrumentatie bij Theo Verbey aan het Sweelinck Conservatorium. Zij volgde diverse workshops o.a. bij Magnus Lindberg in Amsterdam en bij Toshio Hosokawa tijdens het Akiyoshidai Music Festival in Japan.

Activiteiten
Christina Viola Oorebeek doceert muziek aan de opleidingen Dans en Dansgerichte Ritmische vorming op de Dansafdeling van de Faculteit Theater aan de Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten. In 2003 gaf zij samen met Theo Loevendie en Kevin Volans workshops op het New Music Indaba Festival in Zuid Afrika

Composities
De componiste streeft er in haar werk naar de muzikale invloeden uit haar verleden te integreren met haar klankidealen van nú. Haar composities werden uitgevoerd in Barcelona, op het Music Factory Festival in Noorwegen, het Feniks Festival in Antwerpen, de ISCM World Music Days in Yokohama, Japan, de New Music Indaba Festival in Zuid Afrika, in Italië, Frankrijk en de Verenigde Staten. In Nederland is haar werk o.a. gespeeld op het Gaudeamus Muziektheater Festival 2004 in Amsterdam, het Festival 'Live' for electro-acoustic music 2006 en in het Concertgebouw (2006). Zij kreeg opdrachten van o.a. het Nieuw Ensemble, Aurelia Saxofoonkwartet, Ivo Janssen (piano), het Doelenensemble, Ensemble Insomnio, Calefax, Multifoon (chromatische gamelan) en Arnold Marinissen (slagwerk). Haar belangstelling voor elektro-akoestische muziek werd ondersteund door STEIM in Amsterdam met als resultaat ...and god invented dice, a semi-theatrical concert piece, de science fiction kameropera The Pitch Shifter en de reeks Chromotoy I II en III.

Prijzen
In 1996 ontving Christina Viola Oorebeek een gedeelde eerste prijs op de tweede Gaudeamus' International Young Composers' Meeting voor (into)The heart of the matter. In 1999 won zij de 3de prijs op het Dutilleux Concours in Frankrijk met Tremors and Quakes voor piano.

C.V. Oorebeek
2007