Adriana Hölszky

Adriana Hölszky was born in Bucharest on June 30, 1953. She studied composition with Stefan Niculescu at the Bucharest Music Academy and, after moving to West Germany, continued her training with Milko Kelemen at the Stuttgart Music Academy. As a pianist, she was a member of the Lipatti Trio, which won prizes at international chamber music competitions in Florence (1978) and Colmar (1980).

After completing her studies, she began her teaching career at the Stuttgart Music Academy. In 1997, she was appointed professor of composition at the Rostock Music Academy, and from 2000 to 2013, she held a full professorship at the Mozarteum University Salzburg.

Hölszky's works have been performed at international festivals by renowned orchestras, choirs, and ensembles, including the Danish and Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestras, the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, and the Ensemble Modern. A major focus of her work lies in music theater. Her first opera, Bremer Freiheit (1988), based on the play of the same name by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, premiered at the Munich Biennale and was later performed at the Vienna Festival and the Helsinki Festival. Other significant music-theatrical works include Die Wände (1995), Der gute Gott von Manhattan after the radio play by Ingeborg Bachmann (2004), and Die Bösen Geister after the novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky (2014). In addition, she created the ballets Deep Field (2014) and Roses of Shadow (2016), both commissioned by the Deutsche Oper am Rhein.

Her complete works encompass nearly one hundred compositions, including orchestral works, choral works, chamber music, and pieces with live electronics.