German-speaking critics have described Jorge Sánchez-Chiong's work as acoustically powerful, a remarkably virtuosic play of colours, intense, compact, hyper-fast and utterly singular. This Austrian/Venezuelan composer, of Cuban and Chinese heritage, has lived in Vienna as a freelance composer and turntable artist since 1988, where he has been commissioned to write numerous works for leading New Music ensembles, orchestras and festivals.
His highly rhythmic compositions aim to capture the liveliness and spontaneity of improvisation. Moving beyond the concert hall, Sánchez-Chiong dissolves boundaries by collaborating with artists from new movements — experimental theatre and electronic music, science, performance (Thomas Jelinek), choreography (Brigitte Wilfing), turntablism (Sudden Infant, Pure), and film and video artists (Michaela Grill, TE -R). To date his work has been performed across Europe, North and South America, Asia and Oceania.
Sánchez-Chiong studied composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (with Francis Burt and Michael Jarrell). At the same institution he served as artistic director of NeW_AiR (New experimental Ways & Artists in Residence), a project devoted to exchanging new media and non-formal tendencies. He teaches at Impuls Graz and, since 2010, has taught composition at the International Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt. He has also been a guest professor for electronic composition at the Zürich University of Music (ZhdK/ICST).
He has repeatedly received the Composition Stipend of the Austrian Culture Ministry, the Music Prize of the City of Vienna and the Composition Stipend of the Vienna Symphonic Orchestra, and has been artist in residence at various institutions and ensembles.
In recent years, Jorge Sánchez-Chiong has developed increasingly precise techniques for interweaving seemingly immediate expression with complex messages — improvised and composed hybrids: noise and instrumental, turntable and orchestral sound, chamber music and video art.
His commissioners include Neue Musik Darmstadt, Neue Kammermusik Witten, Luzerner Festspiele, Konzerthaus Vienna, Konzerthaus Berlin, Traiettorie Parma, filmarchiv austria, transart Bolzano, Transit Leuven, Wien Modern, Bregenzer Festspiele, Jugend Oper Stuttgart, musikprotokoll, Jeunesse Special, Linz 09 European Cultural Capital, Klangforum Vienna, Nadar/Belgien, Phace Contemporary/Austria, Collegium Novum Zürich, decoder/Hamburg, Stroma/Neuseeland, China FMW/Taipei, MIVOS Quartet/New York, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Radio Symphonieorchester Vienna and Basler Sinfonieta, along with soloists such as Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Ernesto Molinari, among others.
Photo Credit: Jana Wilfing
