Oscar Bianchi

Oscar Bianchi is a composer of Italian and Swiss descent whose music navigates the tension between visceral expression, formal precision, and the possibility of transcendence. Across a wide-ranging output—from chamber works to opera and staged music—Bianchi explores the transformative power of sound, with a particular focus on the voice as both medium and metaphor.

Born in Milan, he studied composition, choral conducting, and electronic music at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi, later completing advanced training at IRCAM in Paris and earning a doctorate from Columbia University under the mentorship of Tristan Murail and George Lewis. He has been artist-in-residence at institutions including the DAAD Künstlerprogramm Berlin, Villa Massimo Rome, Palazzo Barbarigo Venice, and Pro Helvetia (Warsaw and Johannesburg).

Bianchi’s music is known for its energy, sensuality, and finely detailed textures. His interest in breath—both as physical force and symbolic gesture—has led to a distinctive approach to instrumentation, often favoring unique constellations of instruments and voices. Critics have described him as a “dramatist of sound sensuality,” whose works shift between contemplative stasis and voluble virtuosity, between raw physicality and moments of arresting transcendence.

His first opera, Thanks to My Eyes—with libretto and direction by Joël Pommerat—was commissioned by the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and hailed as “a masterful portrait of melancholy” (Le Monde). His hour-long cantata Matra—inspired by Mary Magdalene, Lucretius, and the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra—marked the beginning of an extended cycle of works engaging with spirituality and the inner body. These include his Concerto Trilogy, each inspired by a chakra, and more recent projects like Pozzanghere | mezzo seccate, which reimagines the voice beyond narrative or lyricism, as a threshold between presence and abstraction.

Bianchi’s music has been performed by many of today’s foremost orchestras and ensembles, including the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, DSO Berlin, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern, Klangforum Wien, Ictus, JACK, Diotima, Les Percussions de Strasbourg, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. Distinguished soloists such as Sabine Meyer and David Grimal, and conductors including Pablo Heras-Casado, Markus Poschner, and Jonathan Stockhammer, have championed his work.

He has received numerous honors, including the Rome Prize, Gaudeamus Award, Grand Prix SACEM, DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Fellowship, International Rostrum of Composers Prize, and the German Record Critics’ Award.

Bianchi is Professor of Composition at the mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, and the founder and Artistic Director of the International Young Composers and Conductors Academy in Ticino, Switzerland, through which he supports and mentors emerging talents from around the world. Upcoming projects include new commissions for the Basel Sinfonietta, Musikfabrik, Ensemble Modern, Quatuor Diotima, and IRCAM.

At the heart of his work lies a belief in music as a vehicle for social, political, and existential transformation.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE