“The premiere of the evening deserves to be included as repertoire in a canon of the immediate present yet to be written: Vito Žuraj's ‘Automatones’ is entertaining and yet incredibly complex, well constructed and irritating in the best sense of the word – contemporary orchestral music at its finest.” Münchner Merkur, 16.10.2023
Vito Žuraj's works are both powerful and meticulously crafted compositions that often incorporate scenic elements and spatial sound concepts. His works have quickly established themselves in the concert hall and have been performed by the New York Philharmonic, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ensemble Modern and the RIAS Kammerchor, among others.
Following the success of his opera Blühen, the 2024/25 season will focus on the work , performed by the Helsinki Chamber Choir and Ensemble Recherche at the Musica Nova festival in Helsinki. The current season will also see the North American premiere of Anemoi. The work, premiered with great success by the Berliner Philharmoniker under François-Xavier Roth in May 2024, draws its inspiration from the octagonal Tower of the Winds on the Roman Agora in Athens with its depiction of the Greek wind gods and will be performed by the Esprit Orchestra in Toronto in March 2025.
In 2014 he was a fellow of the Akademie der Künste, the ZKM Karlsruhe and the Villa Massimo in Rome, whose jury he was a member of from 2019 to 2021. In 2020/21 he was a fellow of the International House of Artists Villa Concordia in Bamberg and in 2003 of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation.
Vito Žuraj studied composition with Marko Mihevc, Lothar Voigtländer and Wolfgang Rihm. Since 2015, he has been Professor of Composition and Music Theory at the University of Ljubljana, where he is responsible for setting up a studio for electronic music.
Numerous ensembles and orchestras regularly include works by Vito Žuraj in their programmes, including the Ensemble Modern and WDR Symphony Orchestra for many years. Vito Žuraj has been awarded the Composition Prize of the City of Stuttgart. In 2016, he received the Claudio Abbado Composition Prize of the Karajan Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Recordings of Vito Žuraj's works have been released on the Neos label, among others.
Season 2024/25