Victoria Borisova-Ollas

Victoria Borisova-Ollas was born 1969 in Russia but has lived in Sweden for many years. She first achieved international recognition when her work Wings of the Wind won second prize in the Masterprize competition in 1998: the critics were ecstatic, describing her work as a piece of "sparkling sonic poetry." She uses an original and innovative vocabulary of sounds to create acoustic spaces of great beauty and intensity, capable of captivating both sophisticated ears and those less experienced but curious.

Victoria began her musical studies at an early age. After graduating first from the Central School of Music in Moscow and then from the famous Tchaikovsky Conservatoire, she continued her composition studies in Sweden at Malmö Music College and in England at the Royal College of Music in London.

Her music is widely performed all around the world by orchestras such as London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Wiener Radio Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra (Tokyo), Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Duesseldorf Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Bern Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, The Raschèr Saxophone Quartet, Kammarensemblen and by other orchestras, ensembles and performers. Her works have been broadcasted by Swedish Television, BBC Radio 3, Swedish Radio P2 and by other broadcasting companies in Finland, Russia, USA, Slovenia, Germany, Canada etc. Some of the pieces have been released on CD`s ( EMI, Metronome Recordings in UK, Phono Suecia, Media Artes/Chamber Sound, Musica Rediviva in Sweden).

Her clarinet concerto Golden Dances of the Pharaohs was awarded two times, first from The Swedish Music Publishers Association's Annual Music Publisher's Award 2010 and next year, 2011 from The Royal Swedish Academy of Music/ Christ Johnson Prize. She also received The society of Swedish Composers Award/ Hilding Rosenbergs Prize 2009; The Swedish Music Publishers Association's Annual Music Publisher's Award 2008 for The Ground Beneath Her Feet, The Royal Academy of Music/ Minor Christ Johnson Prize for Symphony no.1 "the Triumph of Heaven" 2005.

Since 2008 Victoria Borisova-Ollas has been a member of The Royal Swedish Academy of Music.

Biography taken from composer’s website.
Photo: Martina Holmberg