Julia Purgina (Austria - exploring Brazil)
Born in Straubing, Germany in 1980, Julia Purgina studied viola with Wolfgang Klos and composition with Erich Urbanner and Chaya Czernowin at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. In addition she was a student of Ulrich Knörzer at the Berlin University of the Arts. Ms. Purgina holds a double masters degree in viola and composition from the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. She is presently working on her PhD with Martin Eybl, specializing in Aleatory Compositional Techniques.
Julia Purgina has received numerous prizes and scholarships including the Theodor Körner Prize, the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra Stipend, the Viktor Fohn Stipend, the Antonio Salieri Composition Prize and the Startstipendium 2009 from the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture.
From 1999-2004 she was a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. Ms. Purgina played in the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra from 2004-2007. Though her primary focus is on the performance of modern music, she also performs frequently with orchestras such as the Vienna Volksoper, the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria and the Wiener Kammerphilharmonie. She is co-founder of ensemble LUX and a member of Ensemble Reconsil and the jazz group Studio Dan. She performed RolandFreisitzer’s Viola Concerto as a soloist with Ensemble Reconsil in Vienna and composers such as Erich Urbanner and Thomas Heinisch are presently writing viola concertos which will be dedicated to her. In Spring 2010, Ms. Purgina performed her own viola concerto and a composition for viola and ensemble by Bruno Stobl with Studio New Music Moscow in the Rachmaninov Hall in the Tschaikovsky Conservatory.As a composer, Julia Purgina has had commissions from the Theater in Kempten (Germany), the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt, Ensemble Wiener Collage, among others. Her pieces have already been performed in Austria, Bulgaria, England, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Italy, Russia, Slovakia and Slovenia.