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Composer Veronika Judita Krausas was born in Sydney, Australia and raised from the age of four in Canada. She has had her works performed in Canada, the United States, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands and Romania. The Globe and Mail (Toronto) writes that "her works, whose organic, lyrical sense of storytelling are supported by a rigid formal elegance, give her audiences a sense that nature's frozen objects are springing to life."
She completed teaching and performing diplomas at the Royal Conservatory of Music (1986, 1987) in Toronto, a Bachelor of Commerce degree (1985) at the University of Calgary, a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Toronto (1991), a Masters degree at McGill University in Montreal (1995), and a doctorate from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles (2001), and received the outstanding DMA in Composition award.
In 1996 Musik Fabrik, conducted by Johannes Kalitzke, premiered her chamber orchestra piece Spirals of Sense at the Darmstadt New Music Festival. She has received commissions from the Canada Council for the Penderecki String Quartet, ERGO Projects, Continuum Music and two commissions for Motion Music (Canada) including a Millennium Project Grant. The Millennium Project was in conjunction with photographer Thaddeus Holownia and writer Andre Alexis. This multi-media work had several performances in New Brunswick and subsequently at the Newfoundland Sound Symposium in the summer of 2000.
Her chamber opera The Mortal Thoughts of Lady Macbeth was premiered at the New York Opera’s VOX 2008 festival and will be staged in San Francisco by Goat Hall Productions on May 24, 2009.
In 2008 she organized a concert (at the University of Southern California) and CD release for The Player Piano Project – a collection of works for player piano by 22 composers from 6 countries. In 2009 the Penderecki String Quartet gave the US Premiere of midaregami/tangled hair, her work for string quartet and mezzo-soprano at REDCAT theater in Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles.
Since 1998 Krausas has directed, composed for, and produced multi-media events in Los Angeles that incorporate her works with dance, acrobatics and video. In 1998 Krausas directed This Ain’t No Roller Derby, a multi-media presentation incorporating her works with dance performances and video presentations by local Los Angeles artists. In May 1999 she mounted The Apron, a solo photography exhibit of her works along with her music at the Sponto Gallery in Venice California. In September 1999 she directed Stone Shelters, a show of her works with performances by former Cirque du Soleil artists and actress Susannah Kenton. Pianist Louise Thomas and the USC Symphony performed her Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in March 2000. In 2002 she was awarded two Arts Initiative Faculty Grants at USC for interdisciplinary projects. The first, The Courtyard with acrobats, video and music, was presented during the USC Spring Arts Festival in 2002. The second Asymptote was presented at the Brewery Art Center in Los Angeles and involved the Arts, Architecture, Physics, English and Music Departments.
In April 2003 she presented a theatrical event with acrobatics and music, My Birthday Party, with director/actor Daniel Passer and choreographer/acrobat Bianca Sapetto at the Miles Memorial Playhouse in Santa Monica, California.
A CD of her chamber music was released in 2002 by Motion Ensemble. Her works for duo guitar appear on the FOOD: New Works for Duo Guitar. Her book of graffiti photography IN + ON is available at lulu.com.
Krausas is presently on faculty in the Composition Department at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and a lecturer at the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
www.veronikakrausas.com
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