Bio
Otto Wanke (* 21.12.1989)
I am a composer and music researcher based in Vienna. My education began with jazz composition in Prague and continued in Vienna, where I studied instrumental, multimedia, and electroacoustic composition with Wolfgang Liebhart, Iris ter Schiphorst, and Karlheinz Essl. I completed my studies with a PhD focused on spectral music, under the supervision of Gesine Schröder and Martin Supper at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw).
From 2018 to 2023, I was employed as an assistant at the Department of Ethnomusicology at the mdw. Since 2020, I have been teaching electroacoustic composition and multimedia at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno.
In addition to composing, I am active as a performer of electroacoustic music, working both as a soloist and in collaboration with other musicians. I also pursue improvosational projects, e.g. a modular synthesizer duo Los Modulinos with Karlheinz Essl.
My work has been recognized at various international competitions, including the Frederic Mompou Award in Spain, FIMS in Switzerland, the Nikolaus Fheodoroff Composition Prize, and the Theodor Körner Prize in Austria. My music has been presented at major international festivals such as Wien Modern, Acht Brücken, and Carinthian Summer. It has been performed by renowned ensembles, orchestras, and soloists including PHACE, OENM, Black Pencil Ensemble, Grafenegg Symphony Orchestra, Austrian Jazz Composers Orchestra, Lars Mlekusch, Wolfgang Mitterer, Christoph Cech, Yuri Revich, and Paul Gulda. I have received commissions from institutions such as the National Opera in Warsaw, Brucknerhaus Linz, ZKM Karlsruhe, and ORF.
In addition to my artistic work, I am also active in the field of music management. I founded the concert series and composition competition SoundChain. From 2025 onwards, I work with the Brno Philharmonic as an external dramaturge.
ARTISTIC LANGUAGE
My work merges classical vocal-instrumental composition with electronics, interactive media, and sound art. Natural phenomena often serve as starting points for an abstract yet expressive musical language—one that explores shifting relationships between sound, movement, language, and perception, shaped by the tools and poetics of technology.
My music is characterized by interactions between acoustic instruments or vocals and electronic or visual media. I focus on expanding the capabilities of acoustic instruments, inventing idiosyncratic and unorthodox ways of producing sound, and incorporating interdisciplinary concerns into a personal compositional aesthetic. In my work, electronics enhance—rather than replace—the expressive potential of instrumental and vocal music, offering new perspectives on how we experience and understand art.