Born in 1978, Czech composer and chansonnier Šimon Voseček studied composition at the Prague National Conservatory under Otomar Kvĕch following early lessons taken in piano and organ. His time at the Prague Conservatory saw him pursue a diverse range of activities, from chorister and choir director, to learning languages including Russian, Italian and German. In 2002, Šimon moved to Vienna in order to continue studying composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna - from which he graduated with honours in 2008 – first under Dietmar Schermann, then under Erich Urbanner and Chaya Czernowin.
Ranging from music for solo piano, violin and accordion, to chamber music, orchestral work and opera, Šimon’s compositions have been performed across Europe and beyond, including the USA (Mice by the Talea Ensemble in April 2014 at MATA festival, New York), Japan (41-30 by the Platypus Ensemble in June 2014 in Tokyo), and the UK (Soundings 2014 at the Austrian Cultural Forum and Royal College of Music, London). His first experimentation in opera resulted in the three opera sketches, Soudničky/Das heitere Bezirksgericht (The Serene District Court), which were premièred in 2000 at the Žižkovské Divadlo in Prague.
In 2008, Šimon was presented with the Upcoming Artist Award from the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture for his first full-length opera, Biedermann und die Brandstifter (2005-2007), for which he wrote his own libretto based on Swiss writer Max Frisch’s 1958 play. The work was premièred by Neue Oper Wien in September 2013 and directed by Béatrice Lachaussée. The company took the opera to Italy the following year to perform at Bozen’s Teatro Comunale in February. This November, Independent Opera will present a new production of Šimon’s opera translated into English by David Pountney (Biedermann and the Arsonists) and directed by the recipient of their 2015 Director Fellowship, Max Hoehn.
In addition to composing, Šimon is also an active member of a number of groups and associations such as LUX (which he helped co-found), IGNM and Platypus, which promote and put on performances of contemporary music. In 2012, Šimon joined the Austrian young persons’ theatre group, the schallundrauch agency, with whom he has worked on productions in the capacity of composer, performer, music director and artistic director. Currently living in Vienna, Šimon was recently awarded his second state scholarship for composition. The scholarship will allow him to write the music to the opera Trilogy of Medicin by Kristine Tornquist, which was commissioned by sirene Operntheater who will give the work its world première in September 2016.
www.vosecek.eu