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Leah Muir

short vita

Composer Leah Muir’s music have been presented at many international venues such as the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bruckner Orchester Linz with Dennis Russell Davies and David Friedman, the Münchener Biennale, Wien Modern, MärzMusik, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Wiener Konzerthaus, Konzerthaus Berlin, the Aspen Music Festival, June in Buffalo, Matera Festival, Heroines of Sound, Ars Electronica, Soundtrack Cologne. She was chosen for the Artist Residency in Venice 2019 at the Deutschen Studienzentrum. Other important residencies include a Fulbright where she studied with Chaya Czernowin at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. She earned her PhD in 2008 at the University at Buffalo having studied with David Felder and Cort Lippe and her masters in 2002 with Chen Yi and Jim Mobberley.
Aside from composing purely acoustic music for orchestra, small ensembles and soloists, Muir's own music theater pieces include "Von Sodom und Gomorra nach Berlin" premiered in 2012 at the Münchener Biennale as well as "Neue Szenen" prize at the Deutsche Oper. Her Music Video and Video Art pieces have been screened at the Matera Festival in Bari Italy, Soundtrack Cologne, The Denkerei Berlin, Espacio Center, Spain. "Lost Time" was composed in conjunction with Chihura Shiota's installation at the Stadtmuseum Nikolaikirche in Berlin. She has developed a series of pieces for solo performers performing duos with their video counterparts, such as in Just 34 and Double Treble. Muir has worked with internationally renowned soloists such as David Friedman, Eric Huebner, Lorelei Dowling, Irene Kurka, Nathan Plante and Michael Weilacher. Her music video “The Keen Illimitable of Begin” premiered at the International Kurzfilmwoche Regensburg 2023.
Muir's Live Video Opera, Em-Body-Ment, with Michael Weilacher and Irene Kurka will premiere at the Rainy Days festival in November of 2025.
Leah Muir is the Artistic Director of Ensemble ilinx, Studio for New Music at the Berlin University of the Arts, curating newly composed works and repertoire from the 20th and 21st century. She is on the faculty of the Berlin Stanford University Bing Overseas Program.