Manuel Zwerger
Composer

Manuel Zwerger (* 1992 in Bolzano) studied composition with Franz Baur, Simon Steen-Andersen, Niels Rønsholdt and Juliana Hodkinson at the Conservatory of Innsbruck and at the Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus. He received further education from Hannes Kerschbaumer and Wolfram Schurig. In 2019 he was a member of the International Young Composers Academy (Festival Ticino Musica) with Oscar Bianchi and Dmitri Kurljandski in Lugano.
Manuel Zwerger moves as a composer at the intersection of new music, performance and installation art, whereby visual and extra-musical material is not subordinated to the sound quality, but made it inherent. Oriented towards intermedia, he pays special attention to scenic-performative and theatrical aspects that question the socio-aesthetic potential of our media society in an interdisciplinary and multisensory manner. The thematic focus lies on the usual phenomena of making music and the production of sound, which are connected and questioned with influences from everyday life, pop culture, anti-art, current trends and science. He works particularly with prepared instruments and new media.

He has received various grants and scholarships for his work, including the scholarship from the Richard Wagner Verband Wien (2015), the composition scholarship from the Akademie Musiktheater heute of the Deutsche Bank Foundation (2017-19), the Hilde-Zach-Kompositionsförderstipendium from the city of Innsbruck (2018), the Startstipendium from the Austrian Federal Chancellery (2020), the Heinrich-von-Mörl-Stipendium (2021), the Staatsstipendium from the Austrian Federal Chancellery (2022), the Hilde-Zach-Kompositionsstipendium from the city of Innsbruck (2023) and the residency fellowship at Schloss Wiepersdorf (2024). His works are published by Edition Gravis / Berlin.

Einheit – Transgression – Handwerk. Drei Perspektiven auf die Arbeiten des Komponisten Manuel Zwerger by Monika Voithofer. Click here