For composer Michael Ostrzyga, the many sources of inspiration include technological, historical, mythological, and pop cultural phenomena and contexts. He has received co-missions from the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival, the World Symposium on Choral Music (2023 in Turkey, 2020 in New Zealand), the YL Male Voice choir (Finland), the Stuttgart Chamber Choir, and the Alten Oper in Frankfurt. He has been performed by the Rascher Saxophone Quartet, the Janaer Philharmonie, the Rhenish Piano Duo, the New Rhenish Chamber Orchestra, Concerto Köln, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the MDR Radio Choir, Chorwerk Ruhr, Kammarkören Pro Musica, and Allmänna Sången (Sweden), pianists Yin Chiang, Klaus Oldemeyer, Christoph Schnackertz and Thomas Stumpf, as well as organists Martin Herchenröder and Johannes Geffert. Ostrzyga’s compositions have been published by Breitkopf & Härtel, Bärenreiter, Carus, and Helbling. Ostrzyga has published a completion of Mozart’s Requiem which combines for the first time historical perspectives with historically informed music theory and practice in composition, arrangement and instrumentation. The edition was published by Bärenreiter in June 2022 and immediately became a best seller. In 2021 the first recording of the new edition had already been nominated as Editorial Achievement of the Year by Opus Klassik.
Ostrzyga is also a conductor. In 2008 he was appointed university music director and conductor of the Collegium musicum at the University of Cologne. From 2007 to 2019 he directed the Oratorio Choir in Brühl. As a guest conductor, he has led the Bochum Symphony, the Neue Philharmonie in Westfalia, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Musikfabrik, and the Cologne Vocal Soloists. He has appeared at various festivals including the Brühl Castle Concerts, and ACHT BRÜCKEN.
Ostrzyga’s earliest musical training (organ, piano, and choir) took place with Bruno Zaremba, after which he went on to Cologne to study with Marcus Creed (conducting), Friedrich Jaecker (harmony), and Peter Degenhardt (piano). He graduated there in 2005.
