Composer

Maria Koval, daughter of the composer Marian Koval, graduated in her native city, at the Moscow Conservatoire P. I. Tchaikovsky.
In Russia Maria Koval has given about 150 concerts of her own music as composer and as performer.
In 1990 Maria Koval was awarded a scholarship by the Hamburg Culture Ministry and she spent two years in the computer class at Musikhochschule Hamburg, discussing her music with Alfred Schnittke. In Germany she gave concerts in Hamburg, Lüneburg, Munich, Ulm, Bonn, Düsseldorf, and Bremen.
From March to April 1993 she toured as composer and performer of her own music in the USA and gave concerts in New York City, Chicago, Saint Louis, Cincinnati, and Trenton (Festival of Microtonal Music).
She collaborated with Hermann Kretzschmar, pianist of the Ensemble Modern, for whom she composed several piano pieces and with Uwe Dierksen, trombonist of the Ensemble Modern, for whom she composed a sonata for trombone and piano. She accompanied him on piano in a concert for Radio Bremen. The percussionist Jürgen Grözinger commissioned two pieces by Maria Koval: "Unwritten letters" for percussion, `cello and piano and "A Request" for flute, 2 oboes, bassoon and percussion, which were performed during the Russian Music Festival in Ulm (which included also compositions by Schnittke, Gubaidulina and Denisov).
Maria Koval has also written for Stefan Schmidt-Pritz, violinist of the Hamburger Symphoniker.
Since May 1997 Maria Koval is living in Paris.
In 2009 she has been awarded the Jacques Durand Prize of the Académie des Beaux Arts Paris.
Maria Koval’s work includes chamber music, symphonic works, an opera, scenic music, and music for children and adolescents.
At present Maria Koval is composing an opera, for which she has written the libretto.

Photo: Alexis Terzieff

→ all works by Maria Koval