Julia Purgina (composer / viola)

Born in Straubing, Germany in 1980, Austrian composer and Violist Julia Purgina studied viola with Wolfgang Klos and composition with Erich Urbanner and Chaya Czernowin at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Additionally she was a student of Ulrich Knörzer at the Berlin University of the Arts. Ms. Purgina holds a double masters degree in viola and composition from the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Additionally, she is interested in Philology and completed her studies in German and Slovak Languages at the Vienna University in 2021.

Julia Purgina has received numerous prizes and scholarships including the Theodor Körner Prize, the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra Stipend, the Viktor Fohn Stipend, the Antonio Salieri Composition Prize, the Startstipendium 2009 and the Staatsstipendium for composers 2013 from the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture.

From 1999-2004 she was a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. Ms. Purgina played in the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra from 2004-2007. Though her primary focus is on the performance of modern music, she also performs frequently with orchestras such as the Wiener Kammerorchester, the Vienna Volksoper, the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria and the Wiener Kammerphilharmonie. She is co-founder of ensemble LUX and was a member of Ensemble Reconsil and the jazz group Studio Dan. She performed Roland Freisitzer’s Viola Concerto as a soloist with Ensemble Reconsil in Vienna and composers such as Erich Urbanner, Ivo Nilsson and Thomas Heinisch have writiten viola concertos (or double concertos including the viola as solo instrument) which are dedicated to her. In Spring 2010, Ms. Purgina performed her own viola concerto and a composition for viola and ensemble by Bruno Stobl with Studio New Music Moscow in the Rachmaninov Hall in the Tschaikovsky Conservatory. As a composer, Julia Purgina has had commissions and performances from the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Wien Modern, Hugo Wolf Quartet, Ensemble Kontrapunkte, Ensemble Reconsil Vienna, oenm, Aspekte Festival, Ensemble XX. Jahrhundert, sirene operntheater, Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, Platypus Ensemble, Studio Dan, Ensemble Wiener Collage, the Theater in Kempten (Germany) and the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt, among others. Her work has been conducted by conductors like Sylvain Cambreling, Andrew Manze, Stefan Solyom, Roland Freisitzer, Peter Keuschnig, Peter Burwik, Mei-Ann Chen, Cecilia Martin-Löf, Eugene Tzigane, Gemma New and others. She has been a composer in residence at the Mittersill Composer Forum (KOFOMI). During the 2013/2014 seasons she was "Composer-in-Residence" with the "Wiener Concertverein". In October 2014, she is one of three featured composers at Soundings Festival in London. 

Her orchestra piece "Akatalepsia"  (performed by Vienna Symphony Orchester and Sylvain Cambering at Wien Modern 2018) was entered for the Rostrum of composers 2019 by the Austrian broadcast corporation.

Her works are published by paladino media, Apoll Edition or are self-published. Her arrangement of Zemlinskys "Sinfonische Gesänge" is published by Universal Edition.

From September 2016 until August 2022, Julia Purgina was appointed University Professor and Head of Strings at the MUK (Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität der Stadt Wien). Her teaching focus is contemporary music (practical and theoretical), analysis and arranging techniques. Currently she is holding a professorship for music theory at the MUK. 

In June 2022 Julia Purgina was appointed Vice-President for the arts, teaching and learning at the Anton Bruckner Private University Upper Austria in Linz and became a lecturer for contemporary music.