About

“Music is my life”—this was clear to Oliver Peter Graber right from the start.

In addition to extensive studies in piano (with Leonid Brumberg, Erika Dichler-Sedlacek, Josef Dichler, and Igo Koch, as well as master classes with Paul Badura-Skoda, Jörg Demus, Alexander Satz, and Dmitri Bashkirov), violin (with Markus Wolf and Bijan Khadem-Missagh, as well as a master class with Max Rostal), composition and music theory (with Dieter Gaisbauer, Diether de la Motte, Ivan Eröd, Claus Ganter, Erich Urbanner, Klaus-Peter Sattler, music theater dramaturgy with Richard Bletschacher, and private composition lessons with Gottfried von Einem), musicology and music related neuroscience (with Peter Revers, Manfred Angerer, and Roland Beisteiner), as well as private conducting lessons (with Karl Österreicher, Raimund Langner, and Vladimir Kiradjiev), he has devoted his entire time and energy primarily to functional composition and thus to inter- and transdisciplinary fields of work.

A particularly close artistic and professional relationship connects him to the Vienna State Opera: off ballet special and off ballet special II (2000, 2001, excerpts of which were also shown at the opening of the Vienna Opera Ball in 2001), Lavori in Corso (2001), Re:Composition (2011), the concert version of the waltz from the ballet Camille (2012), Mae2cae5nas (2013), Concertino la vita aeterna (2013), and Café Central (arrangement, 2014) have so far been performed either directly at the Vienna State Opera or staged by members of the ballet ensemble or the ballet youth company at other venues, or presented as part of guest performances. From 2010 to 2020, Oliver Peter Graber also worked directly for the Vienna State Opera GmbH; from 2013 to 2020, he served as dramaturg of the Vienna State Ballet (responsible for the Vienna State Opera and the Volksoper Vienna).

His specialization in ballet music (functional composition) led, particularly in the dramaturgical but also compositional realm, to collaborations with a wide range of the most renowned ballet creators of our time and to extensive collaborations that have, over the course of his career, increasingly also focused on the United States. Notable in this context are the productions Dorothy and the Prince of Oz for the Tulsa Ballet and BalletMet (choreography: Edward Liang, 2017), Tchaikovsky—The Man Behind the Music for the Tulsa Ballet (choreography: Ma Cong, 2019), Alice for the BalletMet (arrangement, choreography: Edwaard Liang, 2020), and Dracula for the Washington Ballet (arrangement, choreography: Edwaard Liang, 2027). These works also have been or are being added to the repertoire by other ensembles (Washington Ballet, Richmond Ballet) in the U.S.

Electronic ballet compositions have also become a distinctive transdisciplinary hallmark, created on the basis of sonified NMR spectroscopy data and other biomedical or scientific data. Notable examples in this regard include the previously mentioned Off Ballet Special for the Ballet of the Vienna State Opera (2000/2001), Shiva’s Chamber for the Ballet of the Landestheater Linz (2001), RE:volution for the Dortmund Ballet (2009), and Archaeopteryx (Jasmin Avissar, 2014–2016). Alchemy, with an original libretto by Roald Hoffmann, braught sonified NMR spectroscopy data to the world of the opera as well (2022). He also conducted the first magnetic resonance imaging of pointe work in an upright standing position under full weight (2006) and presented photo-sonifications as part of the La Gacilly Festival (2020).

Oliver Peter Graber has also applied his interdisciplinary approach in the context of media compositions for audiobooks, compilation and hosting, as well as contributions to, of and for radio programs (such as ORF OE1 Pasticcio), numerous publications, and university teaching. Relevant professional positions included his appointment as university lecturer for ballet music at the Institute for Musicology at the University of Vienna (1997), the position of the artistic-scientific coordinator and university assistant at the Interdisciplinary Platform for Chronobiological Research (IPCF) at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (2006–2012), his work as a visiting lecturer in ballet dramaturgy at the Institute for Theater Studies at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj (2019), as a visiting lecturer in functional composition, music psychology, and philosophy of music at the Institute for Nursing Science (Department Music Therapy) at the IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems (2021–2027), and as a visiting lecturer in music effect research and Medical Humanities/Arts for Health at the Medical University of Vienna (since 2022). Also, since 2022, he has been being a professor and artistic director of the Research Institute for Music Medicine with a focus on Arts for Health at JAM MUSIC LAB Private University Vienna, where he also served as dean of the Faculty of Music until 2023.

With Ludwig Med, he invented and developed (with support from AWS, FFG, and INITS) starting in 2021 a digital composition system for critically ill patients—registered as a utility model in Austria and as a EU patent—that makes concepts of functional composition for ballet usable in the clinical setting.

As a pianist, Oliver Peter Graber occasionally performs as a soloist, accompanist, and soloist with orchestra, focusing on works by Franz Liszt (e.g., violin duets by Liszt), programs of rare works in the interdisciplinary field, but above all on his own works (original compositions and arrangements).