Open Ground
Instrumentation: 3.3.3.3 / 4.3.3.1 / timp, 3perc, hp, pf / str
About the composer
Victoria Borisova-Ollas (b. 1969, Russia) is an internationally acclaimed composer whose music is known for its vivid orchestration, emotional depth, and distinctive voice. She received her early training at the Central Music School and the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, and later continued her composition studies at the Malmö Academy of Music, the Royal College of Music in London, and part-time at the Stockholm Academy of Music. Since 1992, she has been based in Stockholm.
Her breakthrough came in 1998 when her orchestral work Wings of the Wind was awarded second prize in the prestigious Masterprize International Composition Competition in the UK. Since then, her music has been widely performed in Sweden and abroad by leading orchestras and ensembles, including the BBC Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, and the Raschér Saxophone Quartet.
Borisova-Ollas’s music has been praised for its orchestral mastery and originality. Critics have described her as “a composer with a sparky individual voice” (BBC Music Magazine), “an orchestrator of the greatest virtuosity” (The Times), and noted her work for its “sonorous imagination and technical perfection” (Hufvudstadsbladet). Dagens Nyheter called her music “a swirling sound poetry.”
