Michael Oesterle

(Born in 1968)

The composer and performer Michael Oesterle was born in Ulm, Germany, in 1968. He immigrated to Canada in 1982, and since 1996 has been living in Montréal. He has received several awards, such as the Gaudeamus Prize, the Grand Prize at the 12th CBC Radio National Competition for Young Composers, and the Canada Council Jules Léger Prize. Oesterle’s works have been performed and commissioned by ensembles and soloists in Canada and throughout the world including Ensemble Modern (Frankfurt), the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (NEM), cellist Yegor Dyachkov, the Ives Ensemble (Amsterdam), sopranos Karina Gauvin and Suzie Leblanc. He has produced projects in collaboration with composer Gerhard Staebler, violinist Clemens Merkel, painter Christine Unger, video/installation artist Wanda Koop and Bonnie Baxter and choreographer Isabelle Van Grimde. He composed the music for cNOTE, a film by animator Christopher Hinton, produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). cNOTE won the 2005 GENIE award for best animated-short. In 1997 he founded the Montréal based Ensemble Kore with pianist Marc Couroux, and between 2001 and 2004 he was composer-in-residence with l’Orchestre Metropolitain du Grand Montréal.