Gernot Wolfgang

"Wolfgang's arresting, jazz-drenched new score seemed to capture at once the realities and myths of Los Angeles during fire season .. This piece could also serve as the score for an archetypical 1950s L.A. detective thriller - music that's somehow cool and sultry at the same time. Wherever your imagination takes you, Wolfgang provides the fuel .. "

Richard S. Ginell, The Los Angeles Times (on Gernot Wolfgang's composition for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Desert Wind)

"Winning sonic arsenal from composer with jazz, film and TV music background ... although there are many nods to jazz, folk and Latin music, the influences come across as partners to Gernot Wolfgang's creative individuality ... Wolfgang is especially inventive in frisky and poetic material for such pairings as bassoon and double bass, as in Low Agenda, and viola and bassoon, which weave Three Short Stories. "

"Rolling Hills and Jagged Ridges is the finest work on the disc [Short Stories]. Its inspiration is the imaginary landscape of the title, which begins and ends enveloped in mist, with an impressive view of the rugged landscape in between. The music for violin is particularly inventive, with a recurring 'Hills' theme and imaginative use of silence and plucking, and even a Bach-like cadenza. As the mists descend towards the end of the piece, there is time for one last, quick flourish ... [this CD] is an attractive prospect. The soloists all give committed performances, Brian Dembow's viola in particular, and the sound quality is very good."

Byzantion, Musicweb-International.com (on Gernot's chamber music CD Short Stories)

"Wolfgang really explores the reaches of this undervalued solo instrument [the bassoon] with writing that is both soulful and dramatic ... The playing on this whole disk is uniformly excellent, especially from Judith Farmer on bassoon, finding expressive extremes of that instrument I didn't think possible."

Barnaby Rayfield, Fanfare magazine (on Gernot's chamber music CD Short Stories)

"There is no doubt in my mind that Wolfgang is a major composer of our times .. Gernot continues to turn out an excellent array of some of the best music for bassoon of the 20th century ... Gernot Wolfgang's musical style is fundamentally atonal, but highly developmental, utilizing very interesting melodic and rhythmic motives to bind the music together. The influences of jazz and rock are clearly audible in his music, and the entire structure has a wonderful sense of finesse and completion ..."

"Gernot Wolfgang knows what he's doing ... Theremin's Journey is a mixture of old electronics, new media and traditional piano with more than enough incident to transcend its vernacular idiom into something very cool, clever and seductive."

Rodney Punt, LA Opus (on Gernot's composition Theremin's Journey for Theremin, piano and electronica)

"Gernot Wolfgang's inspiring Common Ground, a melange of Jazz, Avantgarde and Classical elements with instant appeal ... it's just like hearing 'Le Sacre du Printemps' for the first time once again."

GERNOT WOLFGANG composer
Photograph by Diane Alancraig
"Wolfgang's arresting, jazz-drenched new score seemed to capture at once the realities and myths of Los Angeles during fire season .. This piece could also serve as the score for an archetypical 1950s L.A. detective thriller - music that's somehow cool and sultry at the same time. Wherever your imagination takes you, Wolfgang provides the fuel .. " Richard S. Ginell, The Los Angeles Times (on Gernot Wolfgang's composition for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Desert Wind) "Winning sonic arsenal from composer with jazz, film and TV music background ... although there are many nods to jazz, folk and Latin music, the influences come across as partners to Gernot Wolfgang's creative individuality ... Wolfgang is especially inventive in frisky and poetic material for such pairings as bassoon and double bass, as in Low Agenda, and viola and bassoon, which weave Three Short Stories. " Donald Rosenberg, Gramophone (on Gernot's chamber music CD Short Stories) "Rolling Hills and Jagged Ridges is the finest work on the disc [Short Stories]. Its inspiration is the imaginary landscape of the title, which begins and ends enveloped in mist, with an impressive view of the rugged landscape in between. The music for violin is particularly inventive, with a recurring 'Hills' theme and imaginative use of silence and plucking, and even a Bach-like cadenza. As the mists descend towards the end of the piece, there is time for one last, quick flourish ... [this CD] is an attractive prospect. The soloists all give committed performances, Brian Dembow's viola in particular, and the sound quality is very good." Byzantion, Musicweb-International.com (on Gernot's chamber music CD Short Stories) "Wolfgang really explores the reaches of this undervalued solo instrument [the bassoon] with writing that is both soulful and dramatic ... The playing on this whole disk is uniformly excellent, especially from Judith Farmer on bassoon, finding expressive extremes of that instrument I didn't think possible." Barnaby Rayfield, Fanfare magazine (on Gernot's chamber music CD Short Stories) "There is no doubt in my mind that Wolfgang is a major composer of our times .. Gernot continues to turn out an excellent array of some of the best music for bassoon of the 20th century ... Gernot Wolfgang's musical style is fundamentally atonal, but highly developmental, utilizing very interesting melodic and rhythmic motives to bind the music together. The influences of jazz and rock are clearly audible in his music, and the entire structure has a wonderful sense of finesse and completion ..." Ronald Klimko, The Double Reed (on Gernot's concert music with bassoon) "Gernot Wolfgang knows what he's doing ... Theremin's Journey is a mixture of old electronics, new media and traditional piano with more than enough incident to transcend its vernacular idiom into something very cool, clever and seductive." Rodney Punt, LA Opus (on Gernot's composition Theremin's Journey for Theremin, piano and electronica) "Gernot Wolfgang's inspiring Common Ground, a melange of Jazz, Avantgarde and Classical elements with instant appeal ... it's just like hearing 'Le Sacre du Printemps' for the first time once again." Tobias Fischer, Tokafi.com (on Gernot's chamber music CD Common Ground) "Unconventional beauty." Dave Brubeck, Jazz Great (on Gernot's chamber music CD Common Ground)
Born in Bad Gastein, Austria in 1957, Gernot Wolfgang currently resides in Los Angeles. He is a graduate of the program "Scoring for Motion Pictures and TV" at USC, and holds degrees from Berklee College of Music in Boston and the University of Music in Graz, Austria.
Gernot has received commissions from individuals and organizations such as the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic principals Michele Zukovsky (clarinet), Joanne Pearce Martin (keyboard) and David Breidenthal (bassoon), the Verdehr Trio & Michigan State University, Martha's Vineyard Chamber Music Society, Cal State Northridge, Music from Salem (NY), Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra flutist Susan Greenberg, the Jazz Festival of the European Broadcasting Union, Oesterreichische Kammersymphoniker (Austria), Tiroler Kammerorchester InnStrumenti (Austria) , Jazz Bigband Graz (Austria), and the Los Angeles based chamber music series Pacific Serenades and Chamber Music Palisades.
His concert works, which are published by Doblinger and Fatrock Ink Music Publishers, have been presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, the Las Vegas Philharmonic, the Kyushu Symphony Orchestra (Japan), the Muenchner Rundfunkorchester (Germany), the Symponieorchester Vorarlberg (Austria) and the Oesterreichische Kammersymphoniker. They have been performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall) in New York, the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Prinzregententheater in Munich, Germany, the Konzerthaus and the Musikverein in Vienna and at festivals such as the New York Chamber Music Festival, the Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato, Mexico and the Wiener Festwochen. Albany Records has released two CDs of Gernot's chamber music: "Short Stories" (TROY1248, 2011) and "Common Ground" (TROY854, 2006) . His music can also be heard on the Polygram, Universal, Koch, Navona, Crystal Records, Yarlung, Capstone and Extraplatte labels.
As a guitarist with the Austrian jazz ensemble "The QuARTet" he has recorded two critically acclaimed CDs for Extraplatte and toured extensively throughout Europe.
From 1990-93 Gernot was a lecturer for Jazz Composition and Harmony at the University of Music in Graz. He has guest lectured and held masterclasses at UCLA, the University of Music in Vienna, the festival Instrumenta Verano in Oaxaca, Mexico and the Garth Newel Music Center in Warm Springs, VA. Gernot has received awards, grants and scholarships from the American Composers Forum, American Music Center, the Austrian Ministry for Education and the Arts, the Austrian Ministry for Science and Research, Austro Mechana, Berklee College of Music, Billboard Magazine, BMI, the Fulbright Commission and the State of Tyrol, Austria.
Gernot Wolfgang is active in the film and TV music industry as a composer, arranger and orchestrator. From 2005-2008 he was composer in residence with the Beverly Hills International Music Festival, curating the concert series "Voices of Hollywood" (featuring the chamber music of film/TV composers) and "Music of Austria". Together with fellow composers Bevan Manson, Ed Neumeister and Michael Patterson - aka Cool Change Composers Collective (CCCC) - he currently produces the concert series "Improvisatory Minds: Chamber Music composed by Jazz Musicians" at Vitello's in Studio City, CA. For a bio in German click here. Gernot Wolfgang on myspace.