Lore Lixenberg UK/AT

Loré Lixenberg is a singer and maker. Her own work extends into coding, sound art, radiophonic work, film, and direction – shaped by the needs of the idea. After training as a mezzo-soprano, Lixenberg went on to apply operatic voice to physical theatre with Théâtre de Complicité and the revolutionary, controversial comedy club KUUUB ZARATHUSTRA. She has since performed in opera houses, music festivals, galleries, and public spaces internationally, performing works by composers and artists such as Frédéric Acquaviva, Georges Aperghis, Dai Fujikura, Bernard Heidsieck, Isidore Isou, Janice Kerbel, Bruce McLean, ORLAN, Karlheinz Stockhausen, David Toop, Mark-Anthony Turnage, and Trevor Wishart, often in collaboration with the artsits and premiering countless new works written for her voice.

Lixenberg studied composition with John Woolrich, Andy Vores, and Robert Saxton, and took masterclasses with Peter Maxwell Davies. She later trained as a singer with Jessica Cash, Andrew Powell, Paul Hamburger, Martin Isepp, and Galina Vishnevskaya. Her background in composition informs her wide-ranging vocal practice and her own works, which draw on extended vocal technique, operatic structure, and participatory digital forms. She has collaborated with leading ensembles – including Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Intercontemporain, BCMG, Ensemble Recherche, and Cikada – performing music by György Ligeti, Harrison Birtwistle, Salvatore Sciarrino, Earle Brown, Jennifer Walshe, Pauline Oliveros, Conlon Nancarrow, Helmut Oehring, and Kevin Volans. She has performed at festivals such as Donaueschingen, Darmstadt, Witten, Wien Modern, and Ultima, and her repertoire ranges from experimental opera to politically charged performance art. She is possibly the only mezzo-soprano to have sung Luciano Berio’s music with Bronski Beat and Radiohead.

Her own operatic and performative projects explore the intersection of voice, politics, economy, and technology. These include PRET A CHANTER (a live fashion-opera), THE SINGTERVIEWS (a series of sung interviews), SINGLR (a real-time operatic dating app), VOXXCOIN (a blockchain-based opera exploring fiscal exchange), and LETHE (a film opera on death rituals). Her piece theVoicePartyOperaBotFarm[myMuseIsMyFury] won the Phonurgia Nova international sound art prize in 2021. In 2017, she founded THE VOICE PARTY, a hybrid artwork that functions as both political party and opera. She stood as a candidate in the UK general elections of 2019 and 2024, turning electoral participation into a durational performance.

As a director, she has staged works by Mauricio Kagel, Nam June Paik, Trevor Wishart, Niels Rønsholdt, and Salvatore Sciarrino, in venues including Den Frie (Copenhagen), The Sage Gateshead, SPOR Festival, and the Danish Royal Opera. Her productions often combine direction with performance, design, and film, such as THE FOOL (a mockumentary opera rehearsal) and An Evening with Pierrot Lunaire. In 2023 she directed and performed Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’s Miss Donnithorne’s Maggot with Neue Oper Fribourg.

Lixenberg co-directed the Berlin-based art space La Plaque Tournante with Frédéric Acquaviva—a hub for historic and contemporary avant-garde sound, text, and performance—awarded the Berlin Senate Prize for Best Project Space in 2017. Her discography includes NANCARROWKARAOKE (a multitracked vocal transcription of Conlon Nancarrow’s player piano rolls, De Player, 2020), The Afternoon of a Phone (£@B), and the first complete CD recording of John Cage’s Songbooks (Sub Rosa), with Greg Rose and Rob Worby. Her artist book Memory Maps and her recent radio works for Kunstradio (Austria) and Deutschlandfunk Kultur (Germany) continue her practice across media.

Lixenberg completed her PhD at the University of York in 2024. In 2026, she will premiere new works by Jennifer Walshe and Philip Venables at the Cartier Foundation in Paris and Musica Strasbourg, and appear at Wigmore Hall in concert with her duo Akkordeon Baroque.