Volkmar Klien (*1971, Hollabrunn, A) spent his childhood in Vienna engulfed in the city’s rich musical life with all its glorious traditions and engrained rituals. Working from this background Volkmar Klien today strives to extend traditional practices of composing, producing and listening far beyond established settings of concert music. He works in various areas of the audible and occasionally inaudible arts, navigating the manifold links between different modes of human perception, spheres of presentation and the roles these play in the communal generation of meaning. His works have been commissioned, exhibited and performed by institutions including the Volksoper Wien (Vienna, A), EMPAC (Troy, USA) and Transitio_MX (Mexico City, MX). With his choreographer brother Michael he has collaborated on performative projects exploring sound, bodily movement and human communication, presented at the ZKM Karlsruhe, Ballet Frankfurt, the Hayward Gallery London and, most recently, by the Martha Graham Company in co-operation with the New Museum (NY). His awards include the Media Arts Prize of the City of Vienna, an Honorary Mention at Ars Electronica, the Max Brand Prize for Electronic Music and the Gustav Mahler Prize for Composition. He holds a PhD in electroacoustic composition from the City University London, has held research positions at the Royal College of Art, OFAI and the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna, and is professor for composition at the Anton Bruckner University (Linz, Austria).

Last updated September 2025