Olivia De Prato

Internationally recognized as a soloist as well as a chamber musician, Austro-
Italian violinist Olivia De Prato established herself as a passionate performer of
contemporary and improvised music, breaking boundaries of the traditional violin
repertoire and regularly performs in Europe, South America, China and the
United States.
From 2005-2020 she lived in New York City, where she quickly made a name for
herself as a passionate representative of new music and improvisation, crossing
borders with classical music. She gives concerts regularly in Europe, Japan, South
America, China and the United States. Her performances as a chamber musician
are in demand at many important festivals: Lincoln Center Festival, Carnegie Hall,
Suntory Hall, Lucerne Festival, Ensemble Modern Festival, “June in Buffalo”
Festival, “Ojai Festival” with Steve Reich and Brad Lubman, Wien Modern
Festival, among others , Eight Bridges Festival, Salzburg Festival, Venice Biennale,
“Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music” as well as the Aldeburgh Festival.
De Prato is the co-founder and first violinist of the Mivos Quartet, which focuses
on the performance of contemporary string quartets and a member of the
Ensemble XXI Jahrhundert.
Olivia De Prato has been invited several times to hold both solo and chamber
music master classes for young musicians and composers: in Anchorage (Alaska),
Universidad EAFIT Medellin (Columbia), at the “Yong Siew Toh” Conservatory
in Singapore, at the Shanghai Conservatory , at MIAM University (Turkey), at the
Hochschule für Musik Mannheim, at the Manhattan School of Music, at Brooklyn
College, at the Boston Conservatory, at New York University, at Duke University,
at UC Berkeley, at UC San Diego and at Harvard University.
De Prato has collaborated closely with composers Anthony Braxton, Chaya
Czernowin, Peter Eötvös, Beat Furrer, Clemens Gadenstätter, Michael Gordon,
Annie Gosfield, Georg Friedrich Haas, Helmut Lachenman, David Lang, George
Lewis, Brad Lubman, Meredith Monk, Olga Neuwirth, Hilda Peredes, Steve Reich,
Ned Rothenberg, Jorge Sanchez-Chiong, Johannes Maria Staud, J.G Thirlwell,
Julia Wolfe, Charles Wuorinen and John Zorn.
Other close collaborations include performances with Saul Williams, Ambrose
Akinmusire, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Nate Wooley.
In 2018 Olivia released her debut solo album on New Focus recordings and one
of the works was nominated for a grammy 2019.
Her discography includes recordings on Tzadik, New Amsterdam Records,
Sunnyside Records, New Focus Recordings, Mode, Cantaloupe, Porter Records,
Harmonia Mundi, Blue Note and Deutsche Grammophon.
In 2019 she received the Dwight und Ursula Mamlok Prize for ‘Interpretation of
contemporary music' with the Mivos String Quartet.
Olivia De Prato studied at the University of Music and Arts in Vienna (Kl. Dora
Schwarzberg) and received her Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from the
Eastman School of Music (Prof. Castleman). She received her Master of Music as
a member of the first graduating class from the Contemporary Performance
Program at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City.
In October 2022 she release her latest solo album entitled “I. A.M, Artist Mother
Project” (New World Records) that includes all new commissioned works by
Zosha Di Castri, Natascha Diels, Ha Yang Kim, Kathrine Young, Jen Baker and
Pamelia Stickney. This album was hailed as “best classical albums of 2022” (VAN
Magazine).
In February 2023 she released the complete string quartets by Steve Reich on
Deutsche Grammophon with the Mivos Quartet.