Mischa Tangian
The Moscow-born composer and violinist Mischa Tangian studied with M. Trojahn at the RSH Düsseldorf and perfected his compositional craft with Sir G. Benjamin at King’s College London, made possible thanks to a one-year scholarship from the DAAD.
As a scholarship holder and prize winner of numerous competitions (including the Carl Dörken Foundation, the Deutsche Bank Foundation or E.On), he has received numerous awards. In 2014 he was the winner of the International Opera Competition “Neue Szenen II” of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and in 2018 finalist of the international composition competition “île de Création” (Paris). His music has been performed by numerous ensembles at home and abroad, including the Orchestre National d’île der France, Orchestre de Radio France (Paris), the Russian Philharmony Orchestra (Moscow), Festino Chamber Choir (St Petersburg), Zafraan Ensemble (Berlin), Quatour Diotima, the Cosmos Quartet (Barcelona) and, of course, his ensemble Babylon ORCHESTRA.
For the 2014/15 season of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Mischa Tangian developed the music theatre show In Transit and was commissioned to write his first opera in absentia. Both were premiered at the Tischlerei of the Deutsche Oper. In 2014 he wrote the short opera Carmen en los infiernos with the Spanish writer Helena Tornero, which was commissioned by the Festival Castell Peralada (Spain) and performed at the Neuköllner Oper Berlin and the Arts Centre St. Monica in Barcelona, among others. In 2016, the Staatsoper Hannover commissioned him to write a chamber opera for young people (Moby Dick).
From 2016-18 Mischa Tangian was a fellow of the Deutsche Bank Foundation’s Akademie Musiktheater Heute. As part of this programme, he composed the chamber opera Die Nacht der Seeigel for the Hamburg State Opera, which premiered in May 2019. In addition to music theatre, Mischa Tangian also regularly collaborates with artists from other music and media genres. He developed larger arrangements with the electric piano duo Grandbrothers and performed with them at Reworks Thessaloniki, the Elbphilharmonie or in Rotterdam, among others. In early 2016, he founded the Babylon ORCHESTRA together with Sofia Surgutschowa, which brings together musicians from the Middle East and Europe and develops new music between modern classical, jazz and world music. The Babylon ORCHESTRA’s debut album, which included several compositions by Mischa Tangian and was produced by him, received the German Record Critics’ Award for Best World Music Album in 2020. Future collaborations with the Symphony Orchestra of the Philharmonie Dortmund and the State Opera Orchestra Stuttgart are planned for 2021/22, also an own opera production with Babylon ORCHESTRA and traditional and non-classical singers (2022).