Julia
Purgina

Julia Purgina studied concert viola (Wolfgang Klos/MDW and Ulrich Knörzer/UdK) and composition (Erich Urbanner and Chaya Czernowin/both MDW, as well as electroacoustic composition with Karlheinz Essl/MDW). She also studied German and Slovak at the University of Vienna while working.

She completed all her studies with distinction. With experience as an orchestral musician (RSO Vienna, Vienna Chamber Orchestra and as a substitute at the Volksoper Vienna and the Lower Austrian Tonkünstler Orchestra), Purgina decided to specialise in contemporary music and combine her solo and chamber music ambitions with her compositional interests.
Together with Roland Freisitzer, she directed the Ensemble Reconsil until 2016 and was a founding member of the composer-performer group Ensemble Lux. She has played in the Wiener Klangforum, exxj, Phace and the Ensemble Wiener Collage. She has a close musical friendship with the jazz ensemble Studio Dan.
Close collaboration with Austrian and international composers has resulted in numerous works dedicated to Purgina (e.g. the viola concerto by Erich Urbanner), which she has also performed at important festivals such as Wien Modern, the Bregenz Festival and for radio broadcasts. In return, Julia Purgina has received commissions from renowned orchestras, ensembles and musicians who actively commission world premieres and perform them all over the world (e.g. Vienna Symphony Orchestra, RSO Vienna, sirene Operntheater, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Concertverein, Oberon Trio, Hugo Wolf Quartet, Ensemble Kontrapunkte, oenm, exxj, Ensemble Itineraire, among others).
Julia Purgina's interpretative work has been recorded on numerous albums, with the 14-part CD box set ‘Exploring The World’ with the Ensemble Reconsil from 2014/15 being particularly noteworthy, featuring more than 80 world premieres from all over the world. Her own list of works includes orchestral and ensemble works, two operas, solo concertos and choral pieces, as well as smaller chamber music and solo works, some of which incorporate electronics and film music. Her orchestral work ‘Akatalepsia’, performed by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Sylvain Cambreling, was nominated for the ORF's ‘Rostrum of Composers’ in 2019.

From 2016 to 2022, she was head of the string instrument programme at the Music and Arts Private University of the City of Vienna, where she taught music theory, contemporary music (practical and theoretical) and viola. In 2022, Purgina was appointed Vice-Rector for Art and Teaching at the Anton Bruckner Private University, where she also teaches contemporary music. Since autumn 2022, she has held a professorship in music theory at the Music and Arts Private University of the City of Vienna. She also gives guest lectures and workshops at national and international universities.