About

Lauren Siess, recipient of the 2024 Busoni Förderpreis, is a composer, violist, and improviser based between Germany and Austria. Her work explores “imagined ecosystems,” and organic processes. Taking influence from science fiction and surrealism, her works are often set inside inside of fictional ecosystems, observing these environments from different perspectives. This exploration and research has resulted in a consistent fluidity of medium; concert works which incorporate self-built instruments and analog technology, defined by her highly personal sonic imagination.

Previous projects have included works for ensemble mosaik, MDR Sinfonieorchester, Arditti Quartet, Line Upon Line Percussion, and Riot Ensemble. She has upcoming commissions from Ruben Mattia Santorsa and Rebecca Lawrence (March 2026), the Antiphon Orchestra (Fall 2026), and the [Switch~] Ensemble (March 2027). For 2026 Siess has been awarded a two-week workstay at the SWR Experimentalstudio in Freiburg, for the development of her composition for the [Switch~] Ensemble. In 2025 she spent four months at Stiftung Künstlerdorf Schöppingen, developing her work for ensemble mosaik.

In May 2025 she collaboratively released Melting Planets, an album created between composer/ improvisers Sivan Cohen-Elias, Cole Blouin, and herself; produced and directed by Cohen-Elias. Melting Planets was released on Minnesota-based Innova Recordings. As an improviser, she performs regularly on viola and no-input mixer, often in addition to amplified objects.

She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Viola Performance (2019) from the Juilliard School, attending on a Kovner Fellowship. She studied viola with Carol Rodland and Paul Neubauer. As a classical musician, she has performed with artists including Itzhak Perlman, Anthony Marwood, and Roger Tapping. Following graduation, she was the Professor of Viola and Chamber Music at the Mahanaim School, a private college in Huntington, NY. She served as Viola Fellow for the Perlman Music Program in 2020/21. She began composing at the end of her studies at Juilliard, after regularly performing with new music ensembles in NYC and at Juilliard. She was a 2020 Hildegard Composition Competition finalist, resulting in a premiere at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, NY.

She received her Masters Degree in composition at the Hochschule für Musik Dresden (2025), where she studied with Stefan Prins, Manos Tsangaris, Mark Andre, and Hannes Seidl. She previously studied privately with Sivan Cohen-Elias. Siess is currently pursuing postgraduate studies at the Kunst Universität Graz with Franck Bedrossian.


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