Welcome to Cathy Milliken's Homepage
Biography
Cathy Milliken was born in Brisbane, Australia.
She completed her music degree in Australia majoring in performance (piano and oboe). She then continued her oboe studies in Europe under Heinz Holliger and Maurice Bourgue as well as doing a full time study of the Dalcroze Method of teaching music. In 1980 she became a founding member of the "Ensemble Modern". She now lives in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
As a founding member of the renowned group for contemporary music, Ensemble Modern Frankfurt am Main, she has worked with leading composers and conductors of this century including Pierre Boulez, Peter Eötvös, Frank Zappa, György Ligeti and Karlheinz Stockhausen (who produced her performance of "Spiral" as CD (Stockhausen Verlag Nr. 45).
In 1990 she started composing and her involvement with electronics.
Since 1990 in short, she has composed for theatre, radio, created installations and also received various commissions from organisations such as the South Bank Centre London, the ABC Radio in Sydney, the German Public Radio Stations of Saarland, Hessen and also the Deutschland Rundfunk. A chamber opera for the Staatstheater Darmstadt and the ZKM (Centre for New Media) Karlsruhe, two installations for the Contemporary music Festival of Witten, The Experimental Studio of Freiburg, a commission from the CCMIX(enakis) Centre in Paris, for the Schauspiel Frankfurt (state theatre) and a short opera for the Berliner Saatsoper.
In 1994 she formed the HCD-Productions with composer colleagues Dietmar Wiesner and Hermann Kretzschmar. Together they conceived installations and performances, produced CD's and composed radio plays. Their "Denotation Babel" received the "Prix Italia" in 1999. In 2003 they directed and composed the music theatre piece "A musical Fantasy" for the Frankfurt Schauspielhaus. CD's: Largo 5131: "Migrations", Mode: "In tension".
She has been a represented composer by the Australian Music Centre since 1998.
Highlights in the last years:
2001
- composed and directed the music-theatre piece "Hamletlink" based on Shakespeare's "Hamlet" for Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt.
2002
- Wrote music for the silent film "L'invitation au Voyage" von Germaine Dulac, commissioned by the French/German culture television channel "Arte".
- Devised the installation "Eye View" for the Witten contemporary Musik Festival
2003
- Her radio play "New Looks" based on the Sonnets of Shakespeare received the "Prix Marulic". She wrote theatre music for "India Song" for the Schauspiel Frankfurt.
2004
- Composed and directed the Cycle "Songs of love, songs of war" at the TAT, Frankfurt am Main.
- Composed theatre music for "Antigonae" and Marguerite Duras' "India Song" for the Schauspiel Frankfurt and a film music for the silent film "Filmstudie" by Hans Richter for the Ensemble Ascolta.
- Director and composer for the education project "Paths of memory" of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
- Directed the Ensemble Modern in the premiere of Benedict Mason's piece "felt|ebb|thus|brink|array|here|telling" for the contemporary music festival in Donaueschingen.
2005
- "Songs of love, Songs of war" became the German nomination for the Prix Italia 2005.
- Installation for the City of Hanover's Church Bells and Choir entitled "Von der Freundschaft".
- A short opera entitled "6th Attempted Escape from Silence"Libretto: Jonathan Safran Foer,) for the Berliner Staatsoper.
- A commission for the "Concerto Köln" - "Novelle 1 and 11" for chamber orchestra and speaker based on texts by Arthur Rimbaud and Charles Bukowski. A composition for large ensemble for the 3 Art Festival in Wuppertal.