Phoebe Violet, born 1988 in Costa Rica, is a violinist, singer-songwriter, composer, performer, conceptionalist and painter based in Vienna. Her music merges the rich tradition of her cultural background and her broad artistic upbringing. Although she has had musical and arts training throughout her life, Phoebe Violet is largely self-taught.
Phoebe Violet began taking violin lessons at the age of 3 at the Instituto Nacional de Música de Costa Rica, and started singing shortly after. After moving to Austria in 2002, she continued pursuing music, performing both in youth orchestras, chamber ensembles and as a soloist. She made her debut at the Brucknerhaus Linz with Mozart's A-Major Violin Concerto at age 17 with a cadenza she wrote herself, and was also chosen to play the first performances of Austrian composer Thomas Mandel's rock pieces for solo violin and orchestra.
She began forming her first music ensembles in her early twenties, experimenting with different song styles and instrumentation, which resulted in her first album The Rhythm of my Soul released in 2014, a selection of songs with a strong pop feel. After some years of study and a much-needed pause to accommodate the new demands of motherhood, she returned to performing with a repertoire of original songs in Spanish, her native tongue, which she arranged for a string ensemble composed of members of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. She released the EP Entre Cielo y Tierra Parte II in 2019, and the full Entre Cielo y Tierra album in 2021, on which she returns to her Latin-American roots and explores her relationship with the world and life at large.
As a composer, Phoebe Violet has a string of side projects that enable her to work with a broader spectrum of the performing arts. These include her work on the play Königstöchter (The King's Daughters") by Klara Rabl for the Lösshof Summer Festival in Lower Austria 2021, for which she composed and performed the musical score including her debut as an actress. In Autumn 2021 she was commissioned to write the score for Revolucionarias, a musical by Liubov R. Otto for the Costa Rican National Theatre Company in cooperation with the Costa Rican Ministry of Culture, highlighting the role of women in the nation's history as part of the bicentennial commemoration of Costa Rican Independence. Amongst her most recent works: Die Tänze der Zauberin, an original composition for the highly acclaimed quartet Kammerfunk; a collaboration as a composer and violinist in Lylit's upcoming new album; Agua a dance performance for quintet, and more.
When not working on her musical endeavours, Phoebe Violet is an avid painter.
INTERVIEWS
With Walter Pobaschnig: "In der Liebe ist alles erlaubt" Phoebe Violet Künstlerin
With Melissa Danas: Inspiring Performers: Phoebe Violet
Entre cielo y tierra
Concert
Phoebe Violet calls it Latin Chamber Pop: a rich mixture of 20th century Latin American music, beautifully arranged compositions for string quartet and catchy melodies that fascinate with their high emotionality. "Entre cielo y tierra" - "Between heaven and earth" is a refreshing and passionate repertoire that revolves around the concept of the struggle between dreams and reality. The album "Entre cielo y tierra" was honored with the Acam award 2022!
Phoebe Violet (CR/UK) - music, vocals, violin
Maria Orininskaya (KZ) - violin
Zsófia Günther-Mészáros (HUN) - cello
Felipe Medina (URY) - double bass
Tú y yo
Concert, Theater
"You and I" is a guideline for romantic love: the beauty, but also the difficulties of a romantic relationship between two people. The original compositions, sung in Spanish, are influenced by classical music and Latin American songs of the 20th century. Together with the cellists of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra - Zsófia Günther-Mészàros and Michael Günther - who harmonise superbly on point with the protagonist, Violet tells her story in a theatrical atmosphere and presents love as a constantly changing process in which the fragile and the emotional become a strength of its own.
Phoebe Violet CR/UK) - music, vocals, violin
Zsófia Günther-Mészàros (HUN) - cello
Michael Günther (DE) - cello
Agua
Dance performance
"Agua" - "Water" - is a composition for two voices, two violins, cello and double bass that reveals Phoebe Violet's fascination with water. In this piece, the human being is seen as a water organism; a being that possesses the beautiful quality of constantly changing and transforming; just like water. Very poetic and dreamy, it is thematically a naturalistic Zen-approach to life, set to minimalist classical music influenced by ritual and Yoruba music.
Anja Obermayer (AUT) - vocals
Phoebe Violet (CR/UK) - music, violin, vocals
Maria Orininskaya (KAZ) - violin
Zsófia Günther-Mészáros (HUN) - cello
Felipe Medina (URY) - double bass
According to Eurydice
Horror Musical Theater
A musical myth that tells the tragic love story of Orpheus and Eurydice from Eurydice's point of view. The story begins with the death of the nymph, revealing her journey in the underworld. The composition, told in 6 scenes, is an extension of the well-known love story without changing the original myth by Virgil. Music theatre in the truest sense with a high sense of horror.
Phoebe Violet (CR/UK) - music, vocals
Maria Orininskaya (KAZ) - violin
Ivaylo Iordanov (BG) - double bass
As a composer:
Kammerfunk - Neue Musik / Klezmer / Schrammel / Klassik; "Die Tänze der Zauberin" original score. Austria, 2023
LYLIT - Pop; string arrangements. Austria, 2022
Dawler x Damper - Latin American Afro-futurism; string arrangements. Colombia, 2022
Ministerio de Cultura y Juventud - Musical "Revolucionarias" by Liubov R. Otto; original score. Costa Rica, 2021
Lösshof Verein - Theater play "Königstöchter" by Klara Rabl; original score. Austria, 2021
As a performer, violinist and / or singer:
Serj Tankian, LYLIT, Elisabeth Tambwe, Lukas Kranzelbinder, Fritz Novotny's reformARTunit, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Big Island Orchestra, Ambassade Orchestra (José Carreras, Andrea Bocelli), MozuluArt, Oscar Jiménez Fernández, Dawlerx Damper ...