Austrian violinist-vocalist-composer Mia Zabelka is considered to be a leading figure in the international scene of electroacoustic music, known for her innovative and boundary-pushing approach to sound, incorporating elements of noise, drone and improvisation into her compositions. Her performances involve the use of extended techniques on the violin, electronic effects, and a range of other unconventional methods to create unique and immersive sonic experiences.

She has released multiple albums and has performed at various festivals and venues around the world. She has also worked with a variety of artists and collaborators, including the ensemble ‘Zeitkratzer’, John Zorn, Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Curran, Elliott Sharp, Maggie Nicols, John Russell, Fred Frith, Johannes Frisch, Pavel Fajt and Zahra Mani.

Mia Zabelka developed her unique musical language in a process she calls “automatic playing”, where the music grows out of her physical movement and finds its expression in her electric violin with electronic devices, alien objects, vocals, and/or the acoustic violin. Using this set-up, she expands her sound range so extensively that the violin itself becomes an interface, an electronic sound generator.

In her music, Mia Zabelka engages with the acoustic interaction between her body and the surrounding environment, with a special focus on the “sonic gesture”. The sonic gesture has to do with how sound moves and how it moves the body at the same time – the embodiment of sound, an intuitive body-sound-machine. Mia Zabelka’s sound art explores this interface and its expression of how communication between humans and autonomous machines can happen; the coexistence of humans and machines in hybrid environments is reflected in sound.

Mia Zabelka is particularly interested in the interdisciplinarity between music and science and her work has been described as “scientific music”. It is music beyond melodies, harmonies and rhythm. Scientific music is concerned with making automatic, mechanical processes audible. It is noise, movement, automation, division, symbiosis, dissonance and resonance: an endless adventure of discovery.

In 2009, Mia Zabelka founded Klanghaus, a center for sound art and interdisciplinary art in Southern Styria, which launches the Klangzeit festival four times a year. Since 2009 she has been the artistic director of phonofemme Vienna, an international festival in the field of experimental music and sound art by women. Mia Zabelka has been Vice President of the Austrian Composers Association (ACOM) since 2019.

Recipient of highly regarded prizes (3-time winner of the Prix Ars Electronica, WDR composition Prize, Luigi Russolo Prize) and awards, she was a guest of the DAAD’s (German Academic Exchange Service’s) international artists’ program in Berlin and the Fulbright Commission in New York. Her composition ‘For Pauline Oliveros’ commissioned by musikprotokoll / Steirischer Herbst and the Austrian Cultural Forum New York as part of the ‘Homages’ project, was honored with THE AKADEMIA Music Award 2018. In 2021, Mia Zabelka was awarded the Austrian Art Prize in the category ‘Music’ by the Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport.  

Since 2021, Mia Zabelka has been an “ALUMNI Honorary Member” of the “MUK – Music and Arts Private University of the City of Vienna.

Detailed biography