Isabel Klaus was born in Valencia (Spain) and studied piano, theory, composition and oboe under the tutelage of Hansjürgen Wäldele. She studied the oboe under Omar Zoboli at Basel University of Music from 1996 until 2001. After beginning studies in composition in 1998, she intensified her training between 2001 and 2006 by attending composition and theory courses under Roland Moser, Detlev Müller-Siemens and Balz Trümpy.
In 2007, following a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music in London (sponsored by the Zug-based cultural foundation Landis and Gyr), she returned to Basel where she currently works as a composer and oboist. She teaches oboe in Dornach and Leimental in the canton of Solothurn, and music theory in Winterthur. She spent the 2009 summer semester teaching aural training and new music at the University of Music in Berne as a replacement lecturer.
Isabel Klaus has received important impulses within the framework of various courses by Ernest Rombout (course for new music "Impuls" in Graz), at the symposium for improvisation in Lucerne, during a three-week course in composition with Klaus Huber at the music academy in Basel, with the Ensemble Phoenix Basel and at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, Darmstadt.
Commissions have led her to create compositions for the Musikschule Basel's 20-year anniversary of its Kolpinghaus and a composition for the first composition workshop in Gare du Nord Basel (Espace sonore - wenn Räume sprechen könnten). She also wrote a work for the Mondrian Ensemble for the "Lange Nacht" in Berne 2007. She has also written for innov'ensemble, for Hark!, for Red poles and for Viviane Chassot (accordion). Isabel Klaus is currently working on a large project, which will be premiered in the spring of 2011 at the 2011 Gare du Nord.
Work list
Szenen für zwei klavierspielende Sängerinnen (2005)
Instrumentation: for 2 piano-playing sopranos
Texts: Isabel Klaus
Duration: 3' 00" Manuscript
out (2005)
Instrumentation: for ensemble (recorder, theorbo, Baroque trombone, small percussion, 2 pianos 1, distant piano)
Duration: 17' 00" Manuscript
Heimatlose (2006)
Instrumentation: for soprano and piano
Texts: Joachim Ringelnatz
Duration: 1' 00" Manuscript
Nachtgestalten (2006)
8 lieder
Instrumentation: for soprano, flute and violoncello
Texts: Joachim Ringelnatz
Duration: 10' 00" Manuscript
Zum Schwimmen (2006)
Instrumentation: for soprano and piano
Texts: Joachim Ringelnatz
Duration: 2' 00" Manuscript
Ego (2006)
Instrumentation: for 15 instruments (1.1.1.1/1.1.1.0/gtr/pf.hp/2.1.1.1)
Duration: 10' 00" Manuscript
enough (2006)
Instrumentation: for ensemble (fl, ca, bcl, vn, va, vc, db)
Duration: 10' 00" Manuscript
5 Pflanzenstücke (2006)
Instrumentation: for violin and violoncello
Duration: 7' 00" Manuscript
5 Pflanzenstücke (2006/2008)
Instrumentation: for violin and double bass
Duration: 7' 00" Manuscript
'll klingen (2007)
Instrumentation: for theorbo
Duration: 6' 00" Manuscript
must (2007)
Instrumentation: for string quartet and piano
Duration: 17' 00" Manuscript
wants (2008)
Instrumentation: for piano
Duration: 7' 00" Manuscript
grandeur nature (2011)
Musical theatre
Instrumentation: for actor, actress, vn, vc, db, cl, acn, gtr
Texts: Isabel Klaus, Samuel Beckett, Karl Valentin