Osvaldo Golijov
Short Biography:
Osvaldo Golijov grew up in an Eastern European Jewish household in La Plata, Argentina. Born to a piano teacher mother and physician father, he was raised surrounded by classical chamber music, Jewish liturgical and klezmer music, and the new tango of Astor Piazzolla. His blending of genres and seamless integration of voices speak volumes about his approach and style, a musical language that can only be termed “Golijovian.”
Since the early 1990s, Golijov has enjoyed collaborations with some of the world’s leading chamber music ensembles such as the Kronos Quartet and the St. Lawrence String Quartet; artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Dawn Upshaw, and Robert Spano; and orchestras including the Atlanta, Boston, and Chicago symphony orchestras and New York Philharmonic. In 2000, the premiere of Golijov's La Pasión según San Marcos (St. Mark Passion) took the music world by storm. The Boston Globe called it "the first indisputably great composition of the 21st century.” Other landmark works include the clarinet quintet The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind and the GRAMMY Award-winning opera Ainadamar.
In November 2026, Golijov’s new evening-length oratorio Creation—with a book by David Henry Hwang and lyrics by Leah Hager Cohen—receives its world premiere with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Eric Jacobsen, with soloists Cécile McLorin Salvant, vocalist, Davóne Tines, vocalist, Cyro Baptista, percussion, and Kayhan Kalhor, kamancheh, alongside adult and children’s choirs.
Recent works include Tintype for string quintet, premiered by the Balourdet Quartet and violist Barry Shiffman; The Given Note, a violin concerto for soloist Johnny Gandelsman and The Knights; LAIKA for countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, which premiered with The Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble at Carnegie Hall; Ever Yours for string nonet, premiered by St. Lawrence String Quartet and Telegraph Quartet; Um Día Bom for string quartet Brooklyn Rider; and the 80-minute song cycle Falling Out of Time for Silkroad Ensemble, based on the novel by David Grossman.
The portrait album Ever Yours was released in January 2026 on Phenotypic Recordings, featuring four works—Ever Yours, Tintype, K’vakarat, and Esperanza—performed by the Arethusa Quartet, Animato Quartet, viola soloist Barry Shiffman, and double bassist Nicholas Schwartz. Nonesuch Records releases a recording of LAIKA featuring Anthony Roth Costanzo in October 2026. Pianist Daniil Trifonov has also recorded Cuadros del Sur, a piano concerto created by Gonzalo Grau from themes in Golijov's La Pasión según San Marcos.
Golijov has composed scores for Francis Ford Coppola’s films Youth Without Youth, Tetro, Twixt, and Megalopolis. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the Vilcek Prize, and two GRAMMY Awards. He is composer-in-residence at the Prior Center for the Performing Arts at The College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he has taught since 1991.
October 2026
Long Biography:
Osvaldo Golijov grew up in an Eastern European Jewish household in La Plata, Argentina. Born to a piano teacher mother and physician father, he was raised surrounded by classical chamber music, Jewish liturgical and klezmer music, and the new tango of Astor Piazzolla. After studying piano at the local conservatory and composition with Gerardo Gandini, he moved to Israel in 1983, where he studied with Mark Kopytman at the Jerusalem Rubin Academy and immersed himself in the colliding musical traditions of that city. In 1986, he moved to the United States, earning his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied with George Crumb. He was also a fellow at Tanglewood, studying with Oliver Knussen.
Golijov came to international prominence with the premiere of La Pasión según San Marcos (St. Mark Passion) in 2000. Commissioned by Helmuth Rilling for the European Music Festival in Stuttgart to commemorate the 250th anniversary of J.S. Bach's death, the work brought together the Schola Cantorum de Venezuela and Orquesta La Pasión, an ensemble assembled by Golijov and percussionist Mikael Ringquist, under conductor María Guinand. The premiere recording received GRAMMY and Latin GRAMMY nominations in 2002, and the work has since been performed internationally, with a subsequent CD and DVD recording released by Deutsche Grammophon in 2010.
Golijov's opera Ainadamar, inspired by the life and death of Spanish poet Federico García Lorca, was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and premiered at Tanglewood in 2003. With a libretto by David Henry Hwang, the opera has become one of Golijov's most celebrated works. Its 2006 Deutsche Grammophon recording, featuring Dawn Upshaw, Kelley O'Connor, and Jessica Rivera with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under Robert Spano, won two GRAMMY Awards, for Best Opera Recording and Best Contemporary Classical Composition. In recent years, Ainadamar has enjoyed renewed international prominence through a new production directed and choreographed by Deborah Colker, co-produced by the Metropolitan Opera, Scottish Opera, Detroit Opera, and Welsh National Opera. The critically acclaimed production has been presented by major opera companies on both sides of the Atlantic, including the Metropolitan Opera. Earlier productions included acclaimed stagings by Peter Sellars at Santa Fe Opera and Lincoln Center.
Golijov continues to compose prolifically across concert music, opera, and film. In November 2026, his new evening-length oratorio Creation, with a book by David Henry Hwang and lyrics by Leah Hager Cohen, receives its world premiere with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Eric Jacobsen. Conceived as a contemporary response to Haydn's The Creation, the work brings together the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, BSO x NEC Honors Children's Choir, and soloists Cécile McLorin Salvant, Davóne Tines, Cyro Baptista, and Kayhan Kalhor.
Other recent works include Tintype for string quintet, premiered by the Balourdet Quartet and violist Barry Shiffman; The Given Note, a violin concerto for Johnny Gandelsman and The Knights; LAIKA, premiered by countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo and the Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble at Carnegie Hall; Ever Yours for string nonet, premiered by the St. Lawrence and Telegraph quartets; and Um Día Bom for Brooklyn Rider. His 80-minute song cycle Falling Out of Time, based on the novel by David Grossman and created for an ensemble of Silkroad musicians, was released on In a Circle Records and nominated for a Latin GRAMMY.
Golijov's recent recording projects include the portrait album Ever Yours, released in January 2026 on Phenotypic Recordings. Featuring performances by the Arethusa Quartet, Animato Quartet, violist Barry Shiffman, and double bassist Nicholas Schwartz, the album brings together four works: Ever Yours, Tintype, K'vakarat, and Esperanza. A recording of LAIKA featuring countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo is scheduled for release by Nonesuch Records in October 2026. Pianist Daniil Trifonov has also recorded Cuadros del Sur, a piano concerto created by Gonzalo Grau from themes in Golijov's La Pasión según San Marcos, bringing music from his landmark oratorio into a new instrumental setting.
Collaboration has been central to Golijov's musical life. In the early 1990s, he began longstanding partnerships with the St. Lawrence and Kronos quartets, whose performances and recordings helped establish his distinctive, genre-defying musical language. The St. Lawrence String Quartet's collaborations include the GRAMMY-nominated album Yiddishbbuk (2002), featuring clarinetist Todd Palmer, and Qohelet (2011), inspired by the book of Ecclesiastes. Kronos recorded The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind with clarinetist David Krakauer, as well as Caravan and Nuevo, and introduced Golijov to artists including Taraf de Haïdouks, Café Tacvba, Zakir Hussain, and Gustavo Santaolalla.
The voice of Dawn Upshaw has inspired many of Golijov's compositions, including Three Songs for Soprano and Orchestra, Ainadamar, Ayre, and She Was Here. For the premiere of Ayre, Golijov assembled the virtuoso ensemble The Andalucian Dogs, which performed with Upshaw at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall and recorded the work for a GRAMMY-nominated Deutsche Grammophon album in 2005. Yo-Yo Ma and the Silkroad Ensemble have been equally important collaborators, inspiring works including the cello concerto Azul, Air to Air, and Rose of the Winds.
Golijov has also maintained a longstanding creative relationship with filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, composing scores for Youth Without Youth, Tetro, Twixt, and Megalopolis (2024). His Megalopolis Suite was premiered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Riccardo Muti. His many artistic collaborators include conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya; violinist Johnny Gandelsman, vocalists Luciana Souza and Biella da Costa; cellists Alisa Weilerstein, Maya Beiser, and Matt Haimovitz; kamancheh virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor; percussionists Jamey Haddad and Cyro Baptista; and musicians Michael Ward-Bergeman, Gonzalo Grau, Ljova, Jeremy Flower, and Cristina Pato.
A recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and the Vilcek Prize, Golijov has worked with leading ensembles and institutions worldwide, including the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Silkroad Ensemble, The Knights, and eighth blackbird.
Golijov is composer-in-residence at the Prior Center for the Performing Arts at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he has taught since 1991. He has also taught for decades at Tanglewood, led workshops with Dawn Upshaw at Carnegie Hall, and served as a frequent advisor to the Sundance Composers Labs. He has been a featured composer at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall and held residencies with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Music Alive series, and festivals including Mostly Mozart, Spoleto Festival USA, Marlboro, Ravinia, Ojai, Trondheim, and Holland.
His works are published by Boosey & Hawkes. Recordings of his music have appeared on Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, Hänssler Classics, Harmonia Mundi, In a Circle Records, Koch, Nonesuch, Naxos, Phenotypic Recordings, Sony Classical, and Warner Classics.
October 2026
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