Lisa Streich, born in Norra Råda, Sweden in 1985, studied Composition and Organ in Berlin, Stockholm, Salzburg, Paris, and Cologne. Helmut Lachenmann and Wolfgang Rihm have been her mentors in recent years.

"Her music doesn't scream, but it knows how to hurt like few others." (Corriere della Sera)

Streich likes to work with motorized instruments of her own creation in her music. She is fascinated by the de-subjectivization of sound, which for her becomes universal, speaking of and for everyone. She is also interested in the incongruent contrasts that can arise on both visual and auditory levels at the same time. Likewise, she pursues a keen interest in imperfect, well-known chords from recordings which she decidedly takes apart and weaves – sometimes with 40 voices – throughout an orchestral movement.

“Lisa Streich has her own voice,” says Alan Gilbert. “The musicians immediately recognized the quality of her music and found her work special.” (Elbphilharmonie Blog)

Streich has received commissions from the Lucerne Festival, Berliner Philharmoniker, Kölner Philharmonie, Swedish Radio Choir, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble intercontemporain, Staatstheater Hannover, Munich Chamber Orchestra, and the Shizuoka Concert Hall. Her music has seen performances from the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, and Malmö Symphony Orchestra on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music with a commission for a Concerto Grosso, Quatuor Diotima, ensemble recherche, the Eric Ericson Kammerchor, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne Montréal, Ensemble Musikfabrik, and many others.

She has written theater music for the Salzburg Pocket Opera Festival, on the seven senses of man, as well as a closing scene for Henze’s “Wundertheater” for the Bavarian State Opera.

Awards and fellowships include the Cité des Arts Paris, the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation Orchestra Prize, the Akademie der Künste Berlin’s Busoni Composition Prize, the Bernd Alois Zimmermann Fellowship, a fellowship at the Villa Massimo in Rome, a Roche Young Commission at the Lucerne Festival, and the Ernst von Siemens Composers' Prize. In 2020, she was the first recipient of the Claussen Simon Composition Prize. In the following years, she was honored with the Stora Christ Johnson Composer’s Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music for her work AUGENLIDER (2021), the Heidelberg Women Artists’ Prize (2022) and the Hindemith Prize (2024). In 2019, Lisa Streich was chosen to be a Ricordilab laureate, an international program from publisher Ricordi Berlin that promotes young composers.

“What is most important for me is that the composer’s individuality is instantly recognizable,” says Kirill Petrenko. “In 2023, we gave the first performances of ISHJÄRTA by Lisa Streich. The means that she uses are far from unusual, but the piece has a real personality to it.” (Berliner Philharmoniker Blog)

Lisa Streich’s work is published by Ricordi Berlin, portrait CDs were released in 2018 on WERGO/Zeitgenössische Musik and in 2019 on KAIROS. 2024 her BOOK OF CHORDS was published by Kleinheinrich.

Lectures on her music have taken place at the Royal College of Music Stockholm, the Columbia University New York, the Sibelius Academy Helsinki, and at the CRR de Paris. Dialog about music, art, and their possibilities is a subject close to Streich’s heart.

Lisa Streich lives on Gotland, Sweden.

(Current as of June 2025)

www.lisastreich.se