Hristina Susak is a composer, performance artist, and music theorist born in Novi Sad, Serbia, in 1996. In 2013, she began her studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, where she graduated in composition in the class of Prof. Iris ter Schiphorst and in music theory in the class of Prof. Gesine Schröder. In 2024, she completed postgraduate studies in composition under the guidance of Prof. Mark Andre at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber Dresden.
She further developed her artistic practice under the guidance of Toshio Hosokawa, Lucia Ronchetti, Luca Francesconi and Marina Abramović, all of whom she regards as important figures and influences in her artistic development. Toshio Hosokawa described her as “…a star composer of the next generation whose music, backed by her bold ideas, always attracts great attention.” (2023)
Initially influenced mainly by Baroque music and Classicism, Susak’s artistic direction fundamentally changed after moving to Vienna for her studies, where she began working with performance art and sound-based and installative artistic practices. This experience became central to the development of her musical language and her broader artistic approach within contemporary art and music.
Her work encompasses orchestral and ensemble music, electronics, sound installations, theatre music, conceptual and performance art. Commissions and performances include Biennale Musica – La Biennale di Venezia (2024), Ensemble Intercontemporain (2020), Orchestre national d’Île-de-France (2025), Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart and PHACE Ensemble (2023), Duisburger Philharmoniker (2023), Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich (2021), MDR-Sinfonieorchester (2023), Bruckner Orchester Linz (2018) and Arditti Quartet (2020), as well as festivals and venues such as Villa Massimo (2025), Paris Fashion Week (2024), Wiener Konzerthaus (2023), Kioi Hall Tokyo (2022), Philharmonie de Paris (2020), Takefu International Music Festival (2023), Volkstheater Wien (2019), ECLAT Festival (2019) and the Arnold Schönberg Center Vienna (2024).
She has received the Villa-Serpentara-Stipendium of the Akademie der Künste Berlin (2025), the Austrian State Scholarship for Composition (2024), the Förderungspreis der Stadt Wien for music (2021), and a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (2023/24), as well as the Arbeitsstipendium of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts and Culture, among others.
Since 2023, Susak has been teaching music theory at the Berlin University of Arts. From 2021 to 2023, she also taught at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” Leipzig. Within the framework of the Takefu International Music Festival 2023, she was part of the composition workshop faculty, where she gained further experience in teaching composition. Her research activity in music theory focuses on approaches to the analysis of contemporary music and conceptual art, particularly on the relationship between natural laws, traditional analytical principles and their potential application to contemporary artistic practices.
Photo credit: Alessandro Bernardo