Sarah Nemtsov


Sarah Nemtsov is a German composer.
Nemtsov was born in Oldenburg and now lives in Berlin. She started her music lessons and composing aged eight. She started playing the Oboe aged 14. Her compositions are recognizable through their confrontation with literature and other art forms. Her catalogue includes more than 150 compositions in almost all genres, from solo to orchestra, including large stage works and multimedia.
She became a full-time composer in 2007. Several of her works are published by Peermusic Classical GmbH. Since 2016, her works have been published by Ricordi. She is married to the pianist and musicologist. Her mother was the painter. Since 2022, she has been professor of composition at the University Mozarteum Salzburg, Austria.

Education

She studied composition under Nigel Osborne and Johannes Schöllhorn, and oboe under at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover. At the Universität der Künste Berlin, she continued her oboe studies under Burkhard Glaetzner, and her composition at post-graduate level with Walter Zimmermann, where she graduated with distinction.

Awards and scholarships

Nemtsov has won several awards as a composer, including the national competition for young composers, "Schüler komponieren", fives times between 1995 and 1999, as well as the international Delmenhorst competition for composers in 1995. In 2007, Nemtsov won the Hanns-Eisler-Preis for Composition. In 2012, she was awarded the “Deutscher Musikautorenpreis” for the support of upcoming composers. In 2013 she received the Busoni Composition Prize, in 2018 she was awarded the Oldenburger Kompositionspreis, in 2025 the.
Since 2021, she is a member of the Akademie der Künste Berlin as well as the Saxon Academy of the Arts.
In addition, she has received several scholarships, including one from the German Academic Foundation in 2003, and one from the Aribert Reimann Foundation in 2007. In 2009 she received a scholarship from the Wilfried Steinbrenner Foundation, and in 2011, she was a fellow at Villa Serpentara. She has also received grants from the Berlin Senate and the Stiftung Zurückgeben.

Notable performances

Her music has been performed at many international festivals including Donaueschinger Musiktage, Bregenz Festival, Münchener Biennale, Holland Festival, Wien Modern and Festival Musica. She collaborates with renowned ensembles and orchestras.

Selected works

Operas

Herzland (2005)

Chamber opera in five acts, 30'. Libretto after the correspondence between Paul Celan and Gisèle Celan-Lestrange. Premiered in on 20 January 2006, Alte Zeche, Barsinghausen, ;
24 Nov 2009, Hubert-Burda-Saal, Munich

L'Absence (2006–2008)

Full-length opera in five acts with prologue and epilogue. Libretto by the composer, after Livre des Questions by Edmond Jabès. Premiere on 3 May 2012 by Munich Biennale.

Sacrifice (2016)

Opera in four acts. Premiered on 5 March 2017 by. Libretto by Dirk Laucke.
verflucht
monologue for soprano and ensemble – text by Gerhild Steinbuch – Premiere September 2019, Taschenopernfestival Salzburg – with Tehila Nini Goldstein
OPHELIA
Opera in 12 images for 12 solo voices, choir, orchestra and electronics – libretto by Mirko Bonné – Premiere: 13 May 2023, Saarländisches Staatstheater
WE
Opera in 5 acts for 9 voices, choir, orchestra, instrumental soloists, electronics and video – libretto after Evgenij Zamyatin’s novel “We” – WP: 14. May 2026, Theater Dortmund

Orchestral works

TZIMTZUM (2020–2023)

tetralogy for 4 soloists and large orchestra written in 2015. Duration of 70 minutes. World premiere by Nikel Ensemble, WDR Orchestra, Peter Rundel.

black trees (2020)

Work for orchestra written in 2020. Duration ca. 20 minutes.

dropped.drowned (2017)

Work for large orchestra written in 2017. Duration of 17 minutes.

Scattered ways (2015)

Work for large orchestra. Duration of 13 minutes. World premiere by Philharmonisches Orchester Erfurt and Joana Mallwitz. Several performances since then, including Konzerthausorchester Berlin.

SHESH (2014)

for amplified string orchestra. Duration of 18 minutes. World premiere was by Orchester Jakobsplatz and Daniel Grossmann.

Other

Room I-III

"Layering for 8 musicians" written in 2013. Duration of 18 minutes.
Numerous works of chamber music, ensemble and solo compositions.