ABOUT
Composer, arranger, pianist, church organist, ethnomusicologist, teacher, speaker
Olga Witte is educated advanced postgraduate composer from The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus. She has a MA from University of Aarhus in musicology and anthropology, and a degree as church organist from Vestervig Kirkemusikskole.
Olga Witte is an experienced jazz pianist and organist (both classical and jazz), and she plays Balinese gamelan.
Olga Witte is an innovative composer mixing experiemental jazz and contemporary music with principles, structures and practices from Balinese gamelan. She is supported by Statens Kunstfond, and has recieved grants from different foundations, amongst them Statens Kunstfond, KODA kultur, Frobeniusfonden, DOKS and Aarhus Kommune. She currently holds a working grant from Statens Kunstfond/The State's Art Foundation #danishartsfoundation. She has won Denmark's first founded honorary jazz award, Gaffelprisen, in 2023.
Olga Witte taught ethnomusicological subjects at the global study line GLOMAS, a joint study program between Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus for eight years.
Olga Witte is an experienced speaker presenting her work on Balinese gamelan and fielsworks in Bali a.o. at conferences such as Bali World Culture Forum 2011, The Grieg Academy of Music 2012 and 2022, and ICTM Ireland 2014.
CV's can be read and downloaded here.
Her knowledge of Balinese gamelan is based on longterm ethnomusicological fieldworks in the period 2005-2023
When Olga Witte is in Bali she lives and takes part in different gamelan groups in the area Kecamatan Sukawati. Among them is Sanggar Kwangen, which is a group led by I Wayan Meder Wiyasa from Br. Gelumpang in Sukawati. The group plays a special kind of gamelan, selonding. The group can be seen and heard in the videos below recorded in March 2020.