ABOUT
Composer, arranger, pianist, church organist, ethnomusicologist, teacher, speaker
Olga Witte 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.
She is an experienced jazz pianist and organist (both classical and jazz), and she plays Balinese gamelan.
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 until the programme seized to exist in Aarhus in 2019.
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.
Olga Witte composes music that explores the dynamics between experimental jazz, contemporary music and Balinese gamelan.
Her knowledge of Balinese gamelan is based on longterm ethnomusicological fieldworks in the period 2005-2020
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.