Charles Uzor
About Charles Uzor
The composer Charles Uzor was born in Udo Mbaise, Nigeria in 1961 and came to Switzerland in 1968 during the Biafra War. After studying in Rome, Berne and Zurich (oboe and composition with H. Elhorst and H.U. Lehmann) he followed the oboist Gordon Hunt to the Royal Academy of Music London. In 1990 he obtained the recital diploma and a master’s degree in composition (studying with H.W. Henze, among others). In 2005, still external student at Goldsmith College, London University he completed his dissertation on “Melody and the phenomenology of internal time-awareness”. Uzor’s oeuvre includes stage and choral works and pieces with small ensembles. The 90s are characterized by the collaboration with Daniel Beriger and the ensembles La Notte, Quasi Fantasia, Percussion Art Ensemble Berne and the Carmina Quartet with Wolfgang Meyer. Early works include Canto, Notre Vie, Ricercare, Zimzum and Akhenaten’s Hymnos to Aton, a 30-minute aria for high tenor from the fragment Solar Eclipse (premiered at the Cairo Opera House). In 2001 Uzor wins the International Composition Prize of the Onassis Foundation with his ballet Go. Black Tell in collaboration with four Swiss composers is performed at the Expo 02, the violin concerto (with Rahel Cunz and the NEC) in 2010. The next pieces present chamber music formations linked to electronics: Shakespeare`s Sonnet 65 for string quartet & tape, qui ainsi me refait… voir seulement et oïr for guitar quartet, qui plus aime… for percussion quartet & tape, a chantar m’er de so q’ieu no voldria for clarinet quintet & tape and sweet amygdala for violin, piano & tape. In 2011 Uzor spends a sabatical in New York, San Francisco and Berkeley. Influences of Fred Lerdahl’s cognitive theory inspire him to compose spleen / mimicri (premiered in 2012 at the Munich Adevantgarde Festival). As in the upcoming works, Uzor is concerned with the phenomena of identity/deception and Derek Parfit’s philosophy of reason and personality. In Nri / mimicri, the most comprehensive piece of the Mimicri-cycle, bird song and air acoustics are deepened by eight octaves and imitated by the Ondes Martenot. 2016-2023 saw the creation of Ave Maria I-V, sweet amygdala, Hier in diesem zierl’chen Prunkgebäude after Robert Walser, qui ainsi me refait…., Mothertongue, sephardic lilt.mimicri, spleen.mimicri, the George Floyd in memoriam trilogy(8’46’’/ Bodycam exhibit 3/ Katharsis Kalkül), merrusch (after Astrid Kaminski) and the orchestral works Qualia, Parmenides Prooimion and Breaking of the Vessels. Ptyx, OENM, KammarensembleN, London Sinfonietta, BBC SSO, LFCO, ICE, Ekmeles, Amaltea, DLW, Duo Aventure, the SWR Vocal Ensemble, the Bavarian Radio Choir, and the conductors Rupert Huber, Christian Karlsen, Ivan Volkov, and Mariano Chiacchiarini have performed Uzor’s work at the Bern, Rümlingen, Viitasaari, Fylkingen, Wien Modern, Lucerne Festival, Maerzmusik, Huddersfield Contemporary Music, and Tectonics Glasgow music festivals. In 2024 Charles Uzor participated in George Lewis’ Berlin Symposium always, already there. Uzor’s fourth Neos CD POLITICAL was released in 2025, featuring The Great Wall. A Labyrinth in a recording by Ekmeles. Uzor’s recent works are nids et territoires and ORIRI (banquet). Uzor is a fellow of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation and director of the forum contrapunkt.new art music. Since 2015, he has been working on the opera Leopold II. exhibit.