About this Artist

OLIVER KWAPIS is a seventeen-year old composer and a senior at Oakwood School in North Hollywood. He is currently a fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Composer Fellowship Program. During this two-year fellowship, he has had the incredible opportunity to work with composers James Matheson, A.J. McCaffrey, and Sarah Gibson, and guest composers, such as Kaija Saariaho, John Corigliano, Magnus Lindberg, and Andrew Norman. His compositions have been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic in concert and by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Chamber Ensembles and members of the Los Angeles Master Chorale in readings. He has  recently been commissioned to write a work for The National Children’s Chorus 2014/2015 season which was premiered at The Broad Stage in Los Angeles and will be performed at Alice Tully Hall in New York City in June, 2015. He has also been commissioned to write a string quartet for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Centennial Season 2018-’19. He has studied viola with Colleen Sugata, and music theory with Kathy Sawada at the Colburn School of Performing Arts. He has attended summer sessions at the Interlochen Center for the Arts as well as The Academy for Creative Education, where he also taught elementary school strings. Oliver interest in music began at age four when he took music classes at Colburn. He went on to study the piano before deciding to focus on viola and composition. He participates in and has written music for the New Music Ensemble at Oakwood and the Oakwood High School Chorus. He also teaches music to elementary school students in The Community Youth Partnership, a program that offers free arts and science instruction to children in the community. Oliver’s compositional influences are diverse and range Arvo Part to Ravel to John Adams. He has also drawn inspiration from his interest in architecture and film. Starting in the Fall of 2015, Oliver will be studying music composition at the Oberlin Conservatory.