Ralf Yusuf Gawlick, of Romani-Kurdish descent, was born in Germany in 1969. His works include solo, chamber, orchestral and choral music, traversing a wide range of styles and often exploring aspects of his complex international heritage. His music has been commissioned and championed by a wide range of artists and organizations, attracting international acclaim from audiences and critics.
In recent years his eight-voice Missa Gentis Humanæ (commissioned by the Choir of Trinity Church, Wall Street), song cycle, Kollwitz-Konnex (…im Frieden seiner Hände) (dedicated to guitarist Eliot Fisk and soprano Anne Harley) and the autobiographical Imagined Memories (commissioned by the Vienna-based Hugo Wolf Quartet) have exemplified his remarkably diverse output, with its frequent references to the highlights of the Western musical canon and rigorous compositional standards. His music, published by several firms, has been performed internationally (in venues including Vienna’s Musikverein, New York’s Carnegie Hall) and is recorded on the Musica Omnia label in composer-supervised performances by the works’ dedicatees. A professor at Boston College, Ralf Gawlick lives in Newton, MA, with his wife and fellow musician, Basia.