(b. 1959, Mérida, Mérida).

Venezuelan composer, now resident in both the USA and Venezuela, of mostly orchestral, chamber and electroacoustic works that have been performed in the Americas.

Mr. Olivari studied composition and conducting with Alfredo Rugeles at the Instituto Universitario de Estudios Musicales in Caracas from 1986–90, where he earned his BMus in composition. He then studied composition with Joel Hoffman and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon and computer music with Mara Helmuth at the University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music, on the Fulbright Scholarship, and there earned his MMus in composition in 1996 and his DMA in composition in 2006.

Among his honours are residencies at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire (2001) and the artist colony Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, New York (2002).

He is also active in other positions. He served as assistant conductor of the Cantoría de Mérida from 1979–83 and of the children's chorus of the Orquesta Nacional Juvenil de Venezuela in Caracas from 1983–85 and as director of the chorus of the Unidad Educativa Institutos Educacionales Asociados in Caracas from 1987–89. He later served as director of the audiovisual archive at the Biblioteca Nacional de Venezuela in Caracas from 1990–92 and as conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado Mérida from 1992–94 and the Orquesta Nacional Juvenil de Venezuela in Mérida from 1992–94.

He taught Spanish at the University of Cincinnati from 1997–99.

SELECT LIST OF WORKS

ORCHESTRAL:

Elegy, string orchestra, 1988

Three Movements for String Orchestra, string orchestra, 1996

Four for Four (concerto), string quartet, small orchestra, 2002

Piano Concerto, piano, orchestra, 2003

CHAMBER MUSIC:

Nocturnino, harp, c. 1989

Postludio, harp, 1991

String Quartet No. 1, 1999

Soleando, violin, computer, film, 2002

PIANO:

Nocturnal No. 2, 1996

Four Movements for Two Pianos, 2 pianos, 1997

Oración por la Paz (text by Carlos César Rodríguez), piano, fixed media, 2000

ELECTROACOUSTIC:

Chaos Metamorphosis, computer, 1997

Pierrot, computer, 1997

EverybodyDrinksMerlot, computer, 1999

Save Twilight (text by Julio Cortázar [translated by Stephen Kessler]), fixed media, 2000

DISCOGRAPHY

Nocturnino; Postludio. Isabel Santos, harp (private, 2001)