Osvaldo Golijov Wiki: Composer, Net Worth, 'Youth Without Youth' & Facts About Neri Oxman's Husband

Neri Oxman is a renowned American–Israeli architect, designer, and also a professor at the MIT Media Lab, where she heads the Mediated Matter research group. Oxman is renowned for her art and architecture that have an interesting combination of design, biology, computing, and materials engineering. In 2011, Neri Oxman got married to Grammy Award-winning Argentine composer, Osvaldo Golijov, who had "incredible influence" on her work. But their marriage did not last long and the couple separated after a few years. The details about their divorce have not been revealed. In early April 2018, it was rumored that Oxman was spending time together with renowned Hollywood actor Brad Pitt after she met him through an architecture project at MIT. According to the reports, the duo bonded over their passion for architecture, design and art. They were just good friends at that time and relationship stemmed into something more within a short span. But according to some other reports, it was later revealed that she was actually dating a billionaire hedge fund manager, Bill Ackman and was happy with her current relationship. Her ex husband, Osvaldo Noé Golijov, was born on December 5th, 1960. He is an Argentine composer of classical music and music professor, best known for his vocal and orchestral work.

Golijov was born and raised in La Plata, Argentina, in a Jewish family. His family had to emigrate to Argentina from Romania when he was still young. His mother worked as a piano teacher, and his father as a physician. Golijov too, studied piano in La Plata and studied composition with Gerardo Gandini. In 1983, Golijov shifted to Israel to study with Mark Kopytman at the Jerusalem Rubin Academy. In 1986, he studied with George Crumb at the University of Pennsylvania and soon after, he received his doctorate. In 1991, Golijov joined as the faculty of the College of the Holy Cross at Worcester, Massachusetts, where he was titled as Loyola Professor of Music in 2007. For the 2012-13 season, he held the position of the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair at Carnegie Hall. As of 2016 he resides in Brookline, Massachusetts. Golijov has married twice in his life until now. He first got married to Silvia and had three children with her. He later married architect and designer Neri Oxman but their marriage was brief. Golijov grew up in an atmosphere surrounded by music. He got to listen to chamber music, Jewish liturgical and klezmer music, and the tango of Ástor Piazzolla. His composition, 'Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind' was inspired by the writings and teachings of Rabbi Yitzhak Saggi Nehor. In 1996, his work 'Oceana' was released at the Oregon Bach Festival. He composed 'La Pasion segun San Marcos' for the Passion 2000 project in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach. The 'La Pasion segun San Marcos' was a contemporary classical composition which was finished in 2000 and is till date considered as one of his finest works. In 2010, he also composed 'Sidereus' for a consortium of 35 American orchestras, as a commemoration for Galileo. Osvaldo Golijov has had a long working relationship with soprano Dawn Upshaw, who he called his muse. Upshaw premiered some of his works which were often written specifically for her. These included 'Three Songs for Soprano' and 'Orchestra' and his popular opera, 'Ainadamar'. 'Ainadamar' was premiered at Tanglewood in 2003. Starting in 2000, Golijov composed movie soundtracks for several documentaries and other films, including 'The Man Who Cried', 'Youth Without Youth', 'Tetro' and 'Twixt'. He arranged and composed chamber music, including for the Kronos Quartet and the St. Lawrence String Quartet. His composition, 'Youth Without Youth' demonstrates his ability to transfer his musical talent and skill in orchestral, chamber, vocal, choral music, and opera to the medium of film. 'Tetro' was also regarded as one of his finest works. 'Night of the Flying Horses' which he composed for a film also was well received. 'Night of the Flying Horses' starts with an Yiddish lullaby that he composed for Sally Potter's film 'The Man Who Cried'. Stardom was not too easy for Golijov as he faced several controversies around his work like missed deadlines and accusations of plagiarism. Golijov earned a commission from the Metropolitan Opera for an opera that was to be performed in 2018 but this again was cancelled in 2017 for lack of progress. In another controversy, once a consortium of thirty-five orchestras paid Golijov $75,000 to write a 20-minute work but he rendered the final work only of 9 minutes. Golijov also later used that same musical material in his 2009 composition Radio. These controversies regarding missed deadlines, non professionalism and plagiarism sparked a lot of anger and backlash for the composer. In his defense, later Golijov cited the names of some great composers like Monteverdi, Schubert and Mahler as other composers who also used existing musical material to create new music.

Osvaldo Golijov has a net worth of around $19 million dollars as of 2018.