Frieder Butzmann, born in 1954 on Lake Constance, has performed since 1976 at locations such as the SO 36 in Berlin Kreuzberg or the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He is responsible for a Klingon opera, radio plays and internet projects such as the Spunkkrachlexikon. Since 1979 he has appeared worldwide and published various recordings. In 2009 he published his first book – the “MGG” (Musik im Großen und Ganzen). To this day he collects sounds, music, noises, impressions and works intrepidly in his Studio für komische Musik in Berlin. Until 2003 he taught “Music and Multi Media” at the University of the Arts Berlin, until 2007 “Design of Sound in Film, Video and New Media” at the University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf. www.friederbutzmann.de
DieOrdnungDerDinge. Since their foundation in 2011, the ensemble has been working on the design of theatrical formats for music presentation. In his projects compositions of sounds, objects, light and movement become music; visible sounds and audible images are created. The programmes follow a scenic dramaturgy in which the ensemble members do not act as music interpreters in the classical sense, but as theatrical figures using musical forms and rules. The ensemble’s name says it all: principles and structures, orders and disorder are examined in a playful and amusing way. Guest performances have taken the ensemble to Bilbao, Bern, Bludenz and Budapest. www.dieordnungderdinge.com
ensemble mosaik, founded in 1997, is one of the most renowned ensembles for contemporary music. In their work, they are interested in the variety of aesthetic concepts in contemporary music, their research and further development. One focus of their work is the interaction with digital media in the fields of composition, interpretation and sound production, another are new approaches in performance practice. Mosaik develops thematic programmes and concert series that reflect individual works within the frame of an overall context, focus on current trends and explore new ideas. The concerts themselves become an experimental arrangement, often also in border areas of fine and performing arts. www.ensemble-mosaik.de
eunoia Quintett. As a collaborative effort with composer François Sarhan, the Basel-based eunoia Quintett has already developed the music theatre project “One Shot Train” for Vienna and Basel, which has now evolved as a work in progress for Berlin into the performance “Yesterday and Tomorrow – The Truth about the Villa Elisabeth”. With their combination of four different instrument groups plus singing voice, eunoia’s line-up is unique, which is also symbolized in the name of the group. “eunoia” is the shortest word containing all five vowels and is composed of the Greek “eu” for “good” and “nous” for “reason, spirit”. www.de.eunoiaquintett.com
gamut inc, founded in 2011 by computer musician Marion Wörle and composer Maciej Sledziecki, make machine music, music theatre, film and radio play music and collaborates on projects with various other artists. gamut inc have received commissions and invitations from renowned international festivals (e.g. Acht Brücken Festival Köln, Jauna Muzica Vilnius, Attacca, New Music Festival Gdansk, Numusic Festival Stavanger, Audio Art Festival Krakow, Berghain Berlin, CTM Festival, HKW Technosphärenklänge). The group is co-founder of “ZAM – Zentrum für Aktuelle Musik” and since 2009 operates satelita Musikverlag, which is dedicated to current music formats. www.gamutinc.org
glanz&krawall are an independent Berlin music theatre collective, consisting of Marielle Sterra (director), Dennis Depta (dramaturgy), Kim Scharnitzky (stage design). Their performances are mostly site-specific and have taken place in clubs, water tanks and hospitals. The group says about itself: “The singers are let off the leash, the musical directors are courageous, a choir may (but does not have to) perform, an orchestra plays (but does not have to) – sometimes the portable radio also plays. From time to time there are actors. Even bands. We nail up the proscenium stage, steal the plush chair from the audience. The collective splits the opera – “this shining diamond”, as Schlingensief says – into its components and reassembles it before the eyes of the audience” www.glanzundkrawall.de
Daniel Gloger. The countertenor Daniel Gloger inspires composers of our time to new sounds like hardly any other singer in his field. He has sung more than 200 world premieres as a regular guest at the European festivals of new music, including Ultraschall Berlin, Musica Viva Munich, Klangspuren Schwaz, Tage für Neuen Musik Zürich, Festival d’Automne Paris and the Warsaw Autumn. He has performed leading roles at Staatsoper Stuttgart (Czernowins “Pnima”), Staatsoper Berlin (Ronchetti’s “Lezioni di tenebra”, Strasnoys “Geschichte”), the Salzburg Festival (“Judith” after Vivaldi), Wiener Festwochen (“Bluthaus” by G. F. Haas) at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires (Strasnoy’s wedding preparations and history) and at the Opéra national de Paris (“Melancholia” by G.F. Haas). www.danielgloger.de
Hauen·und·Stechen. The music theatre collective Hauen und Stechen was founded in Berlin in 2012 by opera directors Franziska Kronfoth and Julia Lwowski and gallery owner Thilo Mössner. They work on their own expressive music theatre language. Their shows focus on the examination of classical opera literature and their translation into disparate art spaces and the polyphonic sound world of a collective. Hauen und Stechen played at Hamburgische Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper, Athénée Théâtre Louis Jouvet (Paris), Deutsche Oper Berlin, Sophiensæle, Neuköllner Oper and Ballhaus Ost, as well as in cellars, a disused brewery, barracks, garages, a painter’s flat, a Swiss hotel, the Academy of Arts and in a car. www.hauen-und-stechen.com
Katharina Haverich works in the field of live art. Her collaboration with the musician and composer Christopher Hotti Böhm takes her into the realm of “sonic perfomance art”. She studied acting at the European Film Theatre School EFAS in Zurich, Theatre and Professional Practice at Coventry University in Coventry and Theatre Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. She worked at Thalia Theater and Kampnagel in Hamburg as well as with The Wooster Group in New York and collaborated with choreographer Martin Nachbar, Zentrum für Politische Schönheit,!KF – Institut für künstlerische Forschung and the performance label internil. This year she presents her live-art installation “Sequence of a Horse in Motion”, for which she has developed a virtual reality work of the same name. www.katharinahaverich.de
Neo Hülcker is a composer-performer whose intermedial musical works are dedicated to an anthropological investigation of everyday life environments. He studied composition with Dieter Mack and Harald Münz in Lübeck and with Manos Tsangaris and Franz Martin Olbrisch in Dresden. His compositions often take the form of performance installations, videos, actions and interventions. They deal with digital practices, childhood, animal-human relationships, queer behaviour and cultural hacking. He founded the YouTube channels “ASMR studio berlin” (with the Manufactory for Contemporary Music) and “feminist ASMR” (with Stellan Veloce and Katie Lee). Performances have taken him to the Münchener Biennale and Darmstädter Ferienkurse, to venues for alternative theatre forms (e.g. Münchner Kammerspiele, HAU, PACT Zollverein) and to festivals for contemporary music (e.g. Wien Modern, Warschauer Herbst, London Contemporary Music Festival, Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, Sound Acts (Athens), Dark Music Days (Reykjavik)). www.neelehuelcker.de
Kötter/Seidl. The director Daniel Kötter and the composer Hannes Seidl have been collaborating on various artistic formats such as experimental film, installations, performances and exhibitions since 2008. The focus of their joint work is on full-length music-theatrical works, such as “Falsche Arbeit” (2008), “Falsche Freizeit” (2010), “Freizeitspektakel” (2010), “Fernorchester” (2012) and the trilogy “Ökonomien des Handelns: Kredit, Recht, Liebe” (2013-2016). Supported by the Fonds Experimentelles Musiktheater, Daniel Kötter and Hannes Seidl developed the six-part music theatre series “ingolf” (2015-2017) at Musiktheater im Revier in Gelsenkirchen together with the scenographer Rahel Kesselring. In 2017 Daniel Kötter and Hannes Seidl developed the first part of their new trilogy “Stadt Land Fluss” together with sound artist Christina Kubisch on the temporal conditions of living together in urban contexts, which premiered in Berlin’s Sophiensaele in November 2017. www.danielkoetter.de; www.hannesseidl.de
Mann aus Obst. The ensemble, founded in 2013 by Maja von Kriegstein, unites members from the scene of classical music, free jazz, songwriting and street music. Their work leaves much room for improvisation and puts its main focus on joint exploration and performative condensation of their own biographies, which turns to be “sometimes painful, but usually amusing and liberating”. The group’s motto is: “MusicTheatre in any case. Collectively, as soon as there’s enough money. Of course, post-dramatic. Love songs for people over 35”. www.mannausobst.eu
Die Maulwerker are a vocal ensemble, music performers, music theatre makers and a collective of composers. They are specialists in the intersections of music and theatre, music and language, in the penetration of music and space, of sound and silence. In addition to the performance of classics such as Schnebel or Cage, the ensemble also collaborates actively with composers, radio play writers, sound artists and directors, as well as performing pieces by the ensemble members themselves. All members are also soloists and see the ensemble as an association of individual artistic personalities. Within recent years they have performed at: MaiHof, Lucerne (2018); Gare du Nord, Basel (2017); tage neuer musik graz (2016); Jornadas de Musica Contemporánea, Bolivia (2016); VI. Encuentro de Musica Nueva, Bolivia (2016); FOCO, Mexico (2015); MaerzMusik, Berlin (2012, 2006); Operadagen Rotterdam (2012); Ultraschall, Berlin (2010); Fluxus Biennial Rome (2010); ZKM Karlsruhe (2012, 2006). www.maulwerker.de
Chico Mello & Fernanda Farah. Chico Mello, composer and multi-instrumentalist, and Fernanda Farah, musician and actress, come from Curitiba in southern Brazil, both have been living in Berlin for many years. In their joint performances they merge traditions of bossa nova with musical experiment and musical-theatrical performance. Vocals, guitar and piano blend poetically with the discovery of the musical potential of the simplest everyday objects.
Johannes Müller / Philine Rinnert. Philine Rinnert studied stage design at Berlin’s Universität der Künste, Johannes Müller Opernregie at Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler”. Since 2009 they have been working together on music theatre projects that focus on the past of opera, its impact and techniques, but also on contemporary archaeology and pop and queer culture. Their work includes: “Aids Follies” (2018/19), “Mean Greene Mother From Outer Space” (together with Gerhild Steinbuch 2017), “Reading Salome” (2015), “The Call of Salome” (2014), “Retrospectre” (2014), “Herculanum – Excavation in four acts” (2013), “One Day More. Extravaganza” (2012), “Opèration Spirituelle [RPM 45]” (2012), “Intrigo Internazionale KV 492” (2010), “Cheap Blood” (199) (2010).
Makiko Nishikaze studied composition first in Japan, then at Mills College, California, with Alvin Curran and at Berlin’s former Hochschule der Künste with Walter Zimmermann. Her pieces incorporate elements of dance, performance and theatre. For quite some time she has been employed with spatial music. For her, a room is a resonant body that turns acoustic and visual perception into a holistic event. In many cases, performative actions are incorporated into her concepts. Her works have been performed worldwide, including at: Chamber Music Festival Kanagawa, Japan (1997); The art of composition towards the 21st Century, Jerusalem (1998); Musica Silenciosa, Rio de Janeiro (1998); Brno International Music Festival, Czech Republic (1999); Eclat (2000); Festival De Klankfabriek, Belgium (2002) ; MaerzMusik (2003, 2006, 2014) ; New Music Marathon Northwestern University, Chicago (2006); Donaueschinger Musiktage (2007); Music We’d Like to Hear, London (2007, 2009, 2011, 2017) ; Ostrava Days, Czech Republic (2015). www.makiko-nishikaze.de
Georg Nussbaumer was born in Linz in 1964. He has collaborated on various earlier works with the Berlin soloist ensemble Kaleidoskop. In his works, elements of music, installation and performance art combine. Large-format scenic works that constitute multi-layered pictorial sound spaces are juxtaposed with reduced sound installations or even non-sounding processes that usually deal with music, its history and effect and finally with its production. Theater Bielefeld (2002), Museum Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin (2002), Donaueschinger Musiktage (2003/10/13), Wien Modern (2005/16), Steirischer Herbst (2006/14), Nationaltheater Mannheim (2006/07), Bregenzer Festspiele (2009), Ring Festival Los Angeles (2010), Opera Dagen Rotterdam (2012), Kunstfest Weimar (2013), operadhoy Madrid (2014), Teatr-e Shahr, Teheran (2015), Beethovenfest Bonn (2018). www.georgnussbaumer.com
Opera Lab Berlin, founded in 2013 by composer Evan Gardner and stage director Michael Höppner, see themselves as a laboratory for voice and instrumental performance. In their works, the group seeks to engage with real life and brings together artists from all areas of music theatre. Opera Lab have performed numerous world premieres (including “Wonderful Things” (2014) and “Gunfighter Nation” (2017) by Evan Gardner), as well as theatrical reinterpretations of existing works from the fields of contemporary music and contemporary music theatre (including “Staatstheater” by Mauricio Kagel, 2017). For the experimental music theatre series “Im Feld”, Opera Lab has been bringing together composers and teams of directors, who produce smaller productions in rehearsal phases of one to two weeks each. The group cooperated with established music theatre institutions such as the Münchener Biennale and Deutsche Oper Berlin (“Wir aus Glas” directed by David Hermanns, 2018) as well as Berliner Staatsoper (“Macbeth” (2014) and “Ti vedo, ti seno, mi perdo” (2018) by Salvatore Sciarrino, both directed by Jürgen Flimm.) www.opera-lab-berlin.com
Karen Power. In her music, the Irish composer Karen Power interweaves instrumental sounds with electroacoustic elements and everyday sounds and incorporates elements of installation, film, dance and painting. Her work ranges from orchestral pieces, sound installations, soundscape compositions and experimental audiovisual projects to musical happenings. As holder of a scholarship from the DAAD in 2015 – 2016, she explored empty industrial buildings along the Spree River for urban sounds. In 2014 she traveled to the Arctic, microphoning ice blocks and using hydrophones to record sounds and movements under ice surfaces. Karen Power has received numerous awards and honours inside and outside Ireland. www.karenpower.ie
Meriel Price writes and plays Neues Musiktheater, while also being a saxophonist, performer and visual artist. Her long-term music-theatrical project “Staring at the Bin” originated at the Munich Biennale 2016. Her music-theatre duo Aside investigates the unpleasant and unintentional facets of musical performance and confronts the expectations of the audience. With her ensemble DieOrdnungDerDinge she develops staged concerts that explore the space between concert and theatre/performance in a visual and playful way. As a saxophonist she has worked with Berliner Philharmoniker, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, MDR Symphonie Orchester. www.merielprice.com; www.dieordnungderdinge.com
Damian Rebgetz, born 1978 in Darwin (Australia), studied singing (Queensland Conservatorium of Music), music theatre (West Australian Academy of Performing Arts) and sound studies (Berlin University of the Arts). In his music-theatrical projects he mixes field research with autobiography, storytelling, performance lecture and musical. He has worked with Gob Squad and She She Pop. In 2012/13 he performed a series of lecture performances for Neuköllner Oper on the theme of “Science Fiction Opera”. This was followed by music theatre projects for the festivals Impulse and Theater der Welt and regular performances at the HAU in Berlin. Since the 2015/16 season he has been a permanent member of Münchner Kammerspiele. www.damienrebgetz.net
Kirsten Reese works in the field of composition and sound art. She focuses on advanced music theatre formats that combine composition and installation with scenic, performative and interactive forms. These include projects in public space, projects that use mobile (audio) media and electronic sound designs which are used as acoustic stage sets in theatre productions. She was responsible for sound design for theatre productions by director Enrico Stolzenburg at the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar and worked on various projects with writer David Wagner. Recent works include: “KSH Portrait of the Pianist as a Young Man – Scenic composition for a pianist, a grand piano, electronic feeds, installed speakers, video, objects” (SWR ars nova2014); “Phantom Synchron – Soundtrack Weimar” with Daniel Ott, Sebastian Quack, Enrico Stolzenburg (Kunstfest Weimar 2015); “Luthertöne – ein Klangspaziergang durch Wittenberg” with David Wagner (2017); “Light Green Rituals für Fairlight CMI und Ensemble” (Festival Eclat, Stuttgart 2018). www.kirstenreese.de
François Sarhan is a composer and visual artist. He was born in 1972 in Rouen and lives in Berlin. He studied composition with Brian Ferneyhough, Jonathan Harvey, Magnus Lindberg, Philippe Manoury and Tristan Murail. His work is often multimedia-based and draws on the realm of music theatre. He composed a chamber opera for the Aix-en-Provence Lyrical Art Festival (2003). His music theatre project “Enough Already” has been performed in Scotland, England, France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. His works have been heared at renowned festivals (including Berliner Festspiele, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Eclat, Holland Festival, MaerzMusik, Musica, Ultima Festival and Wittener Tage für Neue Musik) and have been played by renowned ensembles (such as Diotima Quartett, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Recherche, Ictus Ensemble, MusikFabrik). www.francoissarhan.blogspot.com
Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop was founded in Berlin in 2006. As a string ensemble the size of a chamber orchestra, it remains unique in the field of ensembles for contemporary music. Kaleidoskop also frequently deal with music of other times and styles, from the Renaissance to pop music, or create their own new musical concepts. In their search for alternative forms of musical performance, Kaleidoskop have developed into a unique music theatre ensemble in which musicians perform as theatrical performers. Within various projects, they have collaborated with different partners, such as the composer and visual artist Georg Nussbaumer, the choreographer Laurent Chétouane, the band Mouse on Mars and the director Susanne Kennedy. Kaleidoskop are presented at renowned festivals such as the Donaueschinger Musiktage, Ruhr-Triennale, Operadagen Rotterdam, Kunstfest Weimar and Kunstfestspiele Herrenhausen. www.kaleidoskopmusik.de
Sarah Maria Sun, guest of the soloist ensemble Kaleidoskop in Georg Nussbaumer’s “Der Opernwürfel”, is one of the world’s leading sopranos in the field of contemporary music. In 2017 she was nominated singer of the year. At the same time, 4 of their 6 new CDs received nominations for the German Record Critics’ Award. She has performed with conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Kent Nagano, Thomas Hengelbrock; with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the orchestras of NDR, WDR, SWR and BR, and with ensembles such as musikFabrik, Ensemble Modern, Mosaik, Intercontemporain. She has been a guest at the opera houses in Zurich, Basel, Dresden, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Mannheim, Leipzig, Strasbourg, Luxembourg, Zagreb and the Opéra Bastille in Paris. www.sarahmariasun.de
Stellan Veloce originates from Sardinia and lives in Berlin. He studied composition at Universität der Künste. His works oscillate between instrumental music, installation and musical performance. As an instrumentalist on the cello, his output ranges from pop music to free improvisation. He is co-founder of the online platform YES, which also functions as a digital publishing house. Collaborations have brought him together with Neo Hülcker, Sheena McGrandles, Julian Weber, The Agency, Hannah Weinberger, Christiane Hommelsheim, Doris Schmid, Kyle Bellucci Johanson, Anaïs Héraud-Louisadat, Serenus Zeitblom Octet, Owen Roberts u.a. His pieces have been performed in Berlin’s HAU and the Berlin CTM Festival, at Münchener Kammerspiele, Signal Festival (Prague), Dark Music Days (Reykjavík), Sound Acts Festival (Athens) and Inact Festival (Strassbourg).
Ute Wassermann is known as a vocal soloist and composer/performer for her extraordinary, many-voiced and extreme vocal sound-language, which she has brought into experimental/contemporary music in diverse ways. She has developed techniques to “mask” the voice using birdcall-whistles, palate whistles or resonant objects, and designs sound-installations. A particular interest is the development of compositions for spaces with unusual acoustic qualities. Ute Wassermann has performed as a vocal soloist in the area of new and experimental music in festivals in Europe, Australia and Asia, and in many museums, art spaces, clubs and so on. She works with internationally known improvising musicians, composers, dancers, visual artists and circus artists. www.femmes-savantes.net
Zinc & Copper was founded by Robin Hayward in 2005. A trio of horn, trombone and tuba forms the basis for a variable ensemble of brass instruments.By researching alternative approaches towards playing, Zinc & Copper is exploring the potential of the medium in the 21st century. The development of microtonal valve systems enables unprecedented exploration of tuning systems, connecting both to western experimental music traditions and non-western traditions such as Maqam. Using distorted embouchure and experimental valve techniques, the instruments may be transformed into acoustic noise generators. Half-valve and muting techniques allow for an acoustic filtering of the tone, opening up a wide colour spectrum. www.zincandcopper.org