Festival Guests

Photo by Akiko Okamoto
Antonis Anissegos

Antonis Anissegos has been living as a composer, pianist, improviser and electronic musician (alias “unu”) in Berlin since 1998. Concerts in Europe, Asia, USA and Central America. He received his composition diploma in 1997 in Cologne (Prof. Kr. Meyer) and the master degree in Berlin (Prof. Walter Zimmermann). Anissegos is a member of or regular guest at the Ensemble Adapter, Ensemble European Music Project, Ensemble Junge Musik, the Trio IAMA, the groups Grix, KAYA (with butoh-dancer Yuko Kaseki), ΣΩΜΑ, Card Castle, best before unu, The Forestry Commission and Blindsight. He collaborated with the video artist Erika Matsunami (OIO, 2005–2009), the dance group adLibdances (2007–2011) and Theater Thikwa (since 2004). From 2006 till 2018 he has been teaching Improvisation at the Summer Workshops “Music Village” in Greece. His solo, chamber, orchestra and stage works were performed by Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Piandaemonium, Ensemble Mosaik, Ensemble LUX:NM, Ensemble Resonanz, Ensemble DissonArt, State Orchestra of Thessaloniki, Colour Orchester of Athens, Youth Philharmonic Thüringen, Philharmonic Orchestra of Magdeburg, Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra Brasov, Württembergische Philharmonic, among others. In addition, he has released more than 70 CDs.

Johnny Chang

Berlin-based composer-performer Johnny Chang engages in extended explorations surrounding the relationships of sound/listening and the in-between areas of improvisation, composition and performance. Johnny is part of the Wandelweiser composers collective and currently collaborates with: Peter Ablinger, Jürg Frey, Antoine Beuger, Samuel Dunscombe, Catherine Lamb, Klaus Lang, Mike Majkowski, Chris Newman, Phill Niblock, Michael Pisaro, Derek Shirley, Germaine Sijstermans, Taku Sugimoto, Eric Wong.

As an active performer of contemporary music, trumpeter Matthew Conley performs frequently with ensembles such as Ensemble Musikfabrik (Koln), Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern (Frankfurt am Main), Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, ŒNM (Salzburg), among others. He is a founding member of the Berlin-based Ensemble Apparat. Matthew appeared as soloist on Matthias Pintscher’s sonic eclipse at the 2011 cresc.... Biennale für Moderne Musik in Frankfurt am Main and the 2012 Slowind Festival in Ljubljana, Slovenia. He was a prizewinner at the 2011 Stockhausen Courses for his performance of OBERLIPPENTANZ für piccolo-trompete, and has subsequently been invited by the Stockhausen-Stiftung für Musik to perform the piece on many occasions. In 2010/2011 he was stipendiary of the Internationale Ensemble Modern Akademie. Conley holds a B.M. from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. In 2010 he completed a Master’s degree in Solo Performance at McGill University, where he studied with Edward Carroll. Additionally, Matthew has worked intensively with Markus Stockhausen and studied four consecutive summers at the Center for Advanced Musical Studies at Chosen Vale.

Marta Garcia Gomez

After her studies of classical music in Padua and Milan, harpist Marta Garcia Gomez has expanded her experience in the fields of folk, experimental and electronic music. She has been based in Berlin since 2012. She currently collaborates with orchestral formations and chamber music projects, as well as keeping alive her passion for experimentation, installation with other collectives and artists, like Giacomo della Maria and Arianna Fantin (group cHT: concrete Hyper Text), and Roberta Perzolla in a journey of research into ancient sounds, in balance between movement and staticity, change and stasis, water and matter. She is the harpist of the group Raskolnikow & Sonia. She is also an operator of On Zon Su, an ancient Chinese foot massage method.

Photo by Maria Moreno
Philipp Gerschlauer

Philipp Gerschlauer is a saxophonist, composer and musical thinker. He is a pioneer in combining microtonal elements and jazz. He has divided the octave into 128 notes on the saxophone and in his compositions. Besides playing, he teaches clinics at universities around the globe. Philipp Gerschlauer is considered to be one of the leading microtonal saxophonists in the world. In order to develop a microtonal organ and to conquer new territory, in 2018 he began to learn the church organ. He now performs concerts in which he plays saxophone and organ simultaneously. He has published a fingering chart for saxophone which includes around 600 microtonal fingerings. His talent was recognized early on and while he was at school he was accepted to study classical saxophone at the Music University of Frankfurt/Main at the age of 16. He graduated from the Jazzinstitut Berlin and moved to New York City to complete his master´s degree at the New York University. As bandleader he has recorded several CDs with his band Besaxung, which was followed by "Miꓘrojazz - neue eXpressionistische Musik" (David Fiuczynski, Jack DeJohnette, Matt Garrison, Giorgi Mikadze / RareNoise Records). This record was internationally widely acclaimed and voted the 2nd best jazz album in 2017 by "The New York City Jazz Record". He received scholarships from the German National Academic Foundation, the German Student Exchange Service (DAAD), the New York University and the German Research Center in Venice (3 months).

Joseph Houston

Joseph Houston is a British pianist based in Berlin. He performs all over Europe in various duo line-ups as well as solo. Recent performances include Cat Lamb's ‘Prisma Interius VIII’ at the Berlin Biennale, duos with Sarah Saviet (violin) at Radialsystem as part of Sasha Waltz's ZUHÖREN, solo performances at Donaueschinger Musiktage 2019, and solo and duo works by Feldman at KM28 in early 2020.

Stine Janvin

Vocalist, performer and sound artist Stine Janvin (NO) works with the extensive flexibility of her voice, and the ways in which it can be disconnected from its natural, human connotations. Created for variable spaces from theatres, to clubs and galleries, the backbone of Janvin’s projects focus on the physical aspects of sound, vocal instrumentation and potential dualities of the natural versus artificial, organic/synthetic, and minimal/dramatic. Her most recent works are SOLD(a dog and pony show) and renowned Fake Synthetic Music, from which she earned a Honorary Mention of the Prix Ars Electronica 2019. Alongside her solo work, Janvin collaborates regularly with choreographer Ula Sickle and artist Cara Tolmie. As a performer Janvin is a soprano in chamber ensemble Song Circus, and she works with artists and composers such as Catherine Lamb, Holly Herndon and Adam Linder. In 2020/2021 Stine Janvin is a fellow of the Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD.

Photo by Victor de Vocht
Hilary Jeffrey

Hilary Jeffery (1971) is a British musician born in Surbiton (UK). Following studies at Dartington College of Arts, University of York and with James Fulkerson at the European Dance Development Centre in Arnhem, Hilary embarked on a colourful musical career playing throughout the world in many settings including theatres, jazz clubs, cathedrals, night clubs, festivals, dance studios, bars, cinemas, galleries, streets, forests and mountains. As well as composing Hilary plays trumpet, trombone, tuba, piano, electronics, and practices singing. He is currently based in Berlin where he plays in many groups including Zinc & Copper, Minor Tom, Tonaliens, Inconsolable Ghost, Mullet, zeitkratzer and Mouse On Mars Dimensional People Ensemble. The sense of silent space he experienced during a journey to the Sahara Desert in 1990 is a central and sustaining influence on his work.

Elena Margarita Kakaliagou

Elena Margarita Kakaliagou started her journey in music from Greece, moved to Austria and Finland and landed in Berlin. Her influences apart of her studies with E.Joukamo-Ampuja , H. McDonald and V. Skouras were guided by various forms of contemporary art, folk, jazz and classical music. With her french horn as a vehicle she creates and performes music with the Trio PARA (AT), the brass trio Zinc& Copper (DE), the duo Kakaliagou/Schmoliner „Nabelóse“ and with zeitkratzer (DE). Her approach to the instrument is characterized by extremes in lyricism equally in noise, in- and out- microphone sounds. She has performed in various festivals for new and improvised music around Europe and abroad and worked with great artists like Amir ElSaffar, Ingrid Schmoliner, James Andean, Thomas Noll, Annika Fuhrmann, Samuel Stoll, Matias Guerra, Riikka Teresa Innanen, Caroline Ott, Jaakko Nousiainen, Robin Hayward, Hilary Jeffery, Phill Niblock, CC Hennix, Ellen Arkbro, Salvatore Sciarrino, Eliane Radigue.

Photo by Frank Sperling
Mareike Yin‑Yee Lee

Mareike Yin‑Yee Lee’s multidisciplinary practice encompasses drawing, video, sculpture, found and made objects, printmaking, and artist books. Current works include installations, recordings and live performances produced in collaboration with musicians and composers with an emphasis on the relation between sight and sound. How we approach, perceive and respond to these form the basis of her recent works‘ manifestations. Her immersive, site-specific installations explore the complex and tenuous nature of communication and how we experience space, drawing on gesture, sound, and memory to elicit responses that cannot be put into words. She redefines the architecture and temporality of the spaces in which she works. Lee’s work plays with the spaces between, across, and beyond, embracing the undefinable and subtle gradations, forging a language of colour, tone and space that seeks to articulate microcosms of daily life and sustained contemplation. Lee studied at Universität der Künste, Berlin, Germany; University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; and Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Nova Scotia, Canada, where she was awarded the Joseph Beuys Scholarship and the Canada Millennium Award of Excellence. Recent projects include exhibitions and performances at Kunsthaus Kule Berlin (2020), Kunstmuseum Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen Magdeburg (2019), Galerie Kunstpunkt Berlin (2018), Kunstbezirk Stuttgart, Kunst(zeug)haus Rapperswil- Jona Switzerland (2017), Kunsthaus Interlaken (2017), Neuer Kunstverein, Aschaffenburg (2016), and KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2016).

Photo by Christina Marx
Hannes Lingens

Hannes Lingens is a musician based in Halle (Saale) and Berlin. As composer, drummer and accordion player, he focusses on the intersection between improvised and composed forms of experimental music. He co-founded the Ensembles Obliq, Musaeum Clausum and Die Hochstapler and the musicians collective Umlaut Berlin.

Xavier Lopez

Xavier Lopez is a synthesist and pianist working in the fields of improvisation and new music. His first contact with music occurred as a child, coming from a musical family. After studying classical and jazz music at Amsterdam's conservatory, his interest shifted to experimental music, performing internationally since over a decade, with Dafné Vicente-Sandoval, Miguel A.Garcia, Bryan Eubanks or Catherine Lamb to name a few. He is currently based in Berlin.

Frank Reinecke

Frank Reinecke was born in 1960 in Hamburg, Germany. He began playing the double bass autodidactically when he was fifteen. After he graduated from high school, he studied with Klaus Stoll (Berliner Philharmoniker) at the University of the Arts (UdK) in Berlin. At the age of twenty-three he was engaged by the Symphony Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio. From 1995 until 2001 he was also working at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, first as the assistant of Klaus Stoll, and then as a professor for double bass. He studied conducting with Sir Colin Davies, and he worked as an author of radio features for the Sender Freies Berlin and for the Bavarian Radio.

Photo by Curtiss Abbott
Tomoko Ono

Tomoko Ono is a pianist and music teacher in Berlin, Germany. She received her D.M.A. and M.M. at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and her B.M. at Toho School of Music in Tokyo. As a performer, Tomoko especially enjoys collaboration, accompanying, and contemporary music. Tomoko was a member of Illinois Modern Ensemble from 2012–2017; during this time, she was featured as soloist in works by Edmund Campion, Salvatore Martirano, and Sunyeong Pak. She has also performed in chamber and ensemble pieces by many modern masters, including Pierre Boulez, Georg Friedrich Haas, Steve Reich, Mathias Spahlinger, and Agata Zubel. Tomoko regularly collaborates with composers and presents premieres of their works. In 2014 she received the 21st Century Piano Commission Award with composer Sean Harold.

Photo by Cecil Bouchier
Wolfgang von Schweinitz

Wolfgang von Schweinitz was born in Hamburg (Germany) in 1953. He studied in 1968–76 with Esther Ballou, Ernst Gernot Klussmann, György Ligeti, and John Chowning and is currently living in Southern California, thirty miles north of CalArts (California Institute of the Arts), where he was invited to assume the succession of James Tenney in 2007. Since 1997 his compositions are concerned with developing new microtonal tuning and ensemble playing techniques based on non-tempered just intonation.

Helge Slaatto

The Norwegian violinist Helge Slaato (born 1952), since 1993 professor at the Musikhochschule in Münster, Germany, before that concertmaster of the Odense Symphony Orchestra in Denmark, has given concerts throughout Europe, often with works composed specially for him. He made his successful debut in Oslo in 1977 with a pure solo violin programme, a rarity at the time. In London in the 1970s – together with pianist/conductor Jan Latham-Koenig and the Koenig Ensemble – he championed works by Janacek, Poulenc and Szymanowski, and the encounter with Hans Werner Henze and the Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte in Montepulciano, where Helge Slaatto was a regular guest for many years, was of lasting importance.

His teacher, the late Sandor Vegh, was a great influence, not only as far as the classical repertoire was concerned. Veghs collaboration with Bartok was a decisive inspiration: Helge Slaatto's recording of the Bartok solo sonata (2002, ambitus 96847) was highly praised by the press. Berlingske Tidende wrote: ”Rarely has a work for solo violin sounded so convincing!” and other corner stones in the 20th century repertoire, like the works by Berg and Schoenberg, in particular the latter's string trio, are among his favourites (e.g. Schoenberg String Trio recorded by Trio Slaatto).

The performance of Scelsi's violin concerto ”Anahit” with the Koechlin Ensemble for the Süddeutsche Rundfunk led to further involvement with contemporary music, both as orchestral musician and as soloist. For many years Helge Slaatto was concert master of Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen, and the Danish composer Svend Hvidtfelt Nielsen composed a violin concerto for Helge Slaatto and the Randers Chamber Orchestra, as well as a suite for solo violin, shortly to be released on the Danish label Dacapo.

Samuel Stoll

Samuel Stoll studied french horn and natural horn at the Musikhochschule Lucerne and the Hochschule der Künste Bern in the classes of Jakob Hefti and Thomas Müller. Since finishing his studies in experimental music theatre in the class of Georges Aperghis at the Hochschule der Künste Bern, Samuel Stoll has worked as a freelance musician and performer. He is a member of jetpack bellerive, ensemble apparat, Ensemblekollektiv Berlin, retro disco, Ensemble Tzara. He plays a double bell french horn that was built by Marc Schmiedhäuser in Wiesbaden. From 2015 till his retirement in 2045 he will commission every year at least one new horn solo piece. So far he commissioned Evan Johnson, Michael Baldwin, Max Murray, Ann Cleare, Timothy McCormack, Nicolas Tzortis, Ray Evanoff, Clara Ianotta, Turgut Ercetin, Cassandra Miller, Aaron Einbond, Rebecca Saunders, Steve Takasugi, Stefan Prins and Jannik Giger.