photo: Valery Smirnov

YURI AKBALKAN (RU)

Yuri Akbalkan is a Russian-born composer making work in the field of multimedia art with a focus on human perception and sensory modalities.
He has studied composition at the Rimski-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatory with Prof. Sergei Slonimsky (RU), and at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln with Prof. Markus Hechtle (DE). Currently he lives in Hamburg, where he is doing Artistic Research (Dr. sc. mus.) at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg.
Artist in residence at the ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe in the frame of the Interdisciplinary Laboratory for New Music, Contemporary Dance, Theater and New Media (project of the Goethe-Institut). During his time in St. Petersburg, he was a participant at the Electroacoustic Music Lab ESG-21, lecturer and co-curator of the Course In Experimental Music Practice, and Editor in Chief at the Edition reMusik.org as a part of the Saint Petersburg Contemporary Music Center.
His music has been performed at locations and festivals including reMusik.org, ZKM | Hertz-Lab: ne(x)t_generation, Sound Ways, Fin de siècle, Exposition XXI, Opus 52, ProToArt, the Pythian Games composers’ competition, blurred edges, Moscow Philharmonia, Saint Petersburg Philharmonia, Orpheus Radio, Manege Central Exhibition Hall, New Stage of Alexandrinsky Theatre.
Works performed by ensemble recherche, noname-ensemble, Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble (MCME), MolOt-ensemble, Gallery of Actual Music Ensemble (GAM-Ensemble), eNsemble Pro Arte, Mariinsky New Music Ensemble, {instead} ensemble, Ensemble Adapter.

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BJÖRN ATLE ANFINSEN (SE)

In 2014 he participated the jazz competition "Svensk Jazzfinal" in Sweden and received the prize for "best soloist”.
In 2016, Björn Atle started to study at the Royal College of Music, with Patrik Skogh as trumpet teacher. During the last year of bachelor he got accepted to the Jazz Institut in Berlin for exchange period, with Sebastian Studnitzky as trumpet teacher.
He’s performed with some of the foremost jazz musicians in Sweden, such as: Nils Landgren, Magnus Lindgren, Robert Mehmet Sinan Ikiz, Peter Asplund, Per "Texas" Johansson, Magnum Coltrane Price and more.
In 2017, Björn Atle received an invitation from Nils Landgren to join him at the ”Klassik meets Jazz - Georgian Overtones”-project during the Young Euro Classic festival, wich took place at the Konzerthaus Berlin.
During the same year he released his debut EP, (Fragment), through the record company Stockholm Jazz Records, with musicians Jonas Wall, Erik Lindeborg, Rubem Farias and Robert Ikiz.
With various pop/rock/jazz-groups, he’s performed around Europe and South Africa.
Björn Atle joined the artistic project ”Bohème 2020” In 2018, wich is a part of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele. In this project the group created art through theatre, dance and music, with the subject of the year: Mirrors.
In 2019, Björn Atle got accepted to the Dr. Langner Jazz Master-program at the Hochchule for Musik und Theater in Hamburg, where he focus on studying electro-acoustic music."

https://www.instagram.com/bjornatleanfinsen/?hl=en

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SONJA BEEH (DE)

is active as a trombonist, composer, arranger and teacher.
From 2013 to 2015 she studied jazz trombone at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig with Simon Harrer and Johannes Lauer, among others. She also received classical lessons from Thomas Leyendecker.
As part of the Erasmus program, she studied at the Codarts Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Rotterdam with Ilja Reijngoud, Bert Boeren and Andy Hunter, among others.
From 2016-2019 she studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg with Dan Gottshall and Joachim Preu.
Sonja already has projects with the NDR Big Band,
Nils Landgren, Scott Robinson, Jan Delay, Fred Frith, Rajesh K. Mehta, Vlatko Kučan, Adrian Cox and many more.
She is an integral part of the Hamburg jazz scene and present as a bandleader as well as a sideman.
Current projects: 2 gegen 3, Michel Schroeder Ensemble, Hans Anselm Big Band, Three Atmospheres, Sonja Beeh's Trombone Casserole.

https://www.sonjabeeh.de/

photo: Elvira Glänte

GUSTAV BROMAN (SE)

is a Sweden born bass player in contemporary jazz. He is a graduate from The Royal College of Music in Stockholm (bachelor) and from the renowned Dr. Langner Jazz Master in Hamburg (master). He has performed on stages world wide and have had the honor to perform with numerous outstanding musicians including: Thomas Morgan, Mark Nauseef, David Stackenäs, Albin Vesterberg, Sebastian Gille, Vlatko Kucan, Frank Delle and many more. Besides art Gustav loves the game of Ice hockey.

https://www.instagram.com/gustav.broman/?hl=en

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MARCO BUSSI (IT)

Musicolgist and pianist, Marco Bussi started playing piano at five. In 2012 he graduated at the Conservatory “F. Venezze” in Rovigo where he is currently studying Composition with professors Andreina Costantini and Nicola Evangelisti.
In 2015 he gained a MA in Musicolgy at the University of Pavia. He is interested in musical disciplines at 360-degrees and he works mainly on Twentieth Century Music Theory and on Music Cognition. He attended several Composition Masterclasses held by Tristan Murail, Claudio Ambrosini, Andrea Agostini, Francesco La Licata, Sonia Bo, Francesco Pavan among others; and also Piano Masterclasses held by Alessandro Specchi, Pietro di Maria, Sven Brich.
In 2015 he worked at the Music Cognition Lab at Queen Mary University of London. During this period, he collaborated with prof. Marcus Pearce at the implementation of computational model for Machine Learning.
In 2012 he co-founded the “Ensemble Collettivo Crisis” formed by composers and musicians who practice collective composition, experimental improvisation and contemporary music research. His research is oriented mainly on electronic and electroacustic music as well as on the implementation of automatic procedures for composition and execution.
He is also interested in human-machine interaction and in experimental improvisation as a way to establish archetypical procedures of music communication.

https://crisisensemble.it/

photo: Daniel Dittus

LOVIS DETERMANN (DE)

geb. 1992 in Weimar, absolviert nach dem Abitur ein freiwilliges kulturelles Jahr beim other music e.V. im Bereich Veranstaltungsmanagement. Nach einem Studienvorbereitungsjahr an der Hochschule für Musik und Theater „Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy“ Leipzig, studiert Lovis Determann an der Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg zunächst von 2012-2017 Jazzgitarre (BA) und anschließend von 2017-2020 Musiktherapie (MA). Als Gitarrist*in ist Lovis Determann fester Bestandteil des sirBRADLEYquartets und immer wieder in experimentelle, interdisziplinäre Projekte involviert. Improvisation und ein hohes Maß an Kommunikation sind Lovis Determann Herzensanliegen an die Musik. Daher fühlt sich Lovis in kleineren Besetzungen, in denen viel Platz und Gestaltungsspielraum ist besonders wohl. Den Reiz der Gitarre entdeckt Lovis vor allem in der harmonischen Vielfalt, die das Instrument birgt. Hörbar wird dies in Lovis sensibler und reaktionsfreudigen Art zu begleiten.

https://www.lovisdetermann.de/

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PEDRO GONZÁLEZ FERNÁNDEZ (ES)

is active in different disciplines within the field of contemporary art, such as multimedia composition, interactive graphic design and transdisciplinary scientific-artistic research. His work focuses on the application of research methodologies from "cognitive social neuroscience" to the musical creation for instruments belonging to the Western classical music tradition.
In his work he combines performance with video-installation, dance, theater and the use of new technologies applied to stage creation. Some of his projects include technological developments such as: "motion tracking", "deep learning", "EEG analysis" or "virtual reality" among others. His works have been presented at various international festivals, such as Internationales Musikfest Hamburg (Elbphilarmonie) International Computer Music Conference, Sound & Music Computing Conference, GRAME- centre national de création musicale, Zither auf Zeche, Next generation-ZKM, Anachronisms, Impuls Festival Akademie, or Manifeste-Ircam, in various countries such as China, Germany, Estonia, Russia, Sweden, France, Netherlands and Spain.
Pedro completed his bachelor studies (Bmus) at the Superior School of Music of Catalonia. Later he studied Master (Mmus) in "Contemporary Performance and Composition" KMH (Stockholm), CNSPL (Lyon), HfMT (Hamburg) and EMTA (Tallinn), developing his ideas about transdisciplinary composition coached by Philippe Hurel, Michele Tadini, Bill Brunson, Georg Hajdu, Helena Tulve and Fredrik Schwenk.
Currently, Pedro is pursuing a doctorate in artistic research at the HfMT in Hamburg, working on designing interactive sound systems for the SocSMCs project, funded by a Horizon 2020 grant from the European Union, at the Medical University of Hamburg (Department of Neuro- and Pathophysiology- UKE Hamburg) and works as a freelance composer and violinist.

http://www.pedrogonzalezfernandez.com/

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PIETRO FRIGATO (IT)

Pietro Frigato is a guitarist, composer, improviser, teacher and artistic director born in Italy and based in Rotterdam. He graduated in composition at the Conservatoire “F.Venezze” of Rovigo - Italy. His research is focused on improvisation, on the concept of borders in music, on the edge of perceptions, on the distortion and compression of the signal as poetic, esthetic and conceptual tools. Pietro is running since 2018 as artistic director, the Cataclisma Improvisation Festival a space for new music, improvisation and social projects.
In 2012 He co-founded the Ensemble Collettivo Crisis, a group of composers and performers who practices and performs collective composition and improvvisation in the field of contemporary music.
In 2014 he created the F:A:M: fucina artistica musicale (musical and artistic forge), an educational project in which the music teachers could research and develop custom, non-standard, maieutical and innovative way to teach music and to improve the student's creativity and artistic freedom.
In 2020 during the first lockdown enforced through all europe he started DOAQ – Diaries of a quarantine an ensemble project that explored the possibilities of improvising together on the web during the pandemic. He performs in several project such as S.P.I.I.C., Impromptu.works ensemble from Hamburg and the newly made international trio Shortest Job First.
The music journalist Ettore Garzia wrote of him on the magazine Percorsi Musicali “I have no doubts about the validity of the path undertaken by Frigato. His music has good odds and a colossal range of action”

https://pietrofrigato.com/

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CARLA GENCHI (IT)

singer, composer, improviser, object trouvee enthusiast.
Born in Italy and living in Arnhem (NL). Graduated in singing and composition in Italy and Utrecht (NL) and Hamburg (Master CoPeCo).
Masterclasses with many artists, among others Joelle Leandre, Laureen Newton, Barre Philips, John Tchicai, Eugenio Colombo, Markus and Simon Stockhausen, Butch Morris.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubKim1NSSwg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-LPEjMji7U&t=2s
https://www.instagram.com/mariacarlas_mylocywitz/

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GIULIO GIANÌ (IT)

is a perfomer, teacher and musicologist settled in Bergamo. He started playing saxophone at the age of 8 in the marching band of his hometown, in southeastern Sicily. He studied saxophone at Conservatorio di Messina (2010) and Conservatorio di Alessandria, graduating first in Music Pedagogy (2016) and then in Music Performance (2018) in the class of Claudio Lugo. He got a Master degree in Musicology at Dipartimento di Musicologia in Cremona (2014), focusing on Giacinto Scelsi's music for winds instrument.
He is interested in the versatility of the saxophone, trying to range from Western cultured music to jazz (sideman in Anais Drago & the Jellyfish), from punk rock (Tommi e gli onesti cittadini) to brazilian choro, from klezmer to free improvisation. He’s member of the collective HIC (Hidden Improvisers Consort) from Genova and he collaborates with a sicilian songwriter, Leonardo Gallato.
Since 2019 he has been teaching saxophone and chamber music at Liceo Musicale “Secco Suardo” in Bergamo.

https://www.facebook.com/giulio.giani.39

photo: Oliver Schweers

DOMINIC HARRISON (DE)

Awarded first place in competitions such as “Northern European Jazz Talent 2019” and the “International Big Band Contest 2019”, the drummer Dominic Harrison is a rising name on the European Jazz Scene.
After an almost lifelong journey through different musical genres, with the start of his studies in 2016, he intensively began to study jazz in all its forms and to live and love it.
In addition to the HfMT Hamburg, he gained valuable practical experience in the outstanding Landesjugendjazzorchester of Hamburg and Brandenburg. His development led to concerts and collaborations with artists such as Randy
Brecker, Melissa Aldana, Joris Teepe and Gabriel Coburger. His own various projects also include “The Collective Abroad”, which emerged from the European Jazzlab 2019 – a band with outstanding European talents – which tours regularly in Germany and Scandinavia. 

https://dominicharrison.com/

photo: Fabian Hammerl

IRAKLI KORKOTASHVILI (CHOLADZE) (GE)

is a drummer, improviser, composer and teacher based in Tbilisi, Georgia. He graduated in jazz/composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg.
His main interest and aspiration is to be in a constant process of exploring, combining styles, discovering new musical techniques, textures and "dialects". Extensive experience and experiments in various musical genres such as: rock, jazz, progressive-rock, fusion, free improvised music, and experimental electronics, creates his individual vision.
His current projects are: IN UP OUT TRIO (based in Hamburg), HULEMENT TRIO (based in Tbilisi, Georgia), and few solo projects.

https://www.facebook.com/people/Irakli-Choladze/100009405602017/

photo: Tillman Engel

KRIS KULDKEPP (EE)

is a Hamburg based free improviser on double bass and live-electronics, feminist performer and artist. She is currently completing her doctoral studies at the Hamburg University of Applied Science, where she researches feminist posthuman performance practices and free improvised music. Kris has performed at the international festivals such as LjudOLjud in Stockholm, Tallinn Music Week, St. Petersburg New Music Festival reMusic, QQ/Viljandi Art Festival, Estonian Music Days and Blurred Edges Festival in Hamburg and played in different constellations in Europe and South-America. She is also part of a free improvisation quartet ‘double bird’ that recently released an album ‘favourite galaxy’ and active with a quartet EMN concentrating on performing graphical scores and performative compositions.

https://www.kristinkuldkepp.net

photo: Agnes Voigt processed by Tam Thi Pham

GORAN LAZAREVIĆ (RS)

comes from Serbia where he graduated classical accordion in the class of Prof. Radomir Tomić. In 2013 he moved to Hamburg where he did the contact studies in New Compositional Techniques with Prof. Helmut W.Erdmann and subsequently finished his MA in Multimedia Composition with Prof. Dr. Georg Hajdu and Prof. Dr. Manfred Stahnke.
His main spheres of interest lay in live-electronics, microtonal music, free improvisation and computer music, as well brain-computer musical interfaces (BCMI) and cognitive sciences. His works were performed in Germany, Austria, Vietnam and Serbia.
Apart from his own work as composer, performer and researcher, Goran Lazarević is a strong believer in the power of education, and is currently working as a project coordinator for the the Hamburg Open Online University (HOOU) at the University for Music and Drama in Hamburg (HfMT).
Goran is proud to be a member of “Ping Pong Rouge“ and “Oublie Loulou“ bands, the “Mīrārī Duo“ project, “Live-Elektronik-Ensemble Hamburg/Lüneburg“, and to have played with ensembles like Hamburger Camerata and TonArt and such artists as Matthias Kaul, Fred Frith, Rajesh Mehta, Manfred Stahnke, Michael Schröder, Alejandro Gomez, Henning Rietz, Martín Donoso Vera, Jelena Dabić, Mateo Ojeda, Dirk Schattner, Adnan Fathallah and others.

https://goranlazarevic.com/

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ARVID MAIER (DE)

besuchte von 2013-2016 das Carl-Philipp-Emanuel-Bach-Gymnasium in Berlin, das musikalisch hochbegabte junge Menschen aus aller Welt fördert und auf ein Musikstudium vorbereitet. Hierdurch bekam Arvid als Jungstudent Unterricht am Jazzinstitut Berlin bei Gerard Presencer.
Arvid war Mitglied in den Landesjugendjazzorchestern der Länder Berlin, Brandenburg und Hamburg, mit denen er zahlreiche Konzerte in Deutschland und eine Konzerttour nach China absolvierte und eine große Bandbreite von Musik spielen durfte, so neben der klassischen Bigbandliteratur auch Musik von Bob Brookmeyer, Maria Schneider und Bob Florence sowie von deutschen Komponisten wie Rainer Tempel und Gebhard Ullmann.
2015 gewann er mit der Band „Unknown Quartet“ die 13. Bundesbegegnung Jugend Jazzt und erhielt den Skoda Jazz Preis sowie einen Solistenpreis.
Von 2016 bis 2021 studierte Arvid Jazztrompete bei Claus Stötter an der Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, wo er Unterricht von Jazzmusikern wie Fiete Felsch, Mark Nauseef, Vlatko Kucan und Wolf Kerschek erhielt. 2019 wurde ihm von der Franz-WirthGedächtnis-Stiftung ein einjähriges Stipendium zugesprochen.
Von 2018 bis 2020 war Arvid Mitglied im renommierten Bundesjazzorchester, wo er an Arbeitsphasen mit Niels Klein, Jiggs Whigham, Steffen Schorn, Django Bates, Wolfgang Niedecken und der WDR Big Band teilnahm. Konzerttourneen des Ensembles führten ihn neben zahlreichen deutschen Städten auch in die USA, nach Kanada, Israel und England. Aktuell wirkt er in verschiedenen Projekten mit, so unter anderem Victor Gelling‘s T.P.C.M., deren Album „Everything I Glue Together Falls Apart“ 2020 bei RecordJet erschien. Des Weiteren zu nennen sind die Pascal Klewer Big Band, das Vincent Dombrowski Quintet und die Kooperation mit dem Musikproduzenten Tom Lawyer, die eine 2021 veröffentlichte Single hervorbrachte. Auch im Klassikbereich konnte Arvid Erfahrungen sammeln. So erhielt er im Studium drei Jahre Klassik-Unterricht bei Eckhard Schmidt vom Philharmonischen Staatsorchester Hamburg und wirkte bei Konzerten des Stegreif-Orchesters, der Jungen Norddeutschen Philharmonie und einem Projektorchester des PODIUM Esslingen mit. Darüber hinaus nahm er an zahlreichen Neue-Musik-Projekten der HfMT Hamburg teil.

photo: Sophie Daum

CLÉMENCE MANACHÈRE (FR)

Clémence Manachère comes from the southwest of France, from the foot of the Pyrenees and from the hand of the Atlantic.
At the age of 9 she studied solfège and classical piano at the Conservatory of Pau, France.
At 14, she participates in the festival "les Enfants du Jazz" and hears Elvin Jones live in Barcelonnette, her grandmother's village in the "Alpes de haute Provence" - her baptism in jazz.
At 15 and 16 she participates again in the festival ',les Enfants du Jazz''.
At 16, she buys her first flute and begins to learn the instrument autodidactically.
From 18 to 24 she studies architecture in Toulouse, Mexico City and Paris-Belleville.
At 23, during her last year of studies in Paris-Belleville, she takes lessons with the saxophonist and flutist Guillaume Naturel.
From Paris she travels to Brazil, where she plays in the Orchestra da Escóla Portatil de Chorro and the Orquestra da Pro Arte and João Bosco.
Back in Europe, she studies jazz flute at the preparatory course of the Berlin-Neukölln Music School.
In October 2017, she begins jazz studies at the HfMT Hamburg, where she studies with Fiete Felsch and Gabriel Coburger. Additionally, she starts taking drum lessons with Mark Nauseef. The rhythmic vision of Mark Nauseef is a huge improvisational and compositional impulse for her.
To bring her compositions to life, she creates her project Underwater.
Her first record, Clémence Manachère Unterwasser, was released in February 2020.
In February 2021, she creates her second project ,,Introspection Quartet'' where she experiments graphic notation.
In October 2021, her band Unterwasser will record in a new line-up the second record EXPLOSANTE in Hamburg.

http://clemencemanachere.de/

photo: Heritage Space

TAM THI PHAM (VN)

is a Vietnamese multimedia composer, improviser and performer. She completed her Bachelor of Musicology at the Vietnam National Academy of Music, a course in New Compositional Techniques at the University of Music and Theater Hamburg and is currently enrolled there in Master in Multimedia Composition with Prof. Dr. Georg Hajdu, Prof. Dr. Gordon Kampe and Prof. Dr. Alexander Schubert.
Ms. Pham participated in many different professional courses on improvisation, contemporary music and composition organized by the Domdom – The Hub For Experimental Music & Art and SPIIC ensemble.
Her works are a journey of exploring individuality in an attempt to connect with the surrounding social environment. She is trying to build a way of expression in which music and performance are two indivisible parts.
Tam Thi Pham plays electronic music, objects and Dan Bau (traditional Vietnamese instruments). She especially enjoys working with choreographers and dancers both as improviser and as a composer. Besides her activities as a composer and a performer, she was also very active as an organizer of various discussions on contemporary music and art and concerts in Hanoi and Hamburg. She has also been participating at festivals in Vietnam, Germany, Japan and Serbia such as: “Hanoi Sound Stuff Festival”, Hanoi, 2014; “Hanoi New Music Festival”, Hanoi, 2013 and 2018; “Blurred edges” festival, Hamburg, 2019, 2021; “next_generation 8.0 and 8.5” festival, Karlsruhe, 2019 and 2021; “Dance fest” Hanoi, 2019; Misch Masch festival, NPO Dance Box, 2021; Exhibition “Zemljišta: situacije i dokumenta” (EN: “Grounds: situations and documents) at Gallery ”Jovan Popović” in Opovo, Serbia, 2021; “here&there” in reconnect – program of Goethe Institute in Hanoi, 2021. TAOI/ II, 2019 and TAOI (The Art of Improvisation) 2021 …
Residency: 2018; FAMLAB Residency 2018 (a programme under the British Council’s Cultural Heritage for Inclusive Growth Project). Guess artist in TPAM festival, Japan, 2020 organized by Japan foundation.

www.tamthipham.com

photo: Fabian Hammerl

ROMINA ROMAY (AR)

Romina S. Romay is a composer, pianist, conductorand improviser. With a background in classical music, she specialises in new and experimental
computer-assisted music. Her compositions are mainly for acousticand mixed ensembles. She makes interactive installations,multimedia creations and educational activities withnew technologies. As a performer, she works
with extended techniques for piano, generative music and real-time electronics.
The themes that often appear in her artistic work are: ecology,sustainable development and human self-exploration. She is currently doing a PhD in Musical Composition at the University Côte d’Azur in Nice, France, working on microtonal composition from metadata.

https://rominaromay.com/

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DAVIDE ROSSATO (IT)

Davide Rossato is a Venetian improviser percussionist who approaches music since the age of 5. He completed his academic studies in the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory of Venice.
He started the professional career at the Age of 23, performing in prestigious jazz and contemporary music festivals. Since 2020 he is the artistic director of the “tempesta jazz festival”, a concept made in the city of Noale ( Venice ) where the focus is on improvisation.
He collaborates with some of the biggest names in Italian and european jazz including Massimo Falascone, Filippo Vignato, Gabriele Mitelli, Davide Rinella, Crisis ensemble, Nino Locatelli, Simone Quatrana, Bruno Romani, Vlatko Kucan and also he collaborates as musician with Elena Griggio (Gold Lion at Venice mostra del cinema) in the theatral production called“Outis” .
In 2020 is included in the prestigious column “The young Italian improvisation” edited by the journalist Ettore Garzia of Percorsi Musicali, distinguishing as one of the most young talents of the Italian avant-garde music scene.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfB6CefXQVNGKckU8UVrinA

photo: Lucasz Chrobok

DANIEL SAVIO (IT)

Electric guitar, electronics and objects player based in Venice, Italy, starts studying guitar at the age of 14 by himself. He graduated as guitar jazz player from the Conservatory of Venice in July 2016 by the guidance of Andrea Massaria, and in July 2021 he graduated with the highest score in guitar jazz specialization with Roberto Cecchetto and Domenico Caliri. He also deepened the study of classical harmony with Gianluca Mosca. In the last seven years, he takes part to several masterclasses with: Steve Lehman, Evan Parker, Andrea Massaria and Bruce Ditmas, Bebo Ferra, Ethan Iverson, Eddie Gomez and many others. In 2015 he performed in the Cà Foscari Jazz Ensemble of Venice with Nicola Fazzini. In 2016 he played in a classical guitars Ensemble, a tribute to Roland Dyens, under the guidance of Monica Paolini. He played with “Tengo un' orchestra tanta Ensemble” (music by Frank Zappa) directed by Giovanni Mancuso. In 2018 he played in “Venezze improvisation ensemble” with Vlatko Kucan and Massimo Falascone at the “Cataclisma improvisation Festival” in Rovigo. He worked in the Theatre of Verona with actors, for rapresenting different stories by free impovisation. He founded many projects: Ula Loop jazz trio, with original compositions and music by Bill Frisell and Paul Motian; The Poodles, a jazz rock duo formed by guitar and voice. He played at London Oooh Festival, with a project called Polibobby, an improvisating duo born with the drummer Davide Rossato. He is playing with the “Ensemble collettivo crisis” group. During Covid restrictions, he played online with the D.o.a.Q. Project.

https://www.facebook.com/daniel.savio.7359

photo: Vedad Divović

FELIX STACHELHAUS (DE)

coming I am a freelance composer and percussionist with a penchant for musical theater. I think in sounds instead of tones, in sound contexts instead of absolute sound, in possibilities instead of classifications. I like to balance between styles and search - at the risk of losing balance - for entertaining seriousness or serious entertainment. I am interested in cracks and fractures, ambiguities, gray areas, open questions. I am passionately detail-oriented and curious, reject tradition as much as I love it, and desire the full range of sonic excesses on stage: melancholic intimacy, screaming despair, reeling pathos, exuberant ecstasy.
Studied percussion (with Christian Roderburg, Jean Geoffroy, Mathias Haus, Mirek Pyschny, among others) and composition (with Gordon Kampe, Helena Tulve, Michele Tadini, among others) at the HfMT Cologne, HfMT Hamburg, EMTA Tallinn, KMH Stockholm and CNSMD Lyon. Active as soloist (ISCM World Music Days, Tonhalle Düsseldorf), ensemble percussionist (notabu.ensemble, DeDoelen Rotterdam, NOW Festival Essen) and improviser (Moers Festival, Wuppertaler Jazzmeeting), composition, arrangement and music production for concert (Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, Kammerakademie Potsdam), theater (Schauspiel Kiel, Staatstheater Kassel, Kampnagel Hamburg, Thalia Theater Hamburg) and radio play (Bayerischer Rundfunk, Europäische Wochen Passau).
Own projects at resonanzraum Hamburg, Lichthof Theater and at the blurred edges festival, among others. Grants from Musikfonds, GEMA, Fonds Darstellende Künste, Hamburgische Kulturstiftung, BKM Hamburg, Claussen-Simon-Stiftung, Rusch-Stiftung, Café Royal-Stiftung.

https://felixstachelhaus.portfoliobox.net/

photo: Ina Niemerg

JANA DE TROYER (BE)

Composer-Performer Jana De Troyer positions herself at the dynamic borders between styles and disciplines. Concurrently, she deftly switches between her roles of composer, free improviser, instrumentalist, human, sound artist and programmer. Coming from a background as a contemporary saxophonist, Jana has always been curious about further exploring and fusing various modes of expression. This “Experimentierfreude” has brought about a myriad of creative collaborations with composers, musicians and artists from other disciplines such as visual arts, dance and coding.

Jana’s open mindset can be seen in her improvisational practice, where she actively combines her classical and contemporary saxophonist training with other sound sources, movement and electronics. She has had the pleasure to play with great improvisers in a range of constellations, varying from duo performances to improvisation orchestras in international festivals and concert series such as the Marathon3000 in Zürich, Improtest Tallinn, Elektroshock Palermo and Sonopol Hamburg.

https://www.janadetroyer.com/

photo: Elvira Glänte

ALBIN VESTERBERG (SE)

is a Swedish guitar player working in the field of jazz and improvised
music. Heavily inspired by earlier masters such as Derek Bailey, Django Reinhardt and Jim Hall, he always seeks to express the beauty in contrasting sounds and rhythms with his guitar. After finishing his Bachelor's Degree at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm in 2016 he moved to Hamburg, Germany where he earned his Master's Degree at the Dr. Langner Jazz Master at
HfMT in 2018.
In 2020 he released his debut album BALLADER together with Swedish bass player Gustav Broman.
He has performed with musicians like: David Stackenäs, Gustav Broman, Vlatko Kucan, Ronny Graupe and Lydia Kavina to name a few.

https://www.facebook.com/albin.raafvesterberg

photo: Lukasz Chrobok

JOHANNES WÖHRMANN (DE)

Als Absolvent des hamburger Jazz sowie Bioinformatik Studiengangs befasst sich der Altsaxophonist Johannes Alois Wöhrmann mit der Bearbeitung und Interpretation von komplexen, dynamischen, teilweise abstrakten Strukturen. Diese integriert er in seine melodiöse und harmonische Improvisationen. Seine Tongebung schöpft aus den Traditionen des amerikanischen Jazz sowie der europäischen klassischen Musik; unter anderem vorgetragen auf den Nebeninstrumenten Klarinette und Querflöte. Sein Repertoire orientiert sich dabei an den Standards des American Songbooks. In befreiten Spielsituationen jedoch elaboriert er Harmonie, Rhythmik und Melodie, erschafft aus den kleinsten musikalischen Parzellen neue Klanggebilde und transponiert auf diese Weise etablierte und bekannte Spielpraktiken in die moderne Neuzeit. 

photo: Thomas Zydatis

SHIMO DONG ZHOU (CN)

Dong Zhou is a composer, multimedia artist and performer based in Hamburg. She gained her B. A. in music engineering in Shanghai conservatory and M.A. in multimedia composition in HfMT Hamburg. She was commissioned by Shanghai International Art Festival, Hamburg CLAB Festival and ZKM Karlsruhe. She is one of the four finalists of 2019 Deutscher Musikwettbewerb.

https://dongzhou.live/

photo: Lee Maas

ANNA W. ZOLYNIAK (PL)

s a polish vocalist and songwriter, grew up in West Germany and moved to Hamburg for a heartfelt wish: jazz music. After her musicology study at the University of Hamburg she has finished her bachelor degree in jazz and popular music as classical voice at HfMT Hamburg in 2021.
While studying different jazz genres she has discovered her fascination for improvised music by experiencing it under the direction of Vlatko Kucan.
She has performed with musicians like: Gustav Broman, Fred Frith, Vlatko Kucan, Rjesh K. Mehta, and Albin Vesterberg to name a few.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5plG6vtsHr0

photo: Fabian Hammerl

VLATKO KUČAN (DE)

Vlatko Kučan (b. 1963 Sarajevo, Ex-Yugoslavia) studied popular music, jazz and music therapy at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg.
He works as a musician (instruments: saxophones and clarinets), composer, producer, music therapist and educator.
His various works focus and explore the possibilities of artistic expression through the art of improvisation. They cross and extend traditional boundaries of contemporary music, jazz, improvised music, theatre and film music. Another focus of Kucan’s work is the combination of literature, philosophy and music. He also works as a director for radio plays and audio books.
He performed and collaborated with leading protagonists of contemporary jazz (i.e. Carla Bley, Lester Bowie, Anthony Braxton, Marion Brown, Bill Elgart, Dieter Glawischnig, Howard Johnson, Jay Oliver, Barre Philips, Tomasz Stanko, Steve Swallow, Kenny Wollesen) and improvised music (i.e. Derek Bailey, Malcolm Goldstein, Barry Guy, Aleksander Kolkowski, Jim Menesses, Rajesh Mehta, Lauren Newton, Maggie Nichols, Mia Zabelka).
His theatre collaborations include directors Karin Beier, Michael Bogdanov, Herbert Fritsch, Brian Michaels, Robert Wilson and musicians Tom Waits, Lester Bowie and Giora Feidman.
His works on literature and music include productions based on texts by Friedrich Nietzsche, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Charles Baudelaire, Anne Sexton and Mascha Kaleko and collaborations with various actors (i.e. Christian Brückner, Hannelore Elsner, Corinna Harfouch, Susanne Lothar, Dietmar Mues, Barbara Nüsse, Christian Redl, Lars Rudolph, Hanna Schygulla, Otto Sander, Ulrich Tukur, Ulrich Wildgruber) and authors (i.e. Peter Handke, Siri Hustvedt, Hellmuth Karasek, Siegfried Lenz, Benjamin Lebert, Helmut Schmidt).
Vlatko Kučan is teaching Improvisation at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater (HfMT) in Hamburg, Germany at the Jazz department BA and MA programs and the Contemporary Performance and Composition (CoPeCo) MA program. From 2018 he is also the head of the new Studio for Polystilistic Improvisation and Interdisciplinary Crossover (SPIIC). He has been a visiting artist and lecturer and has held workshops on Improvisation at international academic institutions.

https://www.vlatkokucan.de/