Category Archives: People

Delaine le Bas

Stage designer

Delaine was born in Worthing U.K. in 1965. She studied for her Masters Degree at St Martins School Of Art London. Delaine is a cross disciplinary artist creating installations, performances, photography and films. She was one of sixteen artists who were part of Paradise Lost, The First Roma Pavilion, at the 2007 Venice Biennale. She works with her husband, the artist Damian Le Bas, creating works for their ongoing projects Safe European Home/Frontier De Luxe and Gypsy Revolution. In addition, she creates text works with her son and author Damian James Le Bas. She has shown her works internationally including her solo installation Witch Hunt which has been touring since 2009. Her works have been included in Venice Biennale 2007, Prague Biennale 2005 & 2007, Gwangju Biennale 2012, Zacheta National Gallery Of Art 2013, MWW Wroclaw Contemporary Art Museum 2014, The Third Edition Of The Project Biennial Of Contemporary Art D-O Ark Underground Bosnia and Herzegovinia 2015, Off Biennale Budapest 2015 and Goteborg International Biennial For Contemporary Art Extended 2015.

© Photo: Annette Hauschild

Damian le Bas

Stage designer

Damian was born in Sheffield U.K. in 1963. He completed a Masters Degree at the Royal College of Art in London. He was one of the sixteen artists who were part of Paradise Lost, The First Roma Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2007. Together with his wife and artist Delaine Le Bas he is involved in two long term artistic projects Safe European Home/Frontier De Luxe (beginning in 2010 with the first installation being created outside the Parliament building in Vienna May/June 2011) and Gypsy Revolution which incorporates historical documentation alongside contemporary artworks created by the Le Bas’s and other artists.

In the past years Damian has worked extensively with maps and cartographies and is a cross disciplinary artist. He exhibits internationally including Venice Biennale 2007, Prague Biennale 2005 & 2007, The Third Edition Of The Project Biennale Of Contemporary Art D-O Ark Underground Bosnia & Herzegovina 2015 and Goteborg International Biennale For Contemporary Art 2015. He lives and works in various locations across the U.K and Europe.

© Photo: Annette Hauschild

Carl Thiemt

Countertenor

Carl Thiemt began his musical career in the Dresden children’s and boy’s choirs. Even before his vocal studies, he explored many different musical styles and vocal techniques, such as Indian music and over and undertone singing. He studied music at the Technishe Universität Dresden and began his training as a countertenor with Steve Wächter in 2008. From 2009 he studied at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden. He made his operatic debut in September 2011 in the role of Anfinomo (Countertenor) in the opera Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria/ The Return of Ulysses in Scheidegg under the direction of Wolfgang Schmid. In 2012 he could be seen and heard at, amongst others, TONLAGEN- the Dresden Festival for Contemporary Music.

In 2012 he continued his vocal studies under Christiane Bach-Röhr, and in March 2013 switched to baritone to expand his repertoire. In 2013 he worked with Sarah Maria Sun, Richard Röbel, Hans-Joachim Hespos, Gerhard Stäbler and Thomas Hanzlik (CZ). Following a master class with Thomas Thomaschke, he sang the part of Papageno (Baritone) at two concerts at Festival Mitte Europa in the summer of 2015. His exploration of contemporary music has now become one of the main pillars of his work. He collaborates on a regular basis with composers of contemporary music and is also an active composer himself.

Stefanie Wördemann

Librettist

Stefanie Wördemann, born near Hamburg in 1974, studied music and German at the HU Berlin and was a founding member of the academy Musiktheater heute –Berlin-Salzburg and of the laboratory for musical theatre. After working as a direction assistant for, Peter Konwithschny, amongst others, at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, she became theatre dramatist at the Osnabrück Theatre in 2001 and was editor and dramatist for the Berlin Philarmonic Orchestra from 2002 until 2006. At the same time she worked as a freelance author, dramatist and producer for Hebbel theatre, MaerzMusik and musica viva.

Since 2005 she has been working as a librettist and stage director. Together with Helmut Oehring, she staged the music theatre productions QUIXOTE oder Die Porzellanlanze (which premiered in 2008 at the European Centre for the Arts, Dresden Hellereau, musica viva Munich), Mahagonny Songspiel/DIE WUNDE Heine (premiering in 2010 by Ensemble Modern at the Opera Frankfurt a.M./ Kurt-Weill-Fest Dessau/ Ruhrtriennale Cologne) and Orfeo 14 (vol. 1) (which premiered in 2014 at Le Concert d’Astrée/Ictus Ensemble/ Opéra de Lille). She has recently worked on the concept and libretto for the musical AGOTA? Die Analphabetin (Gestern/ Irgendwo), on the life and work of writer Ágota Kristóf (which premiered in May 2016 at the Hessisches Staatstheater, Wiesbaden), as well as Das Phantom des Alexander Wolf, about the eponymous novella by Gaito Gasdanow, and Orfeo 16 (vol. 2), about Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, which focuses on the current refugee crisis and is performed with the help of asylum-seeking musicians and artists from the Middle East.

Olaf Katzer

Choirmaster

Olaf Katzer has been the conductor of the Dresden Chamber Choir since 2011. In addition to his own concerts, he leads rehearsals for Hans-Christoph Rademann, Vaclav Luks, Simon Halsey, Reinhard Goebel, Christian Thielemann, Stefan Parkman, Herve Niquet and Christopher Hogwood at festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, Bachwoche Ansbach and the Dresden Music Festival. He also designed the “Dresdner Chorwerkstatt für Neue Musik” of the Dresden Chamber Choir.

Born in 1980 in Mettmann, Rhineland, Olaf Katzer studied music and psychology in Munich, Weimar and Dresden. While still a student, Olaf Katzer founded the ensemble AUDITIVVOKAL DRESDEN, which he still leads artistically and musically today. Over 50 world premieres, guest appearances at numerous festivals and radio recordings at the MDR, Deutschlandradio, Radio Suisse Romande and Deutschlandfunk document his commitment to contemporary vocal art. Through interdisciplinary collaborations between singers, dancers, composers, painters, directors and scientists, he develops a contemporary musical expression with the “New Dresden Vocal School”. This work has led to invitations from the RIAS Chamber Choir, the SWR Vocal Ensemble, singers of the Dresden State Opera Choir and the choir of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. Instrumental partners in concerts are the Dresdner Barockorchester, the Elblandphilharmonie Sachsen, the Ensemble Junge Musik Berlin and the ensemble Moto Perpetuo New York. Concert tours have taken him to almost all European countries as well as Taiwan, China and the USA.

The Dresdner Kammerchor is one of the leading German choirs. Since its foundation in 1985 by Hans-Christoph Rademann, it has become an institution in German and European musical life. Its work focuses on Dresden and Saxon Baroque music, the choral symphonies of classical and romantic music, sophisticated a cappella literature of the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as the study of new and newest vocal music.

www.olafkatzer.com

Premil Petrovic

Premil Petrović

Conductor

Premil Petrović is founder, chief conductor and artistic director of the No Borders Orchestra. He studied conducting under Professor Winfried Müller at the Academy of Music Hanns Eisler in Berlin. He was awarded the Heinrich Böll scholarship as well as the prestigious scholarship “Musik Theater Heute” of the Akademie der Deutschen Bank, which enabled him to attend interpretation courses held by the leading conductors of today.

In 1996 Premil founded the music theatre in Cinema REX – one of Belgrade’s most important, politically active venues during the 1990s. Premil is one of the leading personalities in the music industry of his native Serbia. He lives in Berlin, conducts various international symphony orchestras such as the Auckland Philarmonia Orchestra, Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra or the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra – Teatro Colón.

Premil’s repertoire includes historical interpretations of old music, classical-romantic operas and symphonic works as well as numerous world premieres of contemporary music. He was awarded the Hanns-Eisler-Award in Berlin for composition and interpretation of contemporary music. He maintains a special relationship with the music of Isidora Žebeljan, one of the most famous Serbian contemporary composers. He has conducted premieres of her operas at the Bregenz Festival in Austria, Settimana Musicale – Summer Festival in Siena, Italy and at the Zagreb Music Biennale in Croatia. He has also recorded several releases of Žebeljan’s music.

Premil frequently directs experimental music theater, including Schoenberg’s “Pierrot Lunaire” at Berlin’s Hau 1, directed by Bruce Labruce. For Bruce’s film by the same title, Premil recorded a new interpretation of Schoenberg’s music. The film premiered at the Berlinale 2014 and won a Teddy Award. In 2014 he worked with director Brett Bailey on the new postcolonial production of Verdi/Cassol`s opera “Macbeth” in Cape Town, South Africa.

In 2015 the first recording of the No Borders Orchestra, conducted by Premil Petrović, was released by Deutsche Grammophon.

www.premilpetrovic.com

High resolution photos available here.

Matthias Worm

Viola

Matthias Worm, born in Berlin, and received his first violin lessons at the age of 8 years. From 1979 to 1985, he studied viola at the Berlin Academy of Music Hanns Eisler under Erich Krüger and Alfred Lipka. Since 1985 he is solo violist of the Robert Schumann Philharmonic Chemnitz. He has performed premieres of the viola concertos by Viktor Bruns and Volkmar Leimert, is a member of the Robert Schumann Quartet, founding member of the Dresdner Sinfoniker and member of the Festival Orchestra in Bayreuth.

In addition to countless appearances in Germany, concert tours have also taken Matthias Worms to Japan, the Czech Republic, Russia and Thailand. Numerous radio and CD recordings, including the 2004 recording of the original version of the string quartets by Robert Schumann for Sony, testify to his extensive work.

High resolution photos available here.

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Araik Bartikian

Duduk

Araïk Bartikian was born in 1962 in Gavar, Armenia. His grandfather, Ousta Haïrik, was a master from the Sevan area, an accomplished player on the duduk, the sering and the clarinet. At the age of 16, Bartikjan was introduced to renowned Duduk master Djivan Gasparian. who recognized his talent and encouraged him, paving the way for a long apprentiship that was to continue for years.

In 1982, Bartikian began studying at the Komitas Conservatory in Erevan under Ghazaros Sarian and Katachadour Avédissian. He completed his classical training there in 1987, winning a prize with his performance for harp and duduk. He has subsequently won several competitions, among them the first prize in the International Competition for Traditional Music & Dance in Kiev (1991) and the Sayat Nova Music Competition in Yerevan (1987).

In 1991 he began working with the famous Armenian composer Awet Terterjan, who engaged him as a Duduk and Zurna soloist for various performances of his Third Symphony. Araik Bartikian is today one of the most sought-after Duduk and Zurnasolisten from Armenia. He has worked with such conductors as Mourad Annamamedov, John Carewe, Michael Helmrath, Hans Leenders, Diego Masson, Pierre Dominique Ponnelle, Pascal Rophé, Alexander Slatowski, Volodymyr Sirenko and many others.

High resolution photos available here.

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Marc Sinan

Guitarist

Marc Sinan is a composer and guitarist with German-Turkish-Armenian roots. In his early youth, he studied with Eliot Fisk and Joaquin Clerch at Mozarteum Salzburg, later on at the New England Conservatory in Boston. In 2003 he completed the Master Class at the University of Music Nürnberg/Augsburg where he was also assisting Frank Halasz as teacher of one of Europe’s most successful guitar classes. As a composer he is self-taught.

His compositions have been performed at renowned festivals such as Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Istanbul Festival, Enjoy Jazz, MaerzMusik Festival at the Berliner Festspiele; at HELLERAU – European Center for the Arts Dresden, GORKI theatre Berlin and Vienna concert house. His pieces toured to different places in Europe, Central Asia and North America and have been broadcasted on the French-German TV channel ARTE as well as numerous radio stations. In 2012, Marc Sinan was awarded an artist-in-residence scholarship by the German Foreign Office for the recently opened Tarabya Cultural Academy in Istanbul and in 2016 he received a fellowship as visiting professor at Whitman College in Washington State, USA.

In addition to international solo appearances and chamber music projects with artists and partners as diverse as the Sonar Quartet, Julia Hülsmann Trio, Jörg Widmann, the Turkish percussionist Burhan Öcal and the Iranian Kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor, Kazakh Zhirau player Ulzhan Baybussinova, Czech violnist and vocalist Iva Bittová, vocalist David Moss, clarinettist Oguz Büyükberber, visual artists Damian and Delaine Le Bas, composer and conductor Andrea Molino; Marc Sinan has also performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Dresdner Sinfoniker and the No Borders Orchestra.

With his own ensemble, the Marc Sinan Company, he has since gone on to produce highly acclaimed projects within a contemporary, intercultural and multimedia context. His project HASRETIM – Journey to Anatolia, a commission by HELLERAU – European Center for the arts Dresden, premiered in October 2010. It was awarded the “Welthorizont” prize by the German UNESCO Commission and was released on the renowned label ECM.

In 2014 he composed and directed the music theater DEDE KORKUT for HELLERAU and the Berlin GORKI Theater in co-production with the Dresden Symphony Orchestra, which toured from the Elbe to the Bosporus receiving critical acclaim.
In 2015 he created the musical theratre KOMITAS, dedicated to commemorating the Armenian genocide. Commissioned by the Tonspuren Festival at Kloster Irsee, it was also presented at Berlin’s Maxim Gorki theatre. In November 2015, the chamber music version of KOMITAS toured in Armenia and Turkey. At the end of November 2015, the German-Turkish-Armenian concert project [aghet] [ağıt] celebrated its world premiere in the Berlin Radialsystem V.

In 2016 Marc Sinan produced the two radio plays OKSUS and TEPEGÖZ, based on his two stage performances. In 2017 he presented the world premiere of his staged concert I EXIST – to Rajasthan featuring musicians from diverse European countries and India with and without Romani-roots.

Marc Sinan currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

www.marcsinan.com

High resolution photos available here.

Helmut Oehring

Composer

Helmut Oehring, born 1961 in East-Berlin, is a self-taught guitarist and composer. Between 1992 and 1994 he was a master-class student of Georg Katzer at the AdK Berlin. In 1994/95 he was a fellowship holder at the Villa Massimo in Rome. He won the Hindemith Prize in 1997 and the Arnold-Schönberg Prize for his complete works in 2008. In 2011 his autobiography Mit anderen Augen. Vom Kind gehörloser Eltern zum Komponisten (Through different eyes. From being the child of deaf parents to becoming a composer) was published and turned into a radio play by SWR in 2015. He is a member of the Academy of the Arts Berlin and the Saxon Academy of Arts. In 2015 he received the German Music Author’s Prize in the category music theatre.

His recent works include vocAngel. Vokalise eines untröstlichen Engels for soprano, electric guitar and orchestra (which premiered in April 2016 at the Tonhalle, Düsseldorf, feat. Marisol Montalvo, Daniel Göritz and the Düsseldorf Symphonic Orchestra), Songs of Comfort and Despair (which premiered in April 2016 at the Opera Copenhagen, feat. Lore Lixenberg and Trio ZOOM) and the monodrama AGOTA? Die Analphabetin with Dagmar Manzel, Marena Whitcher, Nico van Wersch, Lukas Rutzen and the Ensemble Modern (which premiered in May 2016 at the Hessische Staatstheater, Wiesbaden; musical direction: Peter Rundel; sound design: Torsten Ottersberg; direction: Ingo Kerkhof).

www.helmutoehring.de

High resolution photos available here.