Category: musicians festival 4

Vibraphone

Vandeweyer, born 1982 in Belgium, studied classical percussion in Antwerp and jazz vibraphone in Brussels and Oslo. She lives in Berlin.
The vibraphonist is a composer-performer, soloist and ensemble player for improvised and contemporary music and is extraordinarily inventive and adaptable in her playing. She has participated in numerous festivals and collaborates with renowned improvisation artists. She performs regularly internationally and in her current adopted city of Berlin, where she, among other performances, presented her work Landscape, in which a 25-metre-long piece of fabric serves as a mobile graphic score.
http://www.elsvandeweyer.com

Photo: Viola Förster.- v. d. Lühe

Violin, Electronics

Wachsmann was born in 1944 in Kampala, Uganda. He studied with Isolde Menges, Nadia Boulanger, Henri Pousseur, Pierre Boulez and at the universities of Durham and Indiana, USA. He lives in London.
Vortex London acknowledges Philipp Wachsmann as one of the best violinists in improvised music. His developments of new sounds for violin and electronics are unique and have influenced many other composer-performers. He performs with most of the representatives of contemporary improvised music worldwide. Releases of over 100 LPs/CDs, including those on ECM. He also collaborates with film, dance and architecture.
http://www.philippwachsmann.com/
https://www.beadrecords.com/

Photo: Rosetti Focus

Trombone

Tramontana, born in Rosolini in Sicily in 1960, studied at the Conservatorio Alfredo Casella in L’Aquila. He lives in Munich.
Tramontana is one of the most outstanding trombonists of free improvised music in Europe. He is a member of formations such as the Italian Instabile Orchestra and has worked with George Lewis, Joëlle Léandre, Paul Lovens, Carlos ‘Zingaro’ Alves, Mario Schiano, Paul Rutherford, Stefano Maltese, Vladimir Tarsov, Barre Philips, George Graewe, Eugenio Colombo, Ninh le quan, Mark Dresser, Irene Schweitzer and the choreographer Iztok Kovač, among others. He performs internationally, often in Japan, Canada and the USA.

https://www.mq18kunstplatz.org/sebitramontana
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebi_Tramontana

Photo: Cristina Marx

Soprano, sopranino and alto saxophone

Born in 1952 in Turku, Finland, Sjöström studied at Lone Mountain College and the San Francisco Art Institute and he took workshops with John Cage, George Russell, Bill Dixon, Leo Wright and Steve Lacy. He lives in Berlin.
From 1978 he worked with Derek Bailey, Teppo Hauta-aho, Paul Lovens, John Russell, Paul Rutherford, among others. From 1990 to 2016 he worked closely with Cecil Taylor. Sjöström has founded numerous ensembles for contemporary improvised music, including Quintet Moderne, Sestetto Internazionale, MOVE Quintet and he is the initiator and artistic director of the concert and festival series SoundScapes.
http://www.harrisjostrom.com

Photo: Rossetti-PHOCUS

Cello

Rodrigues, born 1988 in Lisbon, studied cello and music theory at the Conservatório Nacional de Música in Lisbon. He lives in Berlin.
He is an improviser, sound researcher and composer; he has worked with many renowned musicians, composers and dancers, from contemporary classical to free improvisation. He is musical director of the Hosek Contemporary Art Gallery, ensemble member of the Reanimation Orchestra, both Berlin. Concert activity and workshops, performances/workshops mainly in Europe and Asia and he has released more than fifty albums of his own projects so far.
https://www.guilhermerodrigues.net/

Photo: Christian Hadulla

Piano, Keyboards

Mureddu, born in Milan in 1975, studied at the Conservatorio G. Verdi in Milan and at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He lives in Helsinki.
Mureddu is a pianist, composer and music technologist. He combines elements of improvised music, algorithms and artificial intelligence to create conditions of performativity to enable the unexpected. He regularly performs with other mutsicians of contemporary and improvised music, including Ensemble Septad, Chamber Music from Mars. He teaches free and electroacoustic improvisation at the Sibelius Academy.
https://www.liberomureddu.com/

Photo: Rossetti-Phocus

Drums

Louhivuori, born in 1981 in Jyväskylä, Finland, studied at the Jyväskylä Conservatory and composition with Jukkis Uotila at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He lives in Helsinki.
Louhivuori plays with many well-known musicians and ensembles worldwide, including the Tomasz Stanko Quintet, the UMO Jazz Orchestra, Piirpauke; he has performed with Lee Konitz, Anthony Braxton, Marilyn Crispell and Susanne Abbuehl, among others. In 2000, 2002, 2006 he was a winner at ‘Young Nordic Jazz Groups’ with the Joona-Toivanen-Trio, the Ilmiliekki-Quartet, the Sun-Trio.
https://www.olavilouhivuori.com/

Photo: Tero Ahonen

Accordion, Microtone Accordion

Kujala, born in 1976 in Alahärmä, Finland, studied music with a focus on composition at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where he completed his doctorate in 2010. He lives in Helsinki.
Kujala has received many awards both as a composer and as a performer of contemporary music. He is a co-developer of the quarter-tone accordion. Since the beginning of his career as an accordionist, he has performed internationally as a soloist, in small ensembles and in orchestras. He is head of the accordion class at the Sibelius Academy. Frequent performances as a soloist, with contemporary musicians, in renowned orchestras.
https://velikujala.com/

Photo: Cristina Marx

Synthesizer

Kosack, born in 1983, grew up in the US state of Maine, studied jazz piano at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey. She lives in New York and Berlin.
She favours open collaborative improvisation concepts and multimedia performance formats. In 2019, she received the Jazz Prize of the SWR. She plays in many ensembles, including The Liz and Spoiler, and she is co-founder of the collective KIM. She usually performs with homemade masks.
https://www.zardkom.com/

Photo: Frank Schindelbeck

Flute

Schweizer was born in 1994 and grew up in Tuscany. She studied flute with Mauro Rossi at the Mascagni Conservatory in Livorno and with Mikael Helasvuos at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. She lives in Helsinki.
The flutist collaborates in various real-time music ensembles with innovative interpreters of contemporary and improvised music, including Septad, Earth Ears, E.C.I.O., and as a soloist and ensemble member in orchestras such as the Helsinki Chamber and Turku Philharmonic Orchestras. She is a lecturer at the International School of Music in Helsinki.
https://liviaschweizer.com/

Photo: Tuomas Tenkanen