"Axel Lindner (born 1980 in Mönchengladbach, Germany) is a German violinist.He commenced Jazz - Violin studies in 2004 at the Hogeschool voor de kunsten in Arnhem.Since 2006 he has continued his studies at the Hochschule für Musik zu Kölnwith Michael Gustorff.

He played in Superstrings, Sunship String Quartet, Scott Fields String Feartet, Scott Fields Ensemble, Multiple Joy[ce] Orchestra, Hot Club de Cologne, Norbert Steins Pata-Ensemble and also with Jens Düppe, Frank Köllges, Roman Podeszwa, Maciej Sledziecki, Hannah Köpf among others.

Presently, Axel Lindner teaches the violin at the Offene Jazz Haus Schule (Cologne) and the English language Rheindahlen Music Centre (Mönchengladbach)."

"Carolin Pook is a German born violinist, composer, improviser, conductor & drummer from Brooklyn/New York. She creates and conducts music that is tailored to the featured performers and part improvised, part written, while melting those in a seamless way into one composition. The press has described her compositions as postmodern sound architecture with an almost magical intensity, her violin playing ranging from brazen abundance to sensitive sparsity.

Her great grandfather Waldemar von Bausznern was a known post romantic composer descended from Transylvanian Saxons, and her father, pianist Rainer Pook, has been Herbert van Karajan's assistant at the Deutsche Oper Berlin for many years. Pook, who grew up in a classical music and operatic environment, picked up the violin at age 6, the piano and drums at age 12. She wrote a 2 hour long musical at age 18 while at the same time intensely studying scores of Arnold Schönberg, Mahler and Debussy. Between 2000 and 2006, while studying jazz violin and drums as a double major at the Conservatory in Cologne/Germany, her close collaborations with mentor and collegue Werner Dickel -professor for viola at the conservatory and founding member of the Ensemble Modern- has strengthened her focus on contemporary music performance and extended techniques, premiering and recording numerous chamber music works by composers such as Thomas Beimel, Dietrich Eichmann or York Höller. Since graduating in 2006 and in the same year being awarded several scholarships to study and live in New York, she has been commissioned to write for the Deutsche Radiophilharmonie and Roy Hargrove quintet, for free Jazz saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and an 8-piece percussion ensemble, and she continues to write a new program for her 3-year old Brooklyn based chamber workshop ensemble -THE POOKESTRA- several times a year."

"Annegret Mayer-Lindenberg grew up in Hamburg, Germany. She received her first violin lessons at the age of seven, however switched to the viola shortly thereafter. Following graduation from highschool, Annegret M.-L. studied to become a violin maker - a trade which took her to the Netherlands, where she worked for several renowned violin makers. From 2003 to 2009 she studied music/viola at the Fontys Konservatorium Tilburg (Netherlands), studying with Gisella Bergman and later Garth Knox. After being awarded both a bachelor's and a master's degree from Tilburg, Annegret M.-L. completed her studies with a year at the Konservatorium Gent (Belgium), following the post-master course "contemporary chamber music".

Annegret Mayer-Lindenberg has participated in several courses and festivals, including the Darmstädter Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, Impuls Festival Graz, Klangspuren Schwaz, Ensembleakademie Freiburg and the Warsaw Autumn. In addition she has followed master classes with Nobuko Imai, Ervin Schiffer, Barbara Maurer and Dimitrios Polisoidis.

Annegret Mayer-Lindenberg is an exceptionally active ensemble and chamber music player and performer, her focus being contemporary music and the collaboration with composers. Since September 2010 she is a member of the Ensemble Garage (Cologne, Germany). She plays both viola and viola d'amore.

Since 2019 Annegret Mayer-Lindenberg also creates her own music: she has realized several compositions and also developed music in theatrical contexts in collaboration with other artists. She is currently studying composition with Prof. Johannes Schöllhorn at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg.

Besides being a viola player, Annegret Mayer-Lindenberg runs, together with Benjamin Grießhaber, the violin making workshop Grießhaber & Mayer-Lindenberg Geigenbau GbR in Cologne (Germany)."

"Cello studies with Katharina Troe (Cologne University of Music and Dance), Klaus-Dieter Brandt (Musica Antiqua Cologne), Juris Teichmanis (Freiburg Baroque Orchestra)

- Master's degree in musicology, philosophy and German studies in Freiburg, Florence and Cologne (funded by the German National Academic Foundation)

-Dissertation on the Italian composer Luigi Nono (1924-1990) on the socio-philosophical interpretation of his music and the connection between music and power, 2016 at the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Weimar.

- Guest lecturer at the Alanus University for Art and Society in the summer semester 2017 in the Department of Sociology of Music.

- Numerous music projects in the field of experimental music, global improvisation, new music and music theater

- active concert activities in Germany, Italy and France, as well as La Réunion and Madagascar; CD productions

- Cello teacher in Cologne and at the Freie Waldorfschule Oberberg. Also worked in the administration of the Rochus music school in Cologne

- Publication of scientific texts on music-philosophical topics and new music."

"Born in 1959 in Amarillo, Texas (USA). University music studies 1976-1981 in Texas (Univ. of Texas/Austin, 76-79, North Texas State/Denton, 80-81) and in Paris, France 79-80). 1980-83 active with the free improvisation quartet BL Lacerta as Artist-in-Residence in Dallas with support from the Texas Commission on the Arts, Chamber Music America, the Atlantic-Richfield Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts (his "Masters in Improvisation"). The collaboration with artists of widely divergent media forms has ever since been a significant aspect of his activities as a cellist, teacher, improviser and composer for over 30 years.

German resident since 1983 in Stuttgart und Essen. Further composition studies, teacher in a "youth music school" in Gladbeck 1985-1988. 1987-89 full-time cellist in the Dortmund Philharmonic, on a project basis until 1998. In the 1990s, active with the Wolpe Trio (Essen), Musikfabrik NRW (Düsseldorf), ensemble avance (Stuttgart), the trombonist/ composer Mike Svoboda, the organist/composer Gary Verkade (and their improvisation ensemble Synthese), extensive private cello teaching and the beginning of school projects in contemporary music and group improvisation (especially in the "Response" program in the Frankfurt area until 2004 and thereafter in Essen). Worked with dancers Dyane Neiman and Robert Solomon.

From about 2000, active in Ensemble >gelberklang< and Helios String Quartet (both in Stuttgart), in the ensembles of Mike Svoboda and the American composer/guitarist Scott Fields (Cologne), concerts and film music with Michael Riessler, several collaborations with the French dancer-choreographer Christine Brunel in Essen and the Polish painter Agata Schubert. Guest with Ensemble Modern Orchestra (Frankfurt), ensemble recherche (Freiburg) and willing collaborator in many improvisation- and composition-based projects of all kinds.

Starting in 2010 with his move back to Stuttgart, increased emphasis on composition and solo work with cello/electronics, collaborations as musician/actor with the choreographer Nina Kurzeja ("Tattoo") and TART Produktions ("Napoleon Raskolnikow im Schnee"), both in Stuttgart. In 2011 he began a very fruitful collaboration with the spoken-word poet Timo Brunke leading to "Der Übergang des Abendlandes", commissioned and produced by the Theaterhaus Stuttgart. In 2012 he played in a trio project with the South African jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim and Cleave Guyton (woodwinds, NY). Release of Blind Date Quartet CD with A. Sheridan (flutes), U. Stortz (violin), SR (cello) and J. Hollenbeck (drums/percussion).

Represented as a cellist, improviser and composer on labels such as Wergo (Frankfurt), cybele (Dusseldorf), Kairos (Vienna), free elephant records (Wuppertal), New World Records (New York), clean feed (Lisbon) und GPE records/Timezone.

In 2005, co-founded Open_Music e.V. (Stuttgart), a non-profit organization for improvisation and artistic education which has been awarded numerous grants and prizes from national, state and local agencies and foundations. Open_Music, which has carried out more than 70 projects in the past 7 years with children, youth and young adults from a wide spectrum of social backgrounds, was part of the so-called Southern Network, an initiative of the National Cultural Foundation for innovative performance and education projects in the Stuttgart region from 2008-2011. As of 2012, Open_Music has been granted institutional funding by the City of Stuttgart in addition to significant funding from state resources and private foundations."

"Jonas Gerigk is a double bass player who is active as a composer/performer in the fields of improvised music.In addition, he collaborates in projects of contemporary composers and is involved in the realization of their works.Currently he lives and works in Cologne and Pohrsdorf (Tharandt).

After his bachelor studies at the HfM Dresden and NMH Oslo he studied in the master program at the HfMT Köln.

A main focus of his work deals with the term Explorative Music. He is doing intensive research on the expansion of the sound spectrum of the acoustic double bass. With a physical as well as technical approach and the use of objects he explores the variety of timbres of his instrument. His solo album Sound Plantings (IMPAKT Records) is a snapshot of this work in the field of individualized vocabulary through playing techniques.

Jonas is a member of numerous ensembles, works on long-term band projects and collaborates regularly with dancers and painters in interdisciplinary projects.

In his band projects he works with friends on Improvised Music with its different gradients of pre-organized structures and so called "free" music.The Trio Vließ is a Working Band which uses concepts and playing approaches to create a common dynamic flow. To get there it uses lots of rehearsals.The Ensemble EXOTHERM works without agreements, prepared mindsets or rehearsals.The music of the Quartett OKOTON is based on his own written material and compositions.

He was part of the team organizing the radio shows HEIMklang (Dresden) and SnapShot (Cologne), in which free improvisations of changing groups were broadcasted live in the studio. Between October 2020 and February 2021 he organized the concert series RAUMKLANG - Explorative Music at the Atelier KunstRaum Dorissa Lem in Cologne.

He is an active member of the collective IMPAKT - Improvisation und aktuelle Musik Köln."

"Miles Perkin (b. 1980) A unique voice on the Double Bass, his captivating solo sets juxtapose his clear singing voice against the wild overtones and deep resonances projecting from his bass. He uses a unique combination of conventional, extended and invented techniques along with unconventional tools and re-amping to extract a vast palate of sounds from his bass. Following up on his 2019 quartet release ::The Point In Question:: on Clean Feed Records with Tom Arthurs, Benoit Delbecq and Jim Black, his recently completed solo album ::Subtones:: was released in 2020.

Based in Berlin since 2010, he is an active collaborator on the international music scene, working with musicians such as Michael Attias, Kris Davis, Benoit Delbecq, Johanna Borchert, Simon Jermyn, Jim Black, Jacobien Vlasman, Achim Kaufmann, Craig Taborn, Tobias Delius, Ralph Alessi, Eve Risser, Maciej Obara, Yorgos Dimitriadis, Markus Pesonen, Magda Mayas, Samuel Rohrer, Peter Van Huffel, Kim Myhr and many others. He is also a music maker for Theatre productions in Germany, composing and performing his works live on stage at major theatres such as: Deutsches Theater Berlin, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Theater Bremen, Kammerspiele Munich, Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin, Schaubühne Berlin, and Staatstheater Dresden. [...]"

"Tal Botvinik is a guitarist based in Cologne, Germany. He graduated his masters in classical guitar, contemporary music and chamber music at the renowned Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln. He is an active soloist and chamber musician. Tal is a founding member of the Cologne Guitar Quartet, an ensemble based in Cologne, Germany.

Tal began his guitar studies at the age of 11. He graduated from the Jerusalem Academy High School for Music and Dance, followed by his Bachelor music studies at the Jerusalem music academy, studying in the class of Ruben Seroussi. Tal graduated his Master of Music degree, studying with world famous guitarist Roberto Aussel in Cologne, Germany . He graduated his second Master studies in contemporary music, in the class of Prof. David Smeyers, followed by a chamber music masters together with the Cologne Guitar Quartet.

Over the years, Tal has won several national and international guitar competitions. He has played with several orchestras and ensembles, including the Jerusalem Symphonic orchestra, Ensemble Musikfabrik, MAM.manufaktur für aktuelle music, the Israeli contemporary players. He has been awarded with several scholarships such as "American-Israel Culture Foundation" and Alfred Toepfer "Concerto-Music Stipendium". In 2016 he participated in the renowned Darmstadt contemporary music course in the class of Yaron Deutsch. He has taken part in many master classes with well-known guitarists such as David Russell, Pavel Steidl, Zoran Dukic, Alvaro Pierri, Hubert Käppel and Scott Tennant."

"Sergio Sorrentino is "one of the most important contemporary italian guitarists" (RAI Radio Tre). As a performer he promotes the classical guitar and electric guitar contemporary repertory.

As a composer and improviser his music is based on sonic research and combines elements of contemporary classical music, minimalism, avant-garde, ambient, experimental.

His CD Dream - American Music for Electric Guitar (Mode Records) contains works for electric guitar by John Cage, David Lang, Jack Vees, Elliott Sharp, Alvin Curran (a new piece especially written for this CD), Morton Feldman (world premiere recording on physical CD of "The Possibility of a New Work for Electric Guitar"), Christian Wolff (complete works for solo electric guitar and the world premiere of "Going West"), Larry Polansky, Van Stiefel. Dream was reviewed and highlighted in the New York Times by Seth Colter Walls as one of the "Week's Best Classical Music Moments".

He plays with the great Gavin Bryars as a member of the Gavin Bryars Italian Ensemble.

He studied with Francesco Langone, Angelo Gilardino, Mario Dell'Ara, Leo Brouwer, Mark White (Berklee College of Music Summer Course) and composition with Marco Di Bari. In 2010 he obtained the Academic Guitar Diploma with Honors at the Novara Conservatory, with a thesis on Italian avant-garde guitar music. Sorrentino started his international concert career very early and has held solo concerts and master classes in many important festivals and venues (Yale University, Sprague Hall in New Haven, Spectrum in New York, Festival de Música Contemporánea de La Habana in Casa de Las Américas, Cuba, Italian Cultural Institute of Paris, Sala Biala of the Wilanow Museum (Warsaw, Poland), International Guitar Research Conference/University of Surrey (UK), Vortex in London, Performance Room of Luxembourg, Highscore Festival, Filharmonia Gorzowska Concert Hall, ON Cologne Neue Musik Festival, In Situ Art Society in Bonn, Spectrum in Berlin, Music Society of La Scala Theater of Milan, Goldoni Theater of Venice, Nuova Consonanza Festival in Rome, Lagonegro International Guitar Festival, Società del Quartetto of Vercelli, Auditorium Renzo Piano of L'Aquila, SpazioMusica Festival of Cagliari, Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte di Montepulciano, AngelicA Festival of Bologna, etc.). In 2012 he performed, with the Gorzow Philharmonic Orchestra, the Joaquin Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez" for guitar and orchestra with Cecilia Rodrigo, the composer's daughter, as a special guest).

He has worked with important composers and musicians like Sylvano Bussotti, Azio Corghi, Bruno Canino, Alda Caiello, John Russell, Machinefabriek, Steven Mackey, Andrzej

Bauer, Marco Angius, Giorgio Battistelli, Carlo Boccadoro, Mauro Bonifacio, I Solisti Aquilani. He plays in duo with the great contemporary music guitarist Magnus Andersson and with the vibraphone player Antonio Caggiano. He has debuted many new guitar solo compositions (in concert and on CD). Many composers including Alvin Curran, Mark Delpriora (Manhattan School of Music and Juilliard), Mauro Montalbetti, Stefano Taglietti, Luca Lombardi, Tom Armstrong (University of Surrey, UK) have written special pieces just for him.

Van Stiefel (West Chester University) composed especially for Sorrentino "Bound", a Concerto for electric guitar and orchestra.

As a sound artist he has made performances and sound installations at MACRO, Palazzo Merulana, Mercati di Traiano (Rome), Art Site Fest (Turin) and he has made performances for Baldo Diodato exhibitions and Gillo Dorfles exhibition (Palazzo Reale, Milan).

Sorrentino has recorded for Mode Records, Rai Trade, Creative Sources, Silta Records, Carish, Curci, Sinfonica, Aton Records, Fratto9, Setola di Maiale. He released CDs based on contemporary classical guitar music (Tempus Fugit, pieces by Maderna, Corghi, McKenna Lee, Cifariello Ciardi and others), New Music for electric guitar (Music from a parallel world, pieces by Taglietti, Corghi, Montalbetti, Canino, De Rossi Re, Franco), impro and electronic projects (among others Vignettes with Machinefabriek). Sorrentino also released the Sylvano Bussotti Complete Music for Solo Guitar, including the World Premiere of Popolaresca, an unedited manuscript by Bussotti. As a composer, he has won the First Edition of the International Competition of Guitar Composition "Goffredo Petrassi" of the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, with the piece "De Citharae Natura" for solo guitar.

Casa Ricordi and Universal have published his transcriptions for classical and electric guitar of the Azio Corghi's compositions "Tang' Jok(Guitar)" and "De Nocturno Visu".

He teaches master class in contemporary classical and electric music for the Viotti Institute in Vercelli."

"Has toured as soloist and with many different groups in Europe, the USA, Japan and the Middle East. In 2000 David released critics´ acclaimed CD the guitar on swedish label Häpna and has since then released bow on Kning-Disk (2006) and Separator on Found You Recordings (2009). Also plays with LabField (w/ Ingar Zach), SEVAL, Les Sons Du Nuage, Lina Nyberg Band and the New Songs (w/ Sofia Jernberg a.o) and has participated as musician and made music for many different theatre- and dance pieces. Through the years he has played with, among many others: Evan Parker, Barry Guy, Lina Nyberg, Sofia Jernberg, Rhodri Davies, Paul Lovens, Axel Dörner, Sten Sandell, Thurston Moore, Mazen Kerbaj, Christine Abdelnour, Ken Vandermark, Paal Nilssen-Love, Cecilia Persson, Jim O' Rourke, Tatsuya Nakatani."

"Fascinated by the endless abundance of aesthetics and challenges, the focus of Daniel's work lies in the field of contemporary music. This led him, with his ensembles, hand werk and Das Neue Ensemble, for instance, to several concerts in major festivals such as Acht Brücken - Musik für Köln, Zagreb Biennale and Wittener Tagen für Neue Kammermusik.

He studied flute in the conservatories of Cologne and Freiburg with Hans Martin Mueller and Prof. Robert Aitken. In 2006/2007, he was a member of the International Ensemble Modern Academy, where he received his master's degree in the performing of contemporary music.

Dedicated to both, the contemporary as well as the classical repertoire he is seen as a guest musician with, among others, the Düsseldorf Philharmonic Orchestra and Ensemble musikFabrik as well as with his various chamber music groups.

As a lecturer, he has given workshops at Harvard University, Folkwang University Essen, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music Singapur and others."

"The fascinating similarities and differences between medieval and modern sounds are the main focus of Norbert Rodenkirchen, Cologne based flautist of the early music ensembles Sequentia, Dialogos and Candens Lilium. He is also known for his flute solo programs reimagining the lost art of medieval instrumental improvisation."

"Frank Gratkowski, saxophone. Born in Hamburg, 1963.

Started playing the saxophone at 16 and, following a period at the Hamburg Conservatory (Hamburger Musikhochschule), moved in 1985 to study at the Cologne Conservatory of Music with Heiner Wiberny, graduating in 1990.

Further studies with Charlie Mariano, Sal Nistico and Steve Lacy.

Frank Gratkowski has been working as a soloist in various international formations (Grubenklang Orchester, Klaus Koenig Orchester, Musikfabrik NRW, Tony Oxley Celebration Orchestra, Bentje Braam, BikBentBraam, All Ears, Zeitkratzer, WDR Big band, etc.). Since 1990 he has been giving solo performances throughout Europe, Canada and USA. With his first solo program, he was a 1991 prizewinner in the Musik Kreativ contest. The release of the solo CD "Artikulationen" followed the same year and a new one "Artikulationen II" in 2002.

Since 1992 he has been working in a duo with the pianist Georg Graewe (CD "VicissEtudes"). The duo is often extended through the participation of different additional musicians, such as drummer Paul Lovens (CD "Quicksand") and bassist John Lindberg (CD "Arrears").

In 1995 he founded the "Frank Gratkowski Trio" with Dieter Manderscheid (Germany), bass, and Gerry Hemingway (USA), drums, (CDs "Gestalten" and "The Flume Factor" ). In 2000 the trio has been extended to a quartet by Dutch trombonist Wolter Wierbos (CDs "Kollaps", "Spectral Reflections", "Facio" and "Le Vent et la Gorge"). Since 2003 also appearing as a Double Quartet plus Tobias Delius, Herb Robertson, Wilbert DeJoode and Michael Vatcher. In 2005 he got the SWR Jazzprize.

In 1999 the duo with the Italian trombonist Sebastiano Tramontana has been formed and since 2001 Frank Gratkowski has been performing with a trio including Wilbert De Jode (NL) on bass and Achim Kaufmann (D) on piano (CDs "Kwast" and "Unearth"). Since 2006 he's working with the Trio Gratkowski / Brown / Winant (CDs "Wake" and "Vermilion Traces/Donaueschingen 2009"). He is also a co-leader / composer of the Multiple Joy[ce] Orchestra and got a commission to compose for the ensemble Apartment House by "November Music " (Den Bosch NL) and the "Huddersfield Comtemporary Music Fesitival" (England) in 2009. Further actual projects are Fo[u]r Alto, a saxophone ensemble dedicated to microtonal music and "Artikulationen E" a solo program for saxophone with 8 channel live electronic.

Frank Gratkowski played on nearly every German and on numerous international Jazz and contemporary music Festivals including Vancouver, Toronto, Chicago, New York, Seattle, Quebec, Les Mans, Muelhuus, Groeningen, Nickelsdorf, Barcelona, Lithuania, Warsaw, Zagreb, Prague, Bratislava, Sofia, Bucharest, Odessa and Roma, Huddersfield, London.

He has been teaching saxophone and ensembles at the Cologne, Berlin and Arnhem Conservatory of Music and is giving workshops all around the world.

Furthermore he has performed with Robert Dick, Phil Wachsmann, Radu Malfatti, Herb Robertson, Marcio Mattos, Eugenio Colombo, Peter Kowald, Ray Anderson, Michael Moore, Ken Vandermark, Greg Osby, Kenny Wheeler, Louis Sclavis, John Betsch, Jane Ira Bloom, Connie and Hannes Bauer, Xu Fengxia, James Newton, Muhal Richard Abrams, John Lindberg, Michael Formaneck, Ernst Reijseger, Fred van Hove, Theo Jörgensmann, Phil Minton, Peter Brötzmann, Mark Dresser, Mark Feldman, Hamid Drake, Michiel Braam, Han Bennink, Mal Waldron, Misha Mengelberg a.m.o."

"Saxophonist Salim Javaid was born in 1991 to a half Czech half Pakistani family in Sokolov (CZ). While in elementary school, he started to play the recorder for a couple of years before switching to the alto saxophone, and sticking to it ever since.

He worked in large ensembles and big bands as well as in small combos and as a solo artist. His award winning trio "Malstrom" (winner of the 7th European Burghausen Jazz Contest 2015) combines the density and energy of nu metal, rock and metal with the improvisational concepts and aesthetics of jazz and free improvisation. His playing is defined by microtonal concepts, extended technique and saxophone preparations.

Salim Javaid has worked with German jazz stars such as composer and saxophonist Niels Klein, Hayden Chisholm, Frank Gratkowski or world class pianist Florian Weber."

"Matthias Schubert (born April 18, 1960 in Kassel ) is a German jazz musician (tenor saxophone, oboe and composition).

Schubert had oboe lessons as a teenager. The saxophonists Allan Praskin and Melvin Phillips introduced him to jazz. He studied from 1979 to 1983 at the University of Music and Performing Arts Hamburg with Andy Scherrer, Herb Geller and Walter Norris. He played for a long time in the Euro Jazz Band, the Graham Collier Band and the Marty Cook Group, but also with the groups of Albert Mangelsdorff, Manfred Bründl and others.

He played in the quartet with Simon Nabatov, Lindsey Horner and Tom Rainey during the 1990s. He forms a trio with Carl Ludwig Hübsch and Wolter Wierbos. He has founded the James Choice Orchestra with Hübsch, Frank Gratkowski and Norbert Stein. He also played with Karl Berger, Klaus King, Kathrin Lemke, Jeanne Lee, Joachim Ullrich, Andreas Willers, Xu Fengxia, Scott Fields, Uwe Oberg,Uli Böttcher and Alois Kott. In 2001 he was appointed as a lecturer at the University of Music, Drama and Media Hanover."

"Udo Moll (* 1966 in Kirchheim unter Teck) is a German jazzmusician and improviser (trumpet, melodica, cello, electronics).

Moll played first in the Jugendblaskapelle of the music association Uhingen. After his civilian service, he studied empirical cultural sciences at the University of TŸbingen. In 1992, he studied trumpet and composition at the Cologne University of Music with Manfred Schoof and Johannes Fritsch. Moll worked with Guildo Horn , Hella von Sinnen , Frank Kšllges , Matthias Schubert , Nils Wogram , Gerry Hemingway or Moritz Eggert. He contributed to the realization of the dance performance Spirales with Eleonora However and Gorm Neergard. He also founded the international septet Novotnik 44 , winner of the 2nd prize at the International Jazz Festival in Getxo / Spain and finalist at the International Jazz Competition of the Leverkusen Jazztage. He founded La Banda Metafisica together with Nicolao Valiensi. He plays with Sebastian Gramss and Matthias Muche in improvisation project Das moll's law , which has also worked with John Tilbury , Elliott Sharp , the Institute for Fine Motor Dynamics or Sidsel Endresen. He is also a member of the SchŠl Sick Brass Band and the James Choice Orchestra."

"Matthias Muche (D) trombone, born in 1972 lives in Cologne and works as musician and media artist. He studied trombone at the Amsterdam School of the Arts, in Rotterdam and at the "Hochschule für Musik" in Cologne with Bart van Lier, Henning Berg and Paulo Alvares and also audiovisual media with Anthony Moore at the academy of media arts cologne. Muche works in several formations, e.g. with the James Choice Orchestra, Das Mollsche Gesetz, Nils Klein Tentett, Schäl Sick Brass Band and with Mischa Mengelberg, Larry Ochs and Robyn Schulkowsky, having concert tours through Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

As media artist, Muche combines contemporary music with new media in his audiovisual works. his latest works were presented in bern, paris and during the Art Cologne. Together with Sven Hahne he has been Artistic Director of the FRISCHZELLE festival for Intermedial Performance since 2004. Furthermore he is founder member of ZEITKUNST, which is an association for the advancement and conveyance of audiovisual art."

"The direction was clear from early on. From the age of four, I played euphonium - like my father; at seven I gave my first public performance; later, I started piano as well; and at twelve I finally decided in favour of tuba."

"But exactly how far one can go with this apparently unwieldy instrument only became clear to Melvyn Poore (born 1951) while he was studying. His experiences as "music director" of the "Birmingham Arts Laboratory" contributed to the realisation that there is a life as tubist beyond the humdrum of the orchestra. "Even as a student, I preferred to play pieces that weren't written for tuba at all."

Poore's first experiments in the "Arts Lab" with tape and electronics led him on to a new passion: the experimental interaction of acoustic instruments and technology, which for him now has the same priority as purely acoustic experiments involving the sound possibilities of the tuba. Poore has passed on his experience in the capacities of interpreter, composer and also lecturer: he was "Research Assistant" at the Salford College of Technology (1989-1991), a guest at the Zentrum für Kunst- und Medientechnologie (Centre for Art and Media Technology) in Karlsruhe from 1992-1994 (where he developed his concept 'METAinstrument'), and 1993-95 "Visiting Professor for Electro-Acoustic Music" at the Royal College of Music in London.

Since 1995 he is a permanent member of Ensemble Musikfabrik and dedicates himself to the creation of the pedagogical department of the ensemble."

"Shiau-Shiuan Hung is a Taiwanese percussionist specialised in contemporary music. She is deeply interested in the sound worlds of contemporary percussion and performs on a wide variety of instruments in various settings - ranging from traditional percussion instruments, body percussion to the usage of electronics and music theatre - constantly working to expand the sound possibilites of modern percussion.

Shiau-Shiuan performs as a soloist, ensemble musician, in various chamber music settings, as an improviser and with her own group Trio Abstrakt.

Shiau-Shiuan mainly performs complex contemporary music with a focus on sound and has worked closely with distinguished and established composers such as Marco Momi, Franck Bedrossian, Isabel Mundry, Michael Edwards, Peter Ablinger and Mark Andre and is currently working with composer Pierluigi Billone towards the premiere of the new solo work "Mani. Materia" at the NOW! Festival 2023 at the Philharmonie Essen.

In her solo improvisations and concepts, Shiau-Shiuan creates a complex rhythmical structures, fluctuating and multilayered textures and a myriad of (pseudo-electronic) sounds while concentrating on a very limited percussion setup featuring a frame drum, cymbals, mallets and objects.

Following her bachelor studies at the Chiayi University in Taiwan, Shiau-Shiuan studied her masters degree at the Folkwang University of Arts Essen, followed by a masters degree in Contemporary Music at the Folkwang UdK Essen with Prof. Günter Steinke, Prof. Michael Pattmann and Prof. Barbara Maurer.

Shiau-Shiuan is scholarship holder of the the InSzene program of the German Music council (interpreter's scholarship for contemporary music) and has performed at a number of important contemporary music festivals and institutions including Ruhrtriennale, NOW! Festival Essen, IMPULS Graz, Mozartfest Würzburg, aDevantgarde Festival München, ZKM Karlsruhe, Darmstädter Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, Weaving the Future (a project with Schlagquartett Köln), IAMIC conference 2022, Stadtgarten Köln, Stockhausen-Kurse Kürten & Deutschlandfunk."

"Arturo Portugal holds a Bachelor of Arts in Classical Percussion from the University UNESP in São Paulo in 2012, a Master in Solo Percussion (2016) and a Master in Interpretation of New Music (2019) from the University of Music and Dance (HfMT ) successfully completed in Cologne.

Between 2014 and 2018 he was a permanent member of the Ensemble 20/21 and the Ensemble Studio Musikfabrik. In addition, he has regularly worked with renowned ensembles and conductors over the past four years, including the Ensemble Musikfabrik, hand werk and the European Workshop for Contemporary Music as well as Pablo Heras-Casado and Enno Poppe. His musical activity at major festivals for new music (e.g. Warsaw Autumn, Darmstadt Summer Courses) has taken him to various countries such as Switzerland, Croatia, Poland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Thailand, the Philippines and the USA.

Currently he takes an active part in orchestral, chamber music concerts, new music concerts and educational projects. He also teaches drums in Cologne."

"Tamara Lukasheva is considered one of the outstanding voices of German jazz way beyond her generation. Her exceptionally agile power of expression that she has been polishing for about 15 years leaves deep impressions, not only on jazz audiences. Lukasheva's independent music moves within a field of tension between strong melodies, East-European influences, dynamic improvisation and expressiveness.

Her quartet's debut album, Patchwork Of Time, was highly praised by media and audiences alike. BR Klassik adjudged it to be "One of the highlights of composer Tamara Lukasheva, who brings her splendid vocal temperament and the complexity of her music into an enthralling flow." And Jazzthetik wrote: "Tamara's voice is versatile, vitally alive, full of surprises and technically at the highest level." In 2014 Lukasheva's quartet was awarded the Junge Deutsche Jazzpreis Osnabrück [Young German Jazz Prize Osnabruck]. In the following year the band won the 2nd prize at the Keep an Eye Jazz Awards in Amsterdam and in 2017 received the Neue Deutsche Jazz Preis [New German Jazz Prize] in both categories (ensemble and soloist).

The vivid-distinctive air of Lukasheva's singing and her sometimes subtly playful music are rooted in her personal history. Before moving form Odessa to Cologne in 2010, she celebrated considerable success on stages in her former homeland. Born in 1988 as the daughter of professional musicians (the mother a classical pianist, the father a jazz-saxophonist), she started her career at the age of 16. As a classically trained pianist and as a jazz-singer, she worked with renowned Ukrainian artists such as jazz-legend Yuriy Kuznetcov. She was a soloist in the big band of Odessa, had a duo with the pianist Roksana Smirnova and played at festivals in Kiev, Moscow, Rostov and Sevastopol.

Right upon arriving in Cologne, Lukasheva started playing with her quartet, which has subsisted unchanged in this line-up since. The new album Homebridge mesmerizes with a wide musical range, ingenious ideas and intensity. "I had a specific character in mind for the pieces and therefore notated the compositions more precisely in advance," Lukasheva describes the development. Beside the intricacy of her voice, the playfulness and the tonal colors of her musicians become more clearly perceptible now. "The new pieces also reflect my different musical influences much more," Lukasheva states. Among them are childhood memories of musical and pop music from soviet times, of strong melodies and particular phrasing, specially emphasized words and political subtext. Later classical music and folk came into her life and then the extensive studies of jazz.

Lukasheva placed great importance on a close connection of music and lyrics in the songs on Homebridge. The melancholy that wafts around some lines and melodies much less reflects her personal sentiment, but rather the story that it tells. Like in Asja Klimanova's profound poetry, which Lukasheva set to music in three of her pieces. The contrasty opening piece of the album, Night and the Moon, fascinates with its boosts of energy, offensive vocal upsurges and dynamic twists and turns. Alte Häuser [Old Houses] and Awakening incite with their catchy rhythmic phrasing. The cheerfully bouncing Where Are You Going, Yanichku serves as a stepping-stone for scats and a far-reaching piano solo. Just as this piece, Marisija is also based on a Ukrainian folk song. Powerful ballads like Homebridge or The Moon Is Clear - the latter composed by the late Yuriy Kuznetcov - get under one's skin with their quiet notes and restrained, sometimes almost whispering vocals.

Apart from her own quartet, Tamara Lukasheva has been working with trumpeter Matthias Schriefl since she arrived in Cologne, and has enhanced the ensembles East Drive and Eurasians Unity as well as the WDR Big Band with her expressive singing. The title of the new album, Homebridge, is not alluding to homesickness, Lukasheva says. In fact, she travels to her old home frequently to visit family and play concerts. Lukasheva rather sees Homebridge as "a bridge between the place where you are and the place where you come from. Home isn't the beginning or end of the bridge, but the bridge itself is home."

Deliberately living with two cultures is just as essential to Tamara Lukasheva as the musical diversity that she and her band impressively demonstrate on Homebridge. The Tamara Lukasheva Quartet presents modern European vocal jazz with unmistakably distinct character."

"Hanna Schörken, born 23 of July 1985 in Duisburg, Germany. In 2005 she moved to Köln, in order to study comparative literary studies at the University of Bonn. At this time she began writing her own poems and soon she had readings in several cafés and institutions. While concentrating on publishing, writing and reading her poems she started to experiment with her voice. Her readings became more and more voice performances. She decided to study Jazz Singing and moved to the Netherlands in 2008, where she was accapted at the ArtEZ Conservatory / Institute of the Arts. She studied and attended workshops with: Silvia Droste, Romy Camerun, Fay Claassen, Florian Weber, Markus Stockhausen etc. She sings and performs in several projects of jazz and free improvised music as well as interdisciplinary projects in the field of dance, literature and music."

""Tassignon's singing is quite versatile ... she exhibits horn-like melodic and rhythmic dexterity, while at other times her voice wanders through a labyrinthine maze of amorphous syllabic abstractions."

This individuality, described here by Wilbur MacKenzie of All About Jazz, is what gives Belgian, Berlin-based vocalist Sophie Tassignon such a unique place in the world of modern jazz and creative music.

Over the past 20 years Sophie Tassignon has been composing and performing music with various projects ranging from jazz and avant-garde to electroacoustic music. She has released 10 CDs on a variety of record labels, including Clean Feed Records, A-jazz, Alone Blue Records, visionofsound, RareNoise and Jazzwerkstatt.

Her debut album Moon Talk, released in 2006 on Alone Blue Records, featuring her group ZOSHIA and eleven of her own compositions, was funded by the cultural department of the French Community of Belgium.

Sophie's second CD Hufflignon, a collaborative project with Canadian saxophonist Peter Van Huffel, and with New York bassist Michael Bates and Swiss trombonist Samuel Blaser, was released in 2008 on the renowned Portuguese label, Clean Feed Records - hailed by All About Jazz NY as one of the five most important jazz labels today. Hufflignon received critical acclaim by such publications as France's Jazz Magazine in which the CD was listed as a CD d'émoi - one of their most prestigious monthly mentions.

Additionally, and in follow-up to the success of Hufflignon, Sophie and Peter Van Huffel formed a group consisting of musicians who have relocated to Berlin. British pianist Julie Sassoon and Canadian bassist Miles Perkin complete the new formation called HOUSE OF MIRRORS which recorded a full set of new music for their second collaborative recording, released on Jan. 31st, 2014 on Wismart records.

In 2009 Tassignon formed the electroacoustic duo CHARLOTTE AND MR. STONE with British artist Simon Vincent. The project involved the creation of sonic textures and compositions within a live context, gave numerous performances across Europe, and released two recordings on the British label visionofsound. In 2014 the duo performed at the SYNC.14, the International Festival of Electroacoustic Music in Ekaterinburg, Russia, and in 2017 presented a 6-part - 5-hour performance at Copenhagen's Techfestival, examining the concept of 'binary' and the unrealised emancipatory potential of technology.

Since 2011 Sophie Tassignon has been developing a solo-vocal project, centred around through-composed works offering the potential for improvisation within given structures. In 2017 Tassignon was invited to give an experimental electroacoustic solo performance at the opening of an exhibit by German visual artist Margareta Hesse at the communal gallery 'Historischer Keller' in Berlin. The performance involved the experimentation of the influence of sonic textures within an environment intended to limit the visual scope of the public, with the only visible feature being red lasers projected throughout a number of rooms. In 2015 Sophie Tassignon was invited to the Visby International Centre for Composers (VICC) in Sweden to develop new material for her debut solo album, Mysteries Unfold, which was released on in May 2020 on London's Label RareNoise Records and was highly received by the press.

Tassignon has also created music for and performed in a number of modern theatre productions by Polish director Elzbieta Bednarska, including Taghaus/Nachthaus 2009 (author: Olga Tokarczuk), Schneeweiß und Russenrot 2010 (author: Dorota Maslowska), Nacht 2011 (author: Andrzej Stasiuk), Stimmen Aus Tschernobyl 2017, 2018 (author: Svetlana Alexiejevich), Die Mauern Von Hebron 2018 (author: Andrzej Stasiuk), Unrast 2019 (author: Dorota Maslowska) in which Sophie's electroacoustic voice techniques are also highly exhibited. She is currently composing new material for Bednarska's next production based on the socialist era in the USSR depicted by authors as Svetlana Alexievich.

Since 2009, she has co-led the musical quartet AZOLIA with Songwriter/Saxophonist Susanne Folk. The group has released three CDs to date, given performances at numerous venues and festivals across Europe, and has toured twice through China under invitation of the German General Consulate of Chengdu with additional support from Initiative Musik. Their their third album Not About Heroes, which was generously supported by the Berlin Senate Administration for Culture and Europe, involves the works of British poet Wilfred Owen who died at the end of WW1. Tassignon and Folk composed music to ten poems by Wilfred Owen, which speak of the atrocities of war and its pointlessness. The album was released on January 30th, 2021 on Berlin Label Jazzwerkstatt.

Tassignon began her musical studies with classical piano at the age of four and furthered her musical development with percussion and singing. She graduated with a Master's Degree in Music from the Royal Conservatory in Brussels and participated in numerous workshops and masterclasses with renowned musicians such as David Linx, Sheila Jordan, Fee Claassen, and Tony Malaby amongst many others. In 2006 she participated in a three-week workshop in 'Jazz & Creative Music' at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Alberta, Canada under the direction of trumpeter/composer Dave Douglas.

Sophie Tassignon currently resides in Berlin, Germany where she works as a full time musician, composer and classical piano instructor."

"Scott Fields (born September 30, 1952 in Chicago, Illinois) is a guitarist, composer, and bandleader. He is best known for his attempts to blend music that is composed and music that is written and for his modular pieces (see 48 Motives, 96 Gestures and "OZZO"). He works primarily in avant-garde jazz, experimental music, and contemporary classical music.

Fields was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. He started as a self-taught rock musician but soon was influenced by the musicians of the Association for the Advancement for Creative Musicians (AACM), which was active in the Hyde Park neighborhood in which he grew up. Later he studied classical guitar, jazz guitar, music composition, and music theory. In 1973 Fields co-founded the avant-garde jazz trio Life Rhythms. When the group disbanded two years later, he played sporadically but soon was institutionalized for an extended period. He almost quit music until 1989.

Since then he has performed and composed actively. His ensembles and partnerships have included such musicians as Marilyn Crispell, Hamid Drake, John Hollenbeck, Joseph Jarman, Myra Melford, Jeff Parker, and Elliott Sharp."