contemporary music ensemble berlin

PULSES & PROTEINS, 13.12.2023, 8 pm, Theater im Delphi, Berlin

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PULSES & PROTEINS, 13.12.2023, 8 pm, Theater im Delphi, Berlin

Ensemble

LUX:NM contemporary music ensemble berlin

LUX:NM contemporary music ensemble berlin is an ensemble specializing in contemporary music that has made a name for itself through its authentic and energetic interpretations. The idea to form an ensemble made up of several soloists in 2010, with the intention of realizing self-created and versatile chamber music programs with a flexible group of instruments.

LUX:NM sees itself as an initiator and developer of new concepts in contemporary music. The members of the ensemble compose, improvise, interpret and curate, they develop their own dramaturgical concepts and scenic ideas. This artistic-creative aspect is at the heart of the collective idea. The intensive ensemble work makes extraordinary new projects possible, in which interdisciplinary projects as well as intercultural approaches naturally find their place. Thus, in addition to performing existing compositions, the musicians of the ensemble are particularly committed to initiating new works and formats and incorporating them into their repertoire.

As in-demand chamber musicians, who have also received awards at international competitions, the ensemble’s instrumentalists can regularly be found performing on major concert stages and as guests in contemporary music festivals, including Warsaw Autumn, World New Music Festival, MaerzMusik, Infektion! Festival for New Musical Theater, Festival de Música contemporánea Chile, Eight Bridges: Music for Cologne, Ultraschall Festival, GroundSwell, and Hear this now! Canada.

In compiling diverse programs, the ensemble places an emphasis on illuminating different thematic aspects of contemporary music, which include Fluxus reloaded (F)LUX:NM (in cooperation with the Berlin State Opera), HOME SWEET HOME – a staged concert project (IM FOKUS/LUX:NM Production), Aaron S. ( a multimedia opera by Sławomir Wojciechowski), Diary, Random and Pickles ( a music performance by Pierre Jodlowski), DARK LUX( an audio piece with music by Gordon Kampe), Epilog:Abriss (musik-theatricale Performance by    Andrej Koroliov), and Antigone Exp. N° 2 (an immersive musical performance with augmented reality after Tommaso Traetta).

In 2017, the album LUXUS was awarded the German Record Critic’s Award (Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik) and was placed on their List of the Best. In November 2018 their Second Album STRANDGUT was released and nominated again for the German Record Critic’s Award and for the International Classical Music Award (ICMA) 2020. In 2021 the album to the successful production DARK LUX was released in the radio play version in cooperation with DLF Cologne.

Accordion

Silke Lange

Silke Lange studied accordion at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. Topical and contemporary music form the main focus of her musical interests with innovative concert programs and genre-crossing projects. She works closely with composers, and countless world premieres have been a result of her initiative. Together with Ruth Velten, she manages the ensemble for contemporary music LUX:NM. For their debut album “LUXUS”, they were featured on the Quarterly Critics’ Choice by the German Record Critics. She performs around the world at notable festivals, such as Ultraschall Berlin, MaerzMusik, Warsaw Autumn, Festival de música contemporánea Santiago de Chile and Edmonton New Music. She can be heard on CD recordings by Wergo, DUX and GENUIN classics and was on radio broadcasts on Deutschlandradio and rbb, among others. She also appears as a musician and performer in theater productions (at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, the Berliner Festspiele, the Hamburg State Opera, the Staatstheater Mainz, the HAU and the Tehran Independent Theater, and with the artistic group “club real” and the Schauplatz International, among others) in addition to working as a curator and director of concert projects and series. Together with Florian Juncker, she plays in the DUO Lange Juncker (www.langejuncker.de) and with Sebastian Berweck and Martin Lorenz in the synthesizer trio Berweck//Lange//Lorenz.

 

Trombone

Florian Juncker

Florian Juncker is a freelance musician living in Berlin. His musical scope encompasses the most diverse genres of modern music: among these are experimental improvisation, contemporary compositions, free jazz and working with indie bands in the area of electro/minimal music. High on the list of Florian’s interests is his work with the ensemble LUX:NM, with which he won the 2017 German Record Critics’ Award for the ensemble’s debut album “LUXUS”. Other important and defining projects of his artistic career are the Hannes Zerbe Jazz Orchestra, the Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble, the “Daniel Brandt – eternal something” band project, the collaboration with saxophonist Joachim Gies in various instrumental groupings, and a duo with accordionist Silke Lange performing his own compositions. The Ensemble S.A.F.T., which places emphasis on working closely with composers as performers, is one of his more recent projects in which experimental playing concepts (for example game pieces) feature prominently. His duo with jazz trumpeter Nikolaus Neuer will soon be presenting its joint work for the first time on a CD. Florian has been invited to appear at numerous international festivals such as MaerzMusik, Ultraschall Berlin, the Lucerne Festival, Prague Spring, the Montreaux Jazz Festival, the North Sea Jazz Festival, the Haldern Pop Festival, the Glastonbury Festival, Sónar Barcelona and Musica Contemporea Santiago de Chile.

 

Saxophone

Ruth Velten

As a performer of modern works, Ruth Velten has earned an international reputation for herself with innovative programs. Her artistic flexibility and quest for that which is new characterize her work. Growing up in a musical family, Ruth Velten has always been fascinated by multifaceted musical styles and concepts which overlap genres. In her own work and choice of repertoire, she focuses primarily on music of the 20thand 21stcentury.

In order to encourage the creation of new works for saxophone, she collaborates closely with contemporary composers. A number of works have already come into existence in this way.

As an enthusiastic chamber musician, she has won first prize at national and international competitions, such as the Deutscher Musikwettbewerb (German Music Competition) and the International Music Competition for Contemporary Music in Krakow, Poland. As a guest soloist, she has performed at important venues, such as the Berliner Philharmonie, the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Gasteig in Munich, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, the Izumi Hall in Osaka, and the BASF Kultur, and with orchestras, such as the Sinfonieorchester Aachen or the Landessinfonieorchester Schleswig-Holstein.

 

In her stylistically diverse work, she realizes studio and concert projects with artists such as Nils Frahm, Ib Hausmann, members of Ensemble Modern, the trombonist Christian Lindberg and string players of the Bochumer Symphoniker and the Hamburg Symphoniker. Moreover, she can be heard around the world in different ensembles and projects at renowned festivals including Warsaw Autumn, the World New Music Festival, the Ultraschall Festival Berlin, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, the Festival de música contemporánea Santiago de Chile and the Festival de México. The Ensemble LUX:NM, which she helped found in 2010 and with which she won the 2017 German Record Critics’ Award, has become a particularly important aspect of her work.

 

Ruth Velten works with various orchestras such as Ensemble Modern, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz and the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserlautern under renowned conductors such as Péter Eötvös, Karlheinz Steffens, Sakari Oramo, Ingo Metzmacher, Markus Stenz and John Storgårds. As a teacher, Ruth Velten regularly gives master classes and shares her experience with young saxophone players and composers. Since 2018, she has taught at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar.

 

Besides her activities as a performer, she is also active as a curator, director and initiator of concert series and projects in the international music scene.

In 2013, she founded the concert series IM FOKUS for contemporary music in Berlin within which she realizes her own productions in this genre and commissions compositions. CD recordings have been released by GENUIN classics, Wergo, DUX and EM Medien, among others. Several of her concerts have been documented by broadcasters such as the BR, HR SWR, Deutschlandfunk, NDR, WDR and the rbb.

Trumpet

Rike Huy

Rike Huy is a trumpeter and composer and works in a variety of artistic fields.

She studied trumpet in Berlin, Paris and Hanover and has won several international music competitions. Rike Huy was a scholarship holder of the International Ensemble Modern Academy and has since worked primarily in the contemporary music scene, both as a soloist and in ensembles. She has also worked as a solo trumpeter in various orchestras and has been a permanent member of the Basel Sinfonietta since 2017.

Rike Huy studied with composer and director Heiner Goebbels and has composed for cinema, TV and streamers as well as a soundwalk and a TikTok opera. She has toured internationally with singer Peaches, collaborated with video artist Yael Bartana and was part of the latest performance/film work by Matthew Barney and Jonathan Bepler.

Since 2020, Rike Huy has been supported by Bayer Kultur as an artist of the stART academy.

Piano

Vitalii Kyianytsia

Vitalii Kyianytsia is a Ukrainian pianist and composer. He was born in Kiev where he began his musical training at the age of six. He studied piano and composition at the National Academy of Music (Kiev Conservatory). In 2017 he began his master’s degree in piano and contemporary music under Prof. Nicolas Hodges at the State University of Music and the Performing Arts Stuttgart. From 2017 to 2018 he was the pianist for the International Ensemble Modern Academy (Frankfurt am Main) and was artistically inspired by working with Ensemble Modern members. Vitaliy Kyianytsia has received awards at several international competitions including the 2016 Orleans International Piano Competition (Andre Boucourechiliey Prize), the 2016 Masterpiece Management Composition Competition (Cologne), the 2016 Transatlantyk Instant Composition Contest (Lodz, Poland), the ACC International Composition Competition (Gwangju, South Korea), the 2016 Lviv Composition Competition (Ukraine) and the 2009 Anton Rubinstein Competition for Performers (St. Petersburg, Russia). Vitaliy Kyianytsia is regularly invited to important festivals for contemporary music, for example the Lucerne Festival Alumni Ensemble and Academy (2016, 2017), the Acht Brücken Festival, the Dyagiley Festival (Perm, Russia), the 2017 Mixtur Festival (Barcelona), the 2015 Impuls Festival (Graz), and the 2014 Klangspuren Schwaz. He regularly takes part in Ukrainian festivals and concerts as a composer and a pianist. He is one of the founders of and pianist for the Sed Contra Ensemble in Kiev, Ukraine. In addition, he is a jazz pianist and performs as a soloist and with ensembles, whereby free jazz and experimental jazz are also part of his repertoire. Since 2019 he has been the pianist for the ensemble LUX:NM.

Piano

Neus Estarellas

The pianist Neus Estarellas, who grew up on Mallorca, is passionately dedicated to avant-garde and contemporary music, and especially to cross-border areas in which interdisciplinarity and multimedia art play a decisive role. They are characterised by flexibility, curiosity, energy, motivation and enthusiasm. Collaborations with unusual instruments such as the theremin or the toy piano characterise her work and repertoire, and she is also involved in performances and music theatre. For example, in scenic concerts directed by Heiner Goebbels, Isabelle Kranabetter and Patrick Schimanski, among others. She has performed as a guest with international ensembles such as Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Ascolta Stuttgart and Crossing Lines Barcelona. Solo concerts have taken place at Sampler Sèries Barcelona and Südseite Nachts Stuttgart. She has also taken part in performances, sound art, contemporary chamber music and music theatre, including at Futurum Berlin, Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik, Resonant Bodies New York, Fundació Miro Barcelona and Theaterhaus Stuttgart.

She has won various awards such as the Karlsruhe Competition for the Interpretation of Contemporary Music, the Premi Primer Palau in Barcelona and the DAAD Prize for Outstanding Achievement. Several recordings for radio (BR, Deutschlandfunk, Catalunya Radio, etc.) complement her artistic activities.

Neus holds a professorship at the Hanover University of Music, Theatre and Media, heads the class for contemporary music (piano) at the Nuremberg University of Music, and teaches at the Conservatori Superior de les Illes Balears (Mallorca).

 

Violoncello

Zoé Cartier

The French cellist Zoé Cartier is an exceptional phenomenon with her high musical sensitivity and her uncompromising search for artistic expression.
After successfully completing her solo studies at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin, she was engaged for two seasons as solo cellist at the Magdeburg Opera House. Since then, she has performed as a solo cellist and guest of various ensembles, including the European Union Chamber Orchestra, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Kammerakademie Potsdam, the Ensemble Resonanz and the soloist ensemble Kaleidoskop.
Her artistic openness and curiosity open up a wide range of opportunities for Zoé Cartier to collaborate with very different artists such as dancers and choreographers from “Sacha Waltz and guests”, the Staatsballett Berlin, Emmanuelle Huyn (in France, Japan and Brazil), Tino Segal (in Rotterdam and Düsseldorf) or with theatre directors Falk Richter (Schaubühne Berlin) and Ulrich Rasche (Sophiensäle Berlin).
In 2009, Zoé Cartier founded the ensemble BerlinChamberPlayers together with musician friends.
In addition to her musical duties as a cellist, she is also responsible for developing the artistic programme; she has already successfully staged the ensemble’s newly developed concert format “concert page blanche” twice at the Villa Elisabeth in Berlin. In April 2018, she performed with Polish artist Joanna Przybyla in the Szczecin Philharmonic Hall as part of her project “Sound as Architecture”.
She has been travelling in the contemporary music scene for many years and works with musicians from Ensemble Adapter, Zaffraan Ensemble, Ensemble United Berlin, K.N.M Berlin, Ensemble New Babylon, Vokalsolisten Stuttgart, Zeitgenössische Oper Berlin and increasingly with Ensemble LUX:NM.
Zoé Cartier has held a teaching position at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music for young talented children at the Bach-Gymnasium in Berlin since 2013.
Violoncello

Beate Altenburg

Beate Altenburg, born in Cologne, is the sub-principal cellist at the Staatstheater Nürnberg and a member of the Berlin ensemble for contemporary music LUX:NM. She spent several years in Spain where she was the solo cellist of the Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid. She completed her studies under Irene Güdel in Detmold, Christoph Richter at the Folkwang University of the Arts and under Colin Carr as a DAAD scholarship recipient at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She won awards at the André Navarra International Cello Competition and the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Conservatory Competition.

As a soloist, Beate Altenburg has performed with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid, the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, the Philharmonia Hungarica, the Orquestra Sinfônica de Porto Alegre, the Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra and the Berliner Sinfonie Orchester (now the Konzerthausorchester Berlin).

 

Her world premiere of Franz Xaver Neruda’s cello concertos with the Anhaltische Philharmonie in Dessau and Golo Berg was recorded by Deutschlandradio and released on CD by cpo. Deutschlandradio also broadcast her performance, the first in modern times, of Paul Wranitzky’s cello concerto, given with the Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Chamber Orchestra and Hartmut Haenchen. A portrait CD was produced by Arte Nova with works for solo cello; with the Breton Quartett she recorded string quartets by Rodolfo Halffter (Naxos). Together with the Australian pianist Cameron Roberts, she made a recording for Deutschlandradio of forgotten opera fantasies for cello and piano.

Sound Director

Martin Offik

Violin

Olga Holdorff

Born in Berlin, Olga Holdorff studied violin at the Berlin University of the Arts under Prof. Jan Tomes and Prof. Tomasz Tomaszewski and at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig under Prof. Mariana Sirbu and Prof. Lothar Strauß. She has played at the Komische Oper Berlin, Staatstheater Braunschweig and the Staatsoper Hannover, and with the Berliner Symphoniker and  the Brandenburg Symphonic Orchestra as well as in various chamber music formations with the Miranda Quartett, at the Infektion! Festival für Neues Musiktheater at the Staatsoper Berlin and with the Ensemble Modern Summer Academy on the island of Paxos, among others.

She worked for the Barenboim Said Foundation in Palestine and taught for several months for “El Sistema” in Venezuela sponsored by the Deutscher Musikrat and the Goethe Institut. She is the founder of the Berlin Music Ensemble, www.berlin-music-ensemble.com.

 

Percussion

Lukas Böhm

Lukas Böhm studied at the Hanns Eisler University of Music in Berlin and with the Berlin Philharmonic as a scholar of the Karajan Academy.

He has won international awards at the Concours International de Timbales in France and the Italy Percussion Competition. Along with his duo partner Ni Fan, he won first prize at the Universal Marimba Competition in Belgium in 2017 and first prize with two further special awards at the 19th OSAKA International Music Competition in Japan in 2018. Concert tours and guest professorships have taken him throughout Europe, to Asia, the USA, Canada and South America.

His achievements have been recognized with awards and scholarships from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben, the Oscar and Vera Ritter Foundation, the International Ensemble Modern Academy, the Manfred Vetter Foundation for Arts and Culture, the Richard Wagner Stipendienstiftung, the Marie-Luise Imbusch Foundation and the Internationale Musikakademie zur Förderung musikalisch Hochbegabte in Deutschland.

The RITTER prize for “exceptional achievement in the field of interpretation” was awarded to him in 2015, and numerous radio/television broadcasts (on the ARD, ZDF, ARTE, NDR, BR and RBB channels) and CD recordings document his creative output.

In the winter semester of 2018, Lukas Böhm began his tenure as professor at the University of Music and Dance in Cologne (Wuppertal). A further appointment followed in the summer semester of 2019 at the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music in Dresden.

As a scholarship holder of Live Music Now Berlin, and in collaboration with the Berlin Philharmonic, he is involved in numerous music outreach projects in social institutions. In his role as official endorser, he is supplied by Yamaha and Sabian Cymbals.
In addition to close chamber music partnerships with Alexej Gerassimez and Li Biao, he is a regular guest with orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester.

Concerts

Projects

2020

Cherries – Ten Years Jubilee

digitalLUX

2020

ANTIGONE Exp. N° 2

an immersive music theatre based on Tommaso Traetta

A co-production of LUX:NM and Cie.AGORA

2020

Witch’n’Monk, LUX:NM & Jim Black

2020

Epilog:Abriss

LUX:NM | Andrej Koroliov | Heinrich Horwitz | Rosa Wernecke

2019 ff.

#Landpartie

LUX:NM on the Road

2019

BREAKING THE WALL

A scenic concert for ensemble and objects

2019

LUX & LEDs

2018

Dark Lux

Audio piece by Gordon Kampe

2018/15

How Six Men Got on in the World

Staged concert for 2 actors, children’s choir and ensemble

 

 

2017

Geisterhaus/ Haunted House

Installation of the re-invention of the past

 

 

 

2016/2018

Diary, Random and Pickles

Musical theatre by Pierre Jodlowsky

 

 

2016

Kap Hoorn

A staged concert installation by Koikate/LUX:NM/Kampe

2016/17

Aaron S

A multimedia opera by LUX:NM/ Aaron S Collective (Warsaw)

 

 

2015

Home Sweet Home

A staged concert project

 

 

2015

Böse Büchse

A project by Club Real and LUX:NM with children

2015

(F)LUX:NM – fluxus reloaded

Concert Performance for 5 Performers and Musicians
Fluxus Performances of Ken Friedman, Yoko Ono, S.D. Sauerbier and more

Discography

CD

Ensemble LUX:NM, Jan Brauer

DARK LUX

Works by Gordon Kampe, LUX:NM & Jan Brauer and Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa

Gordon Kampe, Composer/ LUX:NM, Composer/ Jan Brauer, Composer/
Sarah Trilsch, Author

released June, 04 2021 at GENUIN classics 

 

CD

LUX:NM

STRANDGUT

Werke von Gordon Kampe, Yair Klartag, Philipp Mainz, Birke Bertelsmeier und Vassos Nicolaou – Weltersteinspielungen

erschienen bei GENUIN classics 2018

 

CD

LUX:NM

LUXUS

Werke von Paul Frick, Gordon Kampe, Steingrímur Rohloff, Maximilian Marcoll und Sarah Nemtsov

Label: GENUIN classics 2016

Das Debütalbum LUXUS des Ensemble LUX:NM wurde vom Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik ausgezeichnet

CD

Steffen Krebber

neolithic brass

Deutscher Musikrat, edition zeitgenössische Musik

Wergo 2016

CD

Johannes Kreidler

musik mit musik

Deutscher Musikrat, edition zeitgenössische musik

Label: Wergo 2015

 

Demo-CD

LUX:NM

contemporary music ensemble berlin

Werke von Johannes Kreidler, Gordon Kampe, Héctor Moro und Pierre Jodlowski

aufgenommen in: Traumtonstudios Berlin, 2013

 

CD

Agnieszka Stulginska

Chamber Works

Chamber Works

Label: DUX  (2013)

 

Contact

LUX:NM contemporary music ensemble berlin
mail(at)luxnewmusic.de

 

Artistic Directors:
Silke Lange, mobile: +49-(0)179-1344738
Ruth Velten, mobile: +49-(0)178-7998150

 

Management:
Regina Stöberl, mobile: +49-(0)160-96514436
stoeberl@luxnewmusic.de

 

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