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.