Mark Andre, born in Paris in 1964, creates musical-existential experiences for the listener characterised by subtle, minutely worked-out processes of transformation. Central to his work is the question of disappearance, which shapes his approach to sound, form, and subject. The practicing Protestant is a sensitive explorer of sound, both in his delicate and concentrated chamber works as well as in his orchestral and music theatre pieces.

After his studies in France, including those at the Paris Conservatory with Claude Ballif and Gérard Grisey, Mark Andre found a new musical home in Germany. He describes his encounter with the music of Helmut Lachenmann, whose piano concerto score Ausklang he happened to stumble across, as having been a revelation. He subsequently went through extensive composition studies with Lachenmann in Stuttgart and studied musical electronics with André Richard at the experimental studio of Southwest German Radio, in the meantime shifting the focus of his life from France to Germany. Here, he soon received grants and prizes, such as the Kranichsteiner Music Prize at the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music (1996), first prize at the Stuttgart International Composers Competition (1997), and the composition prize from Frankfurt Opera (2001). Since 1998 he has taught regularly at the Darmstadt Summer Courses. In 2002 he received the Advancement Award from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, and in 2005 he travelled to Berlin as a participant of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Programme, where he has lived ever since.

Particular interest was aroused by the 2004 premiere of Mark Andre’s tripartite music theatre work …22, 13… at the Munich Biennale. This work’s title refers to a passage in the Apocalypse of St John. His orchestral triptych …auf…, which he completed in 2007, similarly references religious themes. Here, Mark Andre explored aspects of transition as relates to Christ’s Resurrection. Mark Andre has a soft spot for German prepositions, grammatical elements with the function of transition, as illustrated in numerous other work titles such as those of the chamber music works written between 2001 and 2005: …durch…, …zu…, …in…, and …als…. Mark Andre’s first opera, wunderzaichen, under Sylvain Cambreling’s baton, became a highlight of the 2013/14 Stuttgart Opera season and was reprised there in 2018 in a revised version.

One of Mark Andre’s most important works of the last decade is the clarinet concerto über written for Jörg Widmann and the SWR Symphony Orchestra, which won the Orchestral Prize at the Donaueschingen Festival. The violin concerto an was premiered in 2016 at the Acht Brücken festival in Cologne, followed by the work …hin…for harp and chamber orchestra in 2018. Another significant work of recent years is the Riss trilogy for ensemble, with individual parts written for the Ensemble Modern, the Ensemble Musikfabrik and the Ensemble intercontemporain. His work for organ iv15 himmelfahrt was performed for the first time in October 2018 in Munich in the version for electronic stop action, before being performed with mechanical stop action in Bad Frankenhausen in 2019. In 2018/19 he was also commissioned by the Berlin Scharoun Ensemble to write Drei Stücke für Ensemble, which were performed at the Berlin Philharmonie and the Elbphilharmonie. Also in 2019, iv 17 for soprano and piano was premiered at the Lucerne Festival. wohin, a work for harp and ensemble, was premiered by the Ensemble intercontemporain at the Philharmonie de Paris in 2021 and performed again at the Pierre Boulez Saal Berlin in 2022. At the Musikfest Berlin in 2021, the 40-minute double bass solo piece iv 18 “Sie fürchteten sich nämlich” was on the programme, which will soon also be released on CD. The world premiere, expertly performed by Frank Reinecke, was part of a two-part concert evening with Pierre-Laurent Aimard featuring five piano works by Mark Andre. In May 2022, the rwh cycle was heard with five Hanoverian choirs and the Ensemble Modern at the KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen and subsequently at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, followed by rwh2 with the Gaechinger Cantorey and the ensemble ascolta at the Musikfest Stuttgart.

Mark Andre started the current season with the premiere of his Sieben Stücke für Streichquartett by the Kuss Quartet at the Elbphilharmonie. At Rainy Days at the Philharmonie Luxembourg, Brad Lubman conducted the Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg in the world premiere of Vier Echographien for Orchestra. In February 2023, Ilya Gringolts and the RSO Vienna under Markus Poschner gave the Austrian premiere of the Violin Concerto an. The orchestral work Im Entschwinden was launched in March by the Orchestre de Paris under the baton of Klaus Mäkelä at the Musikverein Vienna, where Mark Andre will be featured as a focus artist in numerous concerts this season; the German premiere will follow at the Elbphilharmonie. Towards the end of the current season, Dasein 1 for ensemble and electronics will be premiered with the Ensemble intercontemporain at the IRCAM festival ManiFeste in the Philharmonie de Paris; the piece marks the beginning of a new ensemble triptych.

Mark Andre is a member of the Berlin Academy of the Arts, Saxon Academy of the Arts, and the Bavarian Academy of the Arts, and was honoured with the order of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2011. In 2012 he was a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin. He teaches composition at the Academy of Music in Dresden.

Over the past 20 years, the Armenian pianist and keyboarder Karen Asatrian has played a major role in shaping the diversity of Austria’s musical landscape with projects (such as Armenian Spirit) that span genres and cultures. He teaches at the Gustav Mahler Private University for Music in Klagenfurt and at the mdw’s Department of Popular Music in Vienna.

Austrian-Italian violinist Olivia De Prato, internationally recognized as a soloist and chamber musician, has been described as “flamboyant … convincing” (New York Times) and as an “enchanting violinist” (Messaggero Veneto, Italy). After moving to New York City, she quickly established herself as a passionate performer of contemporary and improvised music, going beyond the bounds of the traditional violin repertoire and performing regularly in Europe, South America, China, and the United States.
Her chamber music activities have included appearances at the Bang on a Can Marathon in New York City, the David Byrne Perspective Series at Carnegie Hall, the Lucerne Festival with Pierre Boulez, the Wien Modern Festival (Austria), the June in Buffalo Festival, the Ojai Festival with Steve Reich and Brad Lubman, the Darmstadt New Music Festival, and the Aldeburgh Festival in the UK.
Olivia is a member of the New York-based contemporary music ensembles Signal and Victoire, and she is the co-founder and first violinist of the Mivos String Quartet.
She has recorded on the New Amsterdam Records, Tzadik, Carrier, Sunnyside, Mode, Cantaloupe, and Porter Records labels.
In 2010 and 2011, she toured Europe and South Africa with Grammy Award-winner Esperanza Spalding as a violinist and violist in Spalding’s Chamber Music Society programme.
Olivia has been invited to give solo and chamber music master classes for young musicians and composers as a guest artist in Anchorage (USA), Medellin (Colombia), Vienna (Austria), and Hong Kong, as well as at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory (Singapore), Shanghai Conservatory, MIAM University (Turkey), the Manhattan School of Music, Brooklyn College, New York University, and the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City.
Olivia has collaborated closely with well-known composers such as Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Pierre Boulez, Anthony Braxton, Chaya Czernowin, Peter Eötvös, Beat Furrer, Michael Gordon, Annie Gosfield, Georg Friedrich Haas, Helmut Lachenmann, David Lang, Brad Lubman, Philippe Manoury, Benedict Mason, Meredith Monk, Krzysztof Penderecki, Hilda Peredes, Steve Reich, Todd Reynolds, Ned Rothenberg, Jorge Sanchez-Chiong, JG Thirwell, Julia Wolfe, Charles Wuorinen, and Evan Ziporyn.
Olivia De Prato grew up in Vienna, Austria and in Italy. She studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music.

www.oliviadeprato.com

In response to his first CD, entitled When Interpretation and Improvisation Get Together, Lord Yehudi Menuhin wrote: “David Dolan is giving new life to classical music.” As an international concert pianist, researcher, and teacher, Professor Dolan devotes his career in part to the revival of the lost art of classical improvisation and its various applications in performance. He has recorded and performed on four continents and integrated extemporization into many of his concerts. Professor Dolan heads the Centre for Creative Performance & Classical Improvisation at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, and he also teaches at the Yehudi Menuhin School. His series of master classes and workshops take place in centres of musical life all over the world.

Dietmar Flosdorf studied viola with Hatto Beyerle and Kim Kashkashian in Vienna and Munich, ultimately earning both a concert diploma and a master of arts degree from the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.
He has concertised worldwide as a member of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and as a freelance musician in collaboration with ensembles such as the German Chamber Philharmonic Bremen, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble Modern, and Klangforum Wien. He teaches in Vienna’s city music school system and at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.
As a music mediator, he founded the experimental dialogic music mediation program “Music to Touch” in 1989. He also oversaw the conception and implementation of the first music mediation projects for the orchestra Wiener Symphoniker and for the city-run opera house Theater an der Wien.
From 2003 to 2011, Flosdorf headed the musical mediation activities of the Wiener Symphoniker. This period also saw him win the “Junge Ohren Preis” in 2007 and the “IRIDA Achievement Award for Cultural Education in New Social Contexts” in 2009.
His research work has included the project “Artists in Creative Education” (co-funded by EU Culture 2007–13) as well as the inclusion project “You feel, I hear, we make music—a dialogue” involving hearing-impaired and hearing pupils under the aegis of the OeAD programme “Sparkling Science” (2012–14).
Flosdorf has also been involved in community projects together with schools, other educational institutions, and cultural institutions and initiatives such as the Bundesblindeninstitut (BBI [Federal Institute for the Blind]), the Institut für Gehörlosenbildung [Institute for Education of the Deaf], Vienna Mozart Year 2006, the 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, the Vienna Technical Museum, the Viennese refugee- and migrant-focused institution “Integrationshaus Wien”, various institutions run by Caritas, the youth training institution “Jugend am Werk”, the social assistance organisation “Wiener Hilfswerk”, homes for the aged, neighbourhood centres, and refugee shelters.
He also publishes and is active as a networker and advisory board member in various committees and programmes relating to music education.

Pianist Hsin-Huei Huang was born in Taipei, Taiwan in 1977 and began taking piano lessons at the age of five; later on, she also began playing the cello. In 1997, she came to Austria to study piano with Thomas Duis and Ayami Ikeba in Graz and with Hans Leygraf in Salzburg. While Hsin-Huei Huang has played a wide range of piano repertoire extending from compositions by Bach to contemporary music, she decided early on to specialise in the interpretation of contemporary piano repertoire, performing works by Wolfgang Rihm and Olivier Messiaen.
Composers including Beat Furrer, Bernhard Gander, Friedrich Cerha, and Bernhard Lang have worked closely with her in order to facilitate the best possible interpretations.
Hsin-Huei Huang has recorded compositions by Bernhard Gander and Beat Furrer for the KAIROS and the NEOS labels. She performs regularly as a soloist at internationally renowned concert halls and festivals with well-known ensembles such as the Arditti Quartet and Klangforum Wien. The development of interdisciplinary projects featuring selected piano compositions together with figures such as Claudia Doderer (creator of light installations) and Ferdinand Schmatz (poet, essayist) is likewise part of her work. She played in the music theatre work The Final Days: On the Eve by Christoph Marthaler in Vienna, Paris, and Berlin, and 2004 saw her awarded the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis of the Darmstädter Ferienkurse. On top of her artistic work, Hsin-Huei Huang seeks to arrange educational projects in order to spread awareness and knowledge of the contemporary piano repertoire.

Belgian violinist Eugenia Karni´s professional career began following her debut with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E-minor at the age of ten. Her first teacher was her father, a pupil of Yuri Bashmet. Two years later, her exceptional talent won her a place as a junior student in the class of N. Morozova at the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music, where she continued under the watchful eyes of her musician-parents. Following further studies at Brussels Conservatory in the class of Valery Oistrakh, a crucial moment in her development was meeting the legendary violin teacher Zakhar Bron. The next year saw her become Bron’s pupil at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, where she went on to obtain her diploma with the “highest distinction”. In the meantime, she had also been a resident of the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel under the French violinist and conductor Augustin Dumay. Seeking further inspiration, Eugenia decided to continue her studies in Cologne with Prof. Barnabás Kelemen and also attended master classes with Ida Kavafian, Lewis Kaplan, Viktor Tretjakov, Pierre Amoyal, and Krzysztof Wegrzyn. Eugenia has received multiple awards and prizes such as the Gold Medal at the International Hindemith Competition, she is a laureate of the Rodolfo Lipizer International Competition, and she won the N. Philippart Belgian Foundation Award as well as the Jeunes Musiciens competition. Alongside her activities as a soloist, Eugenia developed an extraordinary passion for the symphonic repertoire from a very early age. She held the position of first concertmistress at the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie from 2014 to 2019 and has since then has collaborated regularly as guest concertmistress with many outstanding orchestras such as the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, the WDR Funkhausorchester, the La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra, the Belgian National Orchestra, the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra, and many others. Eugenia served as first concertmistress of the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie in Konstanz from 2020 to 2021, and she was tapped to join the Bern Symphony Orchestra as its concertmistress in early 2022. Her artistic activities include a wide and varied range of musical interests. She has performed at numerous festivals including the Kronberg Festival, the Verbier Festival, and Interlaken Classics, and her broad repertoire ranges from baroque to the latest contemporary works. As an avid performer of music by Belgian and French postromantic composers and a dedicated chamber musician, Eugenia collaborates frequently with her mother Nina Ardashir, a multifaceted pianist of incredible depth, maturity, and creativity, as an expressive and versatile duo. Eugenia is constantly expanding her boundaries and experimenting with new styles. She receives invitations to perform as soloist and chamber musician all over Europe, Canada, Mexico, and Asia at important international venues including the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, De Doelen, and Cadogan Hall.

EXPERTISE
Systemic coaching
Triadic career counselling
Instrumental teaching experience
Project management in the cultural sector
Programme editing / proofreading

PROFESSIONAL CAREER

COACHING
Since 2006: Coach & trainer for musicians and creative professionals
Since 2012: Lecturer/guest lecturer/coach at the HfM “Hanns Eisler”, UdK Berlin, HM Freiburg, and MH Münster (on topics relating to musicians’ extracurricular professionalisation)
6/2016–1/2018: Research assistant at the HfM “Hanns Eisler” (in connection with a BCP-funded application coaching project)

CULTURAL MANAGEMENT
2006–2020: Freelance programme editor at the Berlin Philharmonic
6/2002–3/2006: Executive employee at KONZERT-DIREKTION ADLER, Berlin (responsible for event management as well as press and public relations)
5/2001–6/2002: Temporary projects
10/1999–4/2001: Assistant to the director of the NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg (now the Elbphilharmonie)
1/1998–11/1999: Editor-in-chief of the magazine NEW of the association NEW GENERATION, Hamburg (a non-profit association for active people over 50)

MUSIC
1990–1997: Freelance musician and instrumental teacher
10/1995–10/1996: Temporary post as a violinist in the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt (Oder)

TRAINING
2016–2017: Advanced training in triadic career counselling
2003–2004: Advanced training in systemic coaching at the BIF in Berlin; regular further training and supervision on various coaching topics
WS 1997–WS 1999/2000: Diploma, postgraduate programme in Cultural Management at the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre
SS 1986–WS 1993: Studies at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin (now UdK), major in violin

Ulla Pilz studied voice and composing at the MUK ‒ Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna.
Pilz works as a freelance presenter, singer, actress, author, director, music mediator, and host of music programs for the Austrian radio station Ö1. She has played roles at the Theater an der Wien and the Burgtheater as well as in productions of the Wiener Festwochen and in many other contexts. As a music mediator and presenter, she has collaborated with the Vienna Musikverein and the Wiener Konzerthaus, Jeunesse, the Brucknerhaus and the Bruckner Orchestra Linz, the festival Styriarte, the Vienna Philharmonic and Wiener Symphoniker, the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria, Ensemble Kontrapunkte, and others.
Ulla Pilz holds a “senior artist” position at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz.

Philipp Sageder – singer, vocal percussionist, and self-styled “sound scientist” – has mounted world tours with his “vocal groove project” Bauchklang and works internationally as a live and studio musician, as an arranger, and as a composer in a wide range of pop, jazz, and art projects (such as Klangwolke 2008).
He teaches voice in Vienna at the mdw’s Department of Popular Music.

Alongside his teaching activities at the mdw’s Department of Popular Music and at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (KUG), as part of which he covers areas from instrumental instruction to band coaching and from arranging to improvisation and solo playing in a number of styles, Horst-Michael Schaffer has also spent many years leading the renowned JBBG – Jazz Bigband Graz. In his artistic projects, he works together with a wide range of well-known artists from the pop, jazz, and classical music worlds.

Roland Schueler, born in Ried im Innkreis (Austria) in 1969, attended a music-focused secondary school in Linz followed by studies at the State Vocational School for Instrument Making in Mittenwald, after which he spent his journeyman years in Germany’s Allgäu region working with master violinmaker Konrad Stoll. Since 1999, Schueler—a member of the violin- and bowmakers’ group “Klanggestalten”—has maintained his own violinmaking studio in Vienna. He also studied violoncello in Vienna with Michael Dallinger and Andreas Lindenbaum, earning a degree in instrumental music education in 1998, and 2000 saw him participate in the “impuls” academy for contemporary music in Graz (Austria). He is a member of Trio EIS (together with violinist Ivana Pristasova and violist Petra Ackermann) as well as PHACE | CONTEMPORARY MUSIC.

Dance and music determined Hannelore Unfried’s artistic education in equal measure. Unfried graduated from the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with a Magister artium. She owes the solid basis of her dance training to Rosalia Chladek, the grande dame of Austrian expressive dance. Deeper access to the dance culture of France’s Ancien Régime was afforded her by the French specialists Françine Lancelot and Christine Bayle. The ensemble “HOF-DANTZER”, which Unfried founded in 1988, places its stylistic focus on the 18th and 19th centuries and facilitates fruitful exchange between artistic dance practice and dance research. Performances in Austria, France, Germany, England, and America have enchanted audiences. Together with Frank Perenboom, she created the programmes “Les Fêtes galantes” (2001) and “Le Triomphe des muses” (2002) for the Schloßfestspiele in Ludwigsburg. Hannelore Unfried is a leader in the field of Strauss-era ballroom practice: through her work, the Cotillon, the Kör, the Sir Roger, and L’Alliance have all found their way back into the ballroom by way of research, publications, courses, and performances. She has obtained invaluable enrichment through her collaboration with Dr. Patri Pugliese in Boston, USA. Hannelore Unfried teaches historical dance at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna as well as guitar at a music school. She also gives courses across Austria and Germany as well as in Switzerland, England, Russia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, and the USA.

Andrea von der Emde is a physiotherapist and dance pedagogue who also trains teachers of the Franklin Method. She has been working as a physiotherapist in the field of psychosomatics and orthopaedics since 1990 and as a dance pedagogue in the field of dance and bodywork for children and adults since 1993. She also gives further education seminars for dance and movement teachers and is a lecturer for applied anatomy and dance at the MUK – Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna and at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

www.lebendig.at

Thomas Wolf studied musicology and cognitive science at the University of Vienna and at the Central European University in Budapest. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Social Mind and Body Lab in Vienna. His research focuses on how people predict the actions of others and prepare and execute their own actions so as to be coordinated with respect to time. He thus studies cognitive mechanisms underlying interpersonal coordination that are essential to our social life in many day-to-day situations. A particularly suitable social microcosm in this respect is ensemble music-making, in which context he investigates the ability to coordinate with others.