"Kunsu Shim is a composer and performance artist. His sound world is a melting pot of ideas from opposing forces such as chaos and order, chance and causality, striding forth and dwelling, sequence and interruption, smooth and rough, I and you (we). Shim understands his works to be a contemplation of form, and so without mysticism. His performances in the tradition of Fluxus seek to destroy the visible reality of things, and thus render them intangible.

Deeply influenced by his cooperation with German composer Gerhard Stäbler since the 1990s, their original concept of "PerformanceMusik" has led to many collaborative works. Together with Stäbler, he has developed countless interdisciplinary ideas such as Trialog with video artist Kyungwoo Chun in 2009/10 and CAGE 100 for Tonhalle Düsseldorf in 2012.

Shim and Stäbler directed EarPort, the centre for contemporary music in Duisburg, from 2000 to 2010. Since 2012, both composers have been organising performances at various museums in Düsseldorf as well as the concert series, Natürlich schön!, where traditional and new music meet at Düsseldorf's Schloss Benrath. Here, they have also established their annual Winter Academy for "PerformanceMusik".

In October 2015, EarPort was relaunched as a centre for experimental synergies between art forms. Interdisciplinary events have since included Frequenzen-Resonanzen with Schlosstheater Moers, Donnerhall at GROSSE Kunstausstellung NRW (Kunstpalast Düsseldorf) and IM GEGENÜBER, a collaboration with the Diocese of Würzburg.

The most significant commissions from Kunsu Shim have included ATEMWENDE - Stille for orchestra (2007), STEINSCHLAG·ZEIT (2008), numerous chamber and ensemble works, and the major a capella choral works, HIER·SEIN and HERE TO ME, both from 2012. In 2011, the Essen Philharmoniker commissioned AFTER A HUNDRED YEARS for soprano and orchestra. In Autumn of 2014, the Würzburg Philharmoniker successfully premiered AND HERE AGAIN - eine Perlenlandschaft supported by the Kunststiftung NRW. ZKM Karlsruhe followed with its premiere of UM ZU HÖREN for string orchestra. In June 2016, his WOLKEN.BLINDENSCHRIFT for soprano, vocal ensemble and orchestra received its premiere in Würzburg's Kiliansdom.

He has given numerous portrait concerts, readings and workshops throughout Europe, Australia, North and South America, the Middle and Far East. Recently he has been invited to premieres and performances of his work in Iceland, Norway, Korea, Japan, Portugal, the USA and South America.

The son of a Japanese migrant, Kunsu Shim was born on the 15th September, 1958 in Pusan, South Korea. The sea transported him as a teenager to the experience of wide open space, a characteristic foundation of his subsequent works. At only 18 years old, then again at 19, he became known as the first prize winner in a competition for young composers in Busan, along with the DongA Newspaper Prize (1982) and the JungAng Newspaper Prize (1983). He studied composition at the Yonsei University of Seoul (1979-1983). In 1985, Kunsu Shim came to Germany, where he studied in Stuttgart with Helmut Lachenmann. From 1989 to 1992, he studied in the Folkwang Hochschule with Nicolaus A. Huber, whose "simple but powerful language" electified him.

During this time, he developed a new stylistic direction, not least because of his interest in new music from the USA, along with visual art and literature. He found his true voice through his composition orchester in stereo mit fünf sinustönen (1990). He was recognised throughout the 1990s for his work, including the WDR Prize at Forum junger Komponisten (1992), as well as becoming artist-in-residence at Djerassi, California and Schreyahn in Germany. He belonged to the group of composers "Wandelweiser" from 1994-99, during which time he incorporated some fundamental aspects of his compositional style, such as stillness and simpicity. In 2003, Shim received the scholarship of Akademie der Künste, Berlin and the renowned Genko Uchida Fellowship Scholarship, which enabled a three month visit to Japan."

Janneke van Prooijen: concert violinist at Prisma String Trio, Atlantic Piano Trio, Lunapark.

"Jellantsje de Vries is one of the most versatile Dutch violinists of her generation. Her affinity with theatre, dance and visual arts has led to collaborations with several choreographers, directors and other artists, which resulted in many interesting and well received performances.

Besides theatre, Jellantsje is also an acclaimed chamber musician and soloist. She has performed solo and chamber works with the Asko|Schönberg Ensemble, Looptail, Insomnio and the Doelen Ensemble and worked with conductors such as Etienne Siebens, Arie van Beek, Bas Wiegers and Reinbert de Leeuw. Her background in new music has given her the opportunity to be part of many world premieres of composers based in the Netherlands: a.o. Klaas de Vries, Jan van de Putte, Kate Moore, Rob Zuidam, Christina Oorebeek and Louis Andriessen. Her love for new music, however, doesn't interfere with her affinity with - (and understanding of) - music of older periods and other genres.

After her graduation Jellantsje de Vries also started playing the viola. Since then several composers wrote pieces for her that involved playing both violin and viola.

In 2012 Jellantsje became a member of The Stolz Quartet, being part of several music theatre performances, such as A Love Unsung, composed by Rob Zuidam and directed by Kees Stolze, with the Belgian actor Johan Leysen, and Loud Shadows | Liquid Events, with music of Kate Moore, choreographed and danced by LeineRoebana, performed in a bubble made by the designer and founder of Plastique Fantastique, Marco Canevacci. Both of these performances were played multiple times during the Oerol Festival on Terschelling in 2015 and 2017.

With The Stolz Quartet she recorded two CD's with music by Ravel (Tombeau de Couperin, arranged by Rob Zuidam), Scriabin, Rob Zuidam, Klaas de Vries, Theo Verbey, Einar Torfi Einarsson and Kate Moore (Herz).

In 2014 Jellantsje played the violin concerto of Klaas de Vries in Guanajuato, Mexico, with the Orquesta Sinfónica de la Universidad de Guanajuato (OSUG), led by Bas Wiegers.

In 2017 Jellantsje took over the role of artistic director in The Stolz Quartet and organized a staged concert with music of Jan van de Putte and Klaas de Vries, performed with a choreography of Kenzo Kusuda and an animation film based on Japanese haikus, made by her own hand.

Jellantsje de Vries started playing the violin at the age of 6 with the Dutch violin teacher Coosje Wijzenbeek.

When she was 12 years old she was admitted to the Young Talent Class of the conservatory of Amsterdam. There she continued her studies with Lex Korff de Gidts and successfully graduated in 2010. In 2012 she finished her master's degree with the highest distinction at the same conservatory after studying with Vera Beths.

Jellantsje took masterclasses with Theo Olof and Gerhard Schulz (Alban Berg quartet). In 2005 she won 1st price during the regional Prinses Christina Concours. Several times she was the concertmaster in orchestral projects of the National Youth Orchestra (NJO) and the Conservatory Orchestra of Amsterdam and worked with conductors such as Thomas Klug, Lucas Vis, Bas Wiegers, Ludovic Morlot and Reinbert de Leeuw.

Her debut in music theatre was made during a production for children named The Porcelain Rabbit, directed by the famous playwright Ad de Bont and with music of the Turkish composer Evrim Demirel.

Jellantsje is playing a violin, made in 2005, by the Dutch violin maker Jan van der Elst."

Elisabeth Smalt is a Modern Classical living in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands. She is a member of The Barton Workshop, Musica ad Rhenum, Nepomuk Fortepiano Quintet, Oxalys, Trio Scordatura, and Zephyr Quartet.

"Katharina Gross studied at the Musikhochschule Lübeck with David Geringas, at the Musikhochschule Cologne with Frans Helmerson (Diploma 2003) and at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester with Ralph Kirshbaum (Diploma in Professional Performance 2005). She took part in masterclasses with Mstislaw Rostropovich, Martin Lovett, Harvey Shapiro, Karine Georgian and Philippe Muller. She is prizewinner of several international competitions. She was soloist with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Kiev, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Klausenburg, the Staatsorchester Kassel, the Symphonic Orchestra of Thüringen and with the Salzburg Chamber Soloists on tour to the USA (Kennedy Center/Washington DC, The Old Cabell Hall/Charlottesville, the American Theatre in Hampton, at "Abendmusik" in Lincoln, the Bethel Performing Arts Series a.o.).

Katharina Gross performed as a soloist and chamber musician at the Muziekgebouw aan ´t IJ, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Musikverein Vienna, Konzerthaus Vienna, the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Bodenseefestival, Nafplion Festival, Festivals Limone sul Garda and Caldonazzo, Cello Biënnale and Berio Festival Amsterdam, Europäische Wochen Passau and the Al Bustan Festival amongst others.

Since 2010 she is artistic director of the concert series concertello based in Austria. In 2014 Katharina Gross started the project cellomondo: composers from all around the globe and their students write pieces for cello solo. The first eight compositions of the project were premiered in November 2014 at the Institut für Elektronische Musik und Akustik in Graz."

"Arnold Marinissen about his work: 'For me, creating music is all about immersing. Warmth and pulse are words that come to mind when I try to describe my music. Voice and text are important; I like to follow the route that a text lays out for me, to deal with breath, diction, nuances of intonation, and I'm intrigued by the personality of each individual voice.'

With his background in percussion he also likes to write for this multi-coloured family of instruments. But he equally gladly dedicates himself to strings, winds and keyboards, electro-acoustic music and music for dance and film.

He received recent commissions from, amongst others, Residence Orchestra The Hague, Asko|Schoenberg Ensemble, Silbersee, Ensemble SCALA and clarinettist Michel Marang (Netherlands) and Ensemble Variances (France).

His vocal quintet Von Pferden, Gräsern, Sonnen, Menschen was nominated for the Toonzetters Best Dutch Work of 2012 Prize. It was performed by VOCAALLAB in the Holland Festival 2012, and several times by EXAUDI in the UK. His work has been performed throughout the Netherlands, in the Biennale di Venezia, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the PASIC and Zeltsman Marimba Festival (USA), Sao Paolo (Brazil), Taipei (Taiwan), Zagreb (Croatia) and Wellington (New Zealand), amongst others.

Marinissen composed for a.o. the Storioni Trio, Asko|Schönberg, Slagwerk Den Haag, Nederlands Kamerkoor, Pinquins Percussion Trio, Silbersee, Calefax Reed Quintet, Ives Ensemble, Asko Kamerkoor, Prisma Strijktrio, cellist Katharina Gross, marimbist Ramon Lormans, harpist Ernestine Stoop, Orgelpark, Club Guy & Roni, for choreographer/dancer Ederson Rodrigues Xavier, for the Dutch cinema film Bernard, and for an audio visual installation by the Italian artist Pierluigi Pompei.

His music also sounded in the Dutch cinema film Bernard, in several broadcasts by the BBC and in The Netherlands, and in dance productions by Club Guy & Roni, Korzo Productions and Scapino Ballet.

Arnold Marinissen's work is published by Deuss Music.ResearchArnold Marinissen currently conducts a PhD research at Bournemouth University (UK) around the impact of the digital audio workstation on conceptual, musical and aesthetic aspects of music creation at the crossroad of composition, performance and production, under the supervision of Professor Stephen Deutsch and Dr. Ambrose Seddon.

At the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, Marinissen makes part of the Master Research team.PercussionRecord label BVHaast released three solo CDs by Marinissen, Traces of Cultures, Layered Rhythms and Percussionist Songs. The press about these CDs: "The infectious delight Marinissen brings to performances of contemporary music", "percussionist extraordinaire Arnold Marinissen ...", "A wonderful collection of stimulating solo percussion performances."

Marinissen has performed extensively as a solo percussionist and in chamber music. He was artist in residence at De Doelen in Rotterdam, guest at the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ in Amsterdam and at festivals all over Europe, in Boston, Shanghai, London, Russia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Uzbekistan.

He appeared as a soloist with the Residentie Orchestra, Noordhollands Philharmonisch Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Holland Symfonia, Nieuw Ensemble, WDR Orchestra in Cologne, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and the Southern Sinfonia (New Zealand).

Marinissen teaches percussion at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, with a focus on set-up/multi-percussion repertoire and ensemble/chamber music."

"Cellist Anton Lukoszevieze (born 1965 in the UK) is one of the most diverse performers of his generation and is notable for his performances of avant-garde, experimental and improvised music. Anton has given many performances at numerous international festivals throughout Europe and the USA (Maerzmusik, Donaueschingen, Wien Modern, GAS, Transart, Ultima, etc.etc.). He has also made frequent programmes and broadcasts for BBC Radio 3, Danish Radio, SR2, Sweden, Deutschland Rundfunk, WDR, Germany and ORT, Austria. Deutschlandfunk, Berlin produced a radio portrait of him in September, 2003. Anton has also performed concerti with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at the 2001 Aldeburgh festival and the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra. He has collaborated with many composers and performers including David Behrman, Alvin Lucier, Amnon Wolman, Pierre Strauch, Rytis Mazulis, Karlheinz Essl, Helmut Oehring, Christopher Fox, Philip Corner, Alvin Curran, Phill Niblock and Laurence Crane, He is unique in the UK through his use of the curved bow (BACH-Bogen), which he is using to develop new repertoire for the cello. From 2005-7 he was New Music Fellow at Kings College, Cambridge and Kettles Yard Gallery. Anton is the subject of four films (FoxFire Eins) by the renowned artist-filmmaker Jayne Parker. A new film Trilogy with compositions by Sylvano Bussotti, George Aperghis and Laurence Crane premieres at The London Film Festival, October 2008. In November will premiere a new hour long work by Christopher Fox for cello and the vocal ensemble Exaudi commissioned by the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and will also present new solo works for cello and live electronics. Anton is also active as an artist, his work has been shown in Holland (Lux Nijmegen), CAC, Vilnius, Duisburg (EarPort), Austria, (Sammlung Essl), Wien Modern, The Slade School of Art, Kettles Yard Gallery, Cambridge Film Festival and Rational Rec. London. His work has been published in Musiktexte, Cologne, design Magazine and the book SoundVisions (Pfau-Verlag, Saarbrucken, 2005). Anton Lukoszevieze is founder and director of the ensemble Apartment House, a member of the radical noise group Zeitkratzer and recently made his contemporary dance debut with the Vincent Dance Company in Broken Chords, Dusseldorf."

"Alwynne Pritchard is a British composer, vocalist, actor and writer based in Bergen. In" her music and performances she explores relationships between musical expression and the human voice and body. She has appeared as an actor, vocalist and physical performer in a number of stage productions, as well as directing and developing choreography for her work. In 2015, she formed the music-theatre company Neither Nor with her partner Thorolf Thuestad.

After undergraduate studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal Academy of Music in London, Alwynne went on to obtain a Masters in Musicology and a PhD in composition from the University of Bristol. She is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.

In 2000, Alwynne was awarded a Visions of Norway scholarship for a two-month artist residency at the USF Verftet, Bergen (European City of Culture) and returned for an extended residency three years later. In 2006, she took up a one-year residency at the Internationales Künstlerhaus Villa Concordia in Bamberg, Bavaria, after which she lived in Berlin for a short time. Her work Decoy, created at the Heinrich Strobel Stiftung in Freiburg in 2006 for the Donaueschingen Musiktage, was awarded the special prize given by the Foundation Ton Bruynèl, STEIM and the Foundation GAUDEAMUS. In 2018, she was awarded a Bergen kommune arbeidsstipend in support of her work and in 2019, she was nominated by Bit Teatergarasjen for the Bergens Tidende Audience Award.

Alwynne has composed for, and performed with musicians and ensembles, at venues and festivals around the globe. In 2016, she was awarded the commission to create a fanfare or 'marker' to celebrate the opening of Snøhetta's building for the University of Bergen's newly created Department of Art, Music and Design, for which she created the book of text scores, up without an insistent casting away. In May 2019, Alwynne hosted and gave a solo performance at the official opening ceremony for the Bergen International festival.

As an actor (and vocalist), Alwynne has appeared in several productions, including collaborations with the French company Scènes Théâtre Cinéma for the Marseille City of Culture 2013 (Bull's Eye) and at Théâtre du Point du Jour (Lyon) (Hamlet Machine). In 2019, she co-created the music and sound design for, and performed as an actor, instrumentalist and vocalist in the Neither Nor/Scènes Théâtre Cinéma co-production Underground. The show was premiered at the Théâtre Nouvelle Génération in Lyon in April and later launched the Bit Teatergarasjen season in Bergen in August, 2019. Alwynne has also appeared in her own music-theatre pieces Hospice Lazy and We, Three in theatres in Germany, Latvia and Norway, as well as performing her solo Vitality Forms series across Europe, Scandinavia and in the USA.

Alwynne's first portrait disc, Invisible Cities was released on the Metier label in 2002. In 2019, Rockaby was released on Kairos, featuring works performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (with the composer as vocal soloist), Christian Dierstein, the Experimentalstudio des SWR, ensemble recherche, Klaus Steffes-Holländer and the Norwegian Naval Forces Band (among others). In 2020, her recording of Vinko Globokar's Metamorphosis (composed for her DOG/GOD I) was released on the same label, presented alongside other work by Globokar, performed by Bergen's BIT20 ensemble. Alwynne's work has also been released on other British, German and Norwegian labels.

Alwynne's professional life has also included stints as a writer and presenter for BBC Radio, a composition teacher at Trinity Laban in London and as Artistic Director of both the Borealis festival and BIT20 Ensemble."

"Nicolaus A. Huber (born 15 December 1939) is a German composer.

Huber was born in Passau. From 1958 to 1962 he studied music education at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München and subsequently composition with Franz Xaver Lehner and Günter Bialas. He pursued his education further with Josef Anton Riedl, Karlheinz Stockhausen and, above all, with Luigi Nono. From 1974 until his retirement in 2003 Huber was Professor of Composition at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen.

Riedl and Schnebel inspired Huber's vocal and linguistic experiments. Riedl in particular encouraged Huber's radical tendencies. His treatment of musical material was most strongly formed by his contact with Stockhausen, while Nono inspired in him an acute historical and political (Marxist) awareness, particularly evident in his second compositional phase, beginning around 1969. Huber took part in Stockhausen's composition project Ensemble at the 1967 Darmstädter Ferienkurse, an experience that gave him an appreciation of the potential for improvisation-a factor that marks not only his compositions for conventional forces, but also his mixed- and multi-media experiments. Stockhausen's influence can also be seen in Huber's exploitation of space and the incorporation of extraneous elements, such as vocal utterances in instrumental music, as a means of heightening expression. His period of study with Luigi Nono in 1967-68 was even more influential on Huber. Nono encouraged Huber to seek a more thorough-going means of eradicating tonality, through a study of psychology in order better to understand human responses."

"Gerhard Stäbler was born in 1949 in Wilhelmsdorf, near Ravensburg in southern Germany. In 1968 he began studies in composition at the Nordwestdeutsche Musikakademie in Detmold, continuing at the Folkwang-Hochschule in Essen, where he studied composition with Nicolaus A. Huber and organ with Gerd Zacher.

The Cornelius Cardew Memorial Prize (1982) was the first in a series of awards, prizes, commissions and scholarships he has received. Since the beginning of his career, Stäbler has been active not only as a composer, but also in politics and organization. The Aktive Musik new music festival was founded by Stäbler, and he was artistic director of the 1995 World Music Days of the ISCM, held in the Ruhr. He has taught workshops and seminars involving young composers and performers all over the world, and has been composer in residence and visiting professor at many institutions in North and South America, in Australia, and Singapur, as well as in the Middle and Far East.

Stäbler's music often transcends conventional frameworks and audience expectations through the use of gestures or movement, space, lighting, olfactory stimulation, or the active involvement of the audience. He finds it important to simulate the imagination, to sensitize the ears and other senses to unexpected perceptual and thought processes. This is the origin of his interest in the interaction of composition and improvisation, which is rooted in the unique tension between performers during the pre-established yet open musical moment, as seen for instance in his graphic score Hart auf hart (1986). For the same reasons, his music is always characterized by carefully considered development, containing elaborate constructions that don't impede the immanent musical statement.