"Ernstalbrecht Stiebler. Berlin, Germany, 1934. Composer • Performer (piano)

Ernstalbrecht Stiebler (born March 29, 1934, Berlin). Esteemed German composer of mostly chamber, choral, piano, and organ works that have been performed throughout Europe and elsewhere.

Mr. Stiebler studied composition and piano at the Musikhochschule Hamburg, but had more important lessons at Darmstadt from 1958-61, including studies with Karlheinz Stockhausen in 1959.

His honors include the Bach-Preis Hamburg (1966) and a prize from the Stille Musik composition seminar in the Künstlerhaus Boswil (1991). Moreover, two of his productions for Hessischer Rundfunk received the Prix Italia Special Prize: Piece for Peace by Alvin Curran and Die Blinden by Walter Zimmermann.

Mr. Stiebler is also active in other positions. He served as director of new music for Hessischer Rundfunk from 1969-95 and founded the concert series Forum Neue Musik there in 1989. He co-produced numerous CDs for Hessischer Rundfunk in collaboration with the Hat Hut label, including the series devoted to the New York School (John Cage, Morton Feldman and Christian Wolff). In addition, he has written numerous essays for Musik-Konzepte, MusikTexte and other music journals, as well as booklet notes for the Montaigne Auvidis CD of Words and Music by Morton Feldman."

"Biliana Voutchkova is a dedicated, thoroughly engaged composer-performer whose work combines regular performances of major solo violin/ensemble works and new works by contemporary composers often written for her, improvisation and performance work reaching into the realm of dance and movement. Her constant research as a creative artist spans the widest possible range of sound and movement and extends her sonic, physical and technical capacities evolving into the development of a highly individual artistic musical language.

Biliana is a risk taker approaching contemporary classical repertoire with the same inspiration and freedom characteristic of her forceful improvisations. She collaborates with an international pool of renowned artists - among those are Mazen Kerbaj, Audrey Chen, Ute Wassermann, Iva Bittová, Robin Hayward, Jacques Demierre, Matthias Bauer, Frances-Marie Uitti, Séverine Ballon, Helmut Lachenmann, Michael Thieke, Hans Peter Kuhn, George Lewis, Georg Nussbaumer, Clayton Thomas, Axel Dörner, Peter Ablinger and many others. ​Biliana has been heard at festivals and concert series worldwide, her appearances ranging from celebrated concert venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York, the Berliner Philharmonie and Radial System V in Berlin, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo, to performances in the most vivid experimental places such as Kule/Labor sonor, Ausland, Quite Cue, Studio 8 and Exploratorium in Berlin, Saal 100 in Amsterdam, and the Knitting Factory in New York. After her 14 years long residence in the USA, Biliana now lives in Berlin and collaborates with the Splitter Orchestra, Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, Ensemble Modern, Zeitkratzer, Work in Progress, Ensembles United Berlin, Mosaik, LUX:NM and others. She is the co-founder of her dance/music group GRAPESHADE and OSM (open sound & movement collective). Her recent/current projects include solo concerts at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, MuseRuole Festival, Radar Festval, Radialsystem V and Unerhörte Musik, concert appearance with Iva Bittová and Phil Minton, the solo portrait concert/presentation and the project "Gazes that matter" at Ballhaus Naunynstrasse, the performance of Alban Berg's chamber concerto for the March Music Days Festival, the concert tour in Bulgaria/Serbia with Voutchkova/Thieke duo supported by the Goethe Institut and performances for the festivals Klangwerkstatt, Jazzfest and Faithful in Berlin, Blurred Edges in Hamburg, Rainy Days in Luxemburg and Klarafestival in Brüssel.

Born in the family of musicians, Biliana Voutchkova begins playing violin at the age of four, makes her orchestra debut at the age of nine, and records her first CD for the Japanese label Crown Record Ltd. at the age of sixteen. She studies classical violin, in her college years starts being involved with the contemporary and improvised music scene in New York. Among her teachers are Peter Arnaoudov, Abram Stern and Felix Galimir. Ms. Voutchkova holds degrees from the University of Southern California and New School for Social Research/Mannes College of Music in New York (MM in music). She has received top honors at the Kozian International Music Competition, CRS National Competition for Performing Artists, and Music and the Earth International Contemporary Music Competition. At the age of nineteen, she was invited to the United States, and was presented the special Jasha Heifetz Violin Scholarshipfor for her studies at the University of Southern California. After her move to New York in 1995 her continuous interest and exploration of the music of today remains being a major part of her work. "

"Michael Rauter, born 1980 in Basel, is a Berlin based music theatre maker, composer, performer and cellist. In 2006 he founded the music theatre group Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop and was its artistic director until 2016. Since 2018 he creates music theatre and performance pieces with his label Bob's Company.

He has collaborated with artists like Benjamin van Bebber, Boogaerdt/Van der Schoot, Alexander Charim, Laurent Chétouane, Aliénor Dauchez, Luigi de Angelis, Martin Eder, Sabrina Hölzer, Susanne Kennedy, Mouse on Mars, Georg Nussbaumer, Peaches, Sasha Waltz & Guests, Ladislav Zajac among others.

From 2018-20 he is artist of the fellowship program #bebeethoven, a project of the PODIUM Esslingen for the Beethoven anniversary 2020, funded by the Federal Cultural Foundation.

As part of this program, he cooperates with Operadagen Rotterdam, where he presented the music theatre END OF THE STORY in 2018 and the solo performance THE GAP in 2019.

Upcoming projects include the music theatre installation PIXELSINFONIE at Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele in May 2020 and the music theatre ABSCHIED with Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop at Festspielhaus Hellerau in October 2020."

"The Israeli violinist and violist Nurit Stark studied at the Rubin Academy Tel Aviv with Haim Taub, at the Juilliard School New York with Robert Mann, Musikhochschule Cologne with the Alban Berg Quartet and at Universität der Künste Berlin with Ilan Gronich where she graduated from her master studies.She has made solo appearances with orchestras such as the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta, Münchner Radio Orchestra under Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Bremen Philharmonic, Sao Paolo Symphonic Orchestra, the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Mantova and the South-West German chamber orchestra Pforzheim.

Her love and dedication for contemporary music has led her to perform many world premieres and to collaborate with composers such as Sofia Gubaidulina, György Kurtag, Viktor Suslin, Valentin Silvestrov, Georg Nussbaumer, Deirdre Gribbin and Ernstalbrecht Stiebler.

Since 2005, Nurit Stark has been taking part in avant-garde stage projects in theaters such as Schaubuehne Berlin, Volksbuehne Berlin, State Theatre Stuttgart, Bobigny Paris, Burgtheater Vienna, Kammerspiele Munich and Le Maillon Strasbourg, developing performances which integrate elements of music and theatre. She has recorded works by Feruccio Busoni, George Enescu, Clara & Robert Schumann for violin / viola and piano with Cedric Pescia for Claves Records and chamber works by Olivier Messiaen for Genuin Records. For BIS records she has recorded chamber works by Viktor Suslin and Sofia Gubaidulina and "Kafka Fragments" by György Kurtag with Caroline Melzer. Her latest recording of works by Ernest Bloch for violin and piano together with Cedric Pescia appeared in January 2018. Nurit Stark plays a 1710 Pietro Guarneri Violin from Mantua."