"Christian Wolff was born in 1934 in Nice, France, has lived in the U.S. since 1941. Studied piano with Grete Sultan and briefly composition with John Cage. Associated with Cage, Morton Feldman, David Tudor and Earle Brown, then with Frederic Rzewski and Cornelius Cardew. Since 1952 associated with Merce Cunningham and his dance company. Taught Classics at Harvard (1962-70) and Classics, Music and Comparative Literature at Dartmouth College (1971-1999). Published articles on Greek tragedy, in particular, Euripides. Writings on music (to 1998) collected in book Cues (published by MusikTexte) and in Occasional Pieces (Oxford University Press, in preparation). Active as performer, also improviser with, among others, Takehisa Kosugi, Keith Rowe, Steve Lacy, Christian Marclay, Larry Polansky, Kui Dong and AMM. All music published by C.F. Peters, New York. Much of it is recorded (Mode, New World, Neos, Capriccio, Wandelweiser, Wergo, Matchless, Tzadik, HatArt, etc.). Honors include DAAD Berlin fellowship, grants from the Asian Council, Mellon Foundation, Fromm Foundation, Meet the Composer, Foundation for Contemporary Performing Arts (the John Cage award); honorary degrees from California Institute of the Arts and from Huddersfield University (UK), membership in the Akademie der Kuenste, Berlin, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, lifetime achievement award from the state of Vermont."

"Antoine Beuger (b. 1955 in Oosterhout, Netherlands) studied composition with Ton de Leeuw at Sweelinck Coservatorium in Amsterdam 1973-78. In 1990 he began composing after an interruption of about 10 years. Two years later he founded Edition Wandelweiser together with composer/performer Burkhard Schlothauer. Since 1994 he's been active with the conception and organisation of KLANGRAUM, a concert series at Kunstraum Düsseldorf. During the years 1995-2001 he was working together with visual artist Mauser as artistic director of "Werkraum", Place for Interdisciplinary Artistic Events, Cologne. Since 1996 he's been artistic director of edition wandelweiser records and since 2004 managing director of Edition Wandelweiser gmbh."

"Born in 1957 Burkhard Schlothauer is German composer, multi-instrumentalist, educator and producer who lives in Gera in Eastern Germany. With Antoine Beuger he was the founder of Editions Wandelweiser in 1992. He performs with Zeitkratzer and the Wandwelweiser Composers Ensemble."

"Jürg Frey was born in 1953 in Aarau, Switzerland. Following his musical education at the Concervatoire de Musique de Genève, he turned to a career as a clarinetist, but his activities as composer soon came to the foreground. Frey developed his own language as a composer and sound artist with the creation of wide, quiet sound spaces. His work is marked by an elementary non-extravagence of sound, a sensibilty for the qualities of the material, and precision of compositional approach. His compositions sometimes bypass instrumentation and duration altogether and touch on aspects of sound art. He has worked with compositional series, as well as with language and text. Some of these activities appear in small editions or as artist's books as individual items and small editions (Edition Howeg, Zurich; weiss kunstbewegung, Berlin; complice, Berlin). His music and recordings are published by Edition Wandelweiser. Frey has been invited to workshops as visiting composer and for composer portraits at the Universität der Künste Berlin, the Universität Dortmund and several times at Northwestern University and CalArts. Some of the other places his work has developed are the concerts at the Kunstraum Düsseldorf, the Wandelweiser-in-Residence-Veranstaltungen in Vienna, the Ny music concerts in Boras (Sweden), the cooperation with Cologne pianist John McAlpine, the Bozzini Quartet (Montréal), QO-2 (Bruxelles), Die Maulwerker, incidental music, as well as the regular stays in Berlin (where during the last years many of his compositions were premiered). Frey is a member of the Wandelweiser Komponisten Ensemble which has presented concerts for more than 15 years in Europe, North America and Japan. Frey also organizes the concert series moments musicaux aarau as a forum for contemporary music."

"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."

"Michael Pisaro was born in Buffalo in 1961. He is a composer and guitarist, a member of the Wandelweiser Composers Ensemble and founder and director of the Experimental Music Workshop, Calarts. His work is frequently performed in the U.S. and in Europe, in music festivals and in many smaller venues. It has been selected twice by the ISCM jury for performance at World Music Days festivals (Copenhagen,1996; Manchester, 1998) and has also been part of festivals in Hong Kong (ICMC, 1998), Vienna (Wien Modern,1997), Aspen (1991), London (Cutting Edge, 2007), Glasgow (INSTAL 2009), Huddersfield (2009), Chicago (New Music Chicago, 1990, 1991) and elsewhere.

He has had extended composer residencies in Germany (Künstlerhof Schreyahn, Dortmund University), Switzerland (Forumclaque/Baden), Israel (Miskenot Sha'ananmim), Greece (EarTalk) and in the U.S. (Birch Creek Music Festival, Wisconsin). Concert length portraits of his music have been given in Munich, Jerusalem, Los Angeles, Vienna, Merano (Italy), Brussels, New York, Curitiba (Brazil), Amsterdam, London, Tokyo, Austin, Berlin, Chicago, Düsseldorf, Zürich, Cologne, Aarau (Switzerland), and elsewhere.

He is a Foundation for Contemporary Arts, 2005 and 2006 Grant Recipient. Much of his music of the last several years is published by Edition Wandelweiser (Germany). Several CDs of his work have been released by such labels as Edition Wandelweiser Records, Compost and Height, confront, Another Timbre, Cathnor, Nine Winds and others, including most recently "transparent city, volumes 1-4", "an unrhymed chord", "hearing metal 1", "A Wave and Waves" and "harmony series (11-16)".

His translation of poetry by Oswald Egger ("Room of Rumor") was published in 2004 by Green Integer. He is Co-Chair of Music Composition at the California Institute of the Arts near Los Angeles. He has performed many of his own works and those of close associates Antoine Beuger, Kunsu Shim, Jürg Frey and Manfred Werder, and works from the experimental tradition, especially John Cage, Christian Wolff, James Tenney and George Brecht."

"Thomas Stiegler

1966 born in Meschede (D)

1987-94 studied medicine in Cologne, Freiburg and Frankfurt

1991-94 studied composition in Freiburg with Immanuel Nunes and Matthias Spahlinger

since 1994 assistent doctor, since 2001 senior physician (internal medicine)

1997 1. prize at the International Composition Contest Boswil (CH)"