"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."

"Stephen Altoft is dedicated to the creation of new repertoire for the trumpet. As a solo artist, and with percussionist Lee Ferguson as duo Contour, he has given concerts throughout Asia, Europe, the United States and Canada. He is a member of ensemble chronophonie (Freiburg) and ensemble linea (Strasbourg). Stephen was also trumpeter in the Music theatre production, "Niebla" by Elena Mendoza and Matthias Rebstock (2007-9) at the Festspielhaus, Dresden, Berlin Konzerthaus and Teatro del Canal, Madrid. In 2014 he appeared at the American Festival of Microtonal Music in New York, the "Bending Brass" event at the New England Conservatory, Boston, USA, organised by the Boston Microtonal Society and at the Daegu International Contemporary Music Festival, in South Korea.

Stephen studied at the University of Huddersfield (1991-5) where he was awarded B.Mus Honours and Masters degrees (in performance) and the Ricordi Prize for Contemporary Performance. This was followed by periods of private study with Markus Stockhausen (Cologne 1996-8) and, with assistance from the Music Sound Foundation, with William Forman (Berlin 1998-1999).

Between 2001-2, Stephen was a consultant for the Centre for New Musical Instruments, London, where he tested a prototype microtonal trumpet. During this time he began working on a microtonal trumpet manual with composer, Donald Bousted, now available here as an online resource. After further research, Stephen developed, in collaboration with Johannes Radeke and Siegmar Fischer (Musik Gillhaus) in Freiburg, Germany, a fourth (rotary) valve mechanism to enable the conversion of his existing trumpets into microtonal instruments (a 19-division B flat trumpet and quarter-tone C trumpet).

Stephen has recorded for radio and televison (SWR, WDR, Deutschlandfunk Köln, Deutschland Radio in Germany, BBC Radio 3 in the UK, France 3 and Bulgarian National Television) and for the Budapest Music Center (Peter Eötvös), Microtonal Projects, Edition Wandelweiser and Wergo labels.

Improviser

As an improviser, Stephen collaborates regularly with Lee Ferguson (duo Contour), Thomas Wenk (piano, prepared piano, cassette recorder), Harald Kimmig (violin), Ephraim Wegner (laptop) and plays in the Human Factory Band. In 2013 he began working with Jihye Kim (violin). He has also appeared in duo with Gabriele Reuter (Dance).

Composer

In 2013, Stephen began formulating concept pieces for performance on the 4-valve trumpets he developed as part of his microtonal work. This lead to the development of graphic scores, which are re-interpreted with each performance, using improvisational techniques. The series of studies explore the possibilities offered and limitations imposed by the converted microtonal trumpets, in combination with contemporary playing techniques.

Teacher

Stephen teaches at the Waldkirch Musikschule near to Freiburg, Germany. He has also been Trumpet and Brass Tutor at the Bisyoc Summer Course since its inception. In 2009 and 2010 Stephen was trumpeter (ensemble linea) on the Royaumont Composition Courses in France, where he has worked alongside Brian Ferneyhough, Isabel Mundry, Misato Mochizuki and Liza Lim with student composers. He will also be teaching on the new Summer Academy that ensemble Linea inaugurated in Strasbourg in 2014."

"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."