HOCHSCHULE FÜR MUSIK UND TANZ HFMT (COORDINATOR)
The Hochschule fürMusik und Tanz – with ist three sites in Wuppertal, Cologne and Aachen – is one of the world‘s leading educational institutions and among the largest conservatories in Europe. The Hochschule is characterized by it‘s over 500 professors, among them a variety of renowned personalities of the international music life, science, education and dance. They take care of around 1500 students from over 60 countries. The curriculum are interdisciplinary and future-oriented and involves a high degree of professional orientation. Strong partnerships and networks with, for example, the City of Cologne, broadcasting companies like WDR, DeutschlandRadio, the Kölner Philharmonie, the Italian, Japanese and French Cultural Institutes, the Julliard school of Music and Drama New York and many others, offer the students the opportunity to gain important an instructive experience for their artistic career in joint projects and events.
PROF. MICHAEL BEIL (PROJECT LEADER)
Michael Beil studied piano and music theory at the Hochschule für Musik Stuttgart and afterwards composition with Manuel Hidalgo. In 1996 he taught music theory and composition at the music conservatories in Kreuzberg and Neukölln in Berlin as director of the precollege department and the department of contemporary music. At this time Michael Beil also directed the Klangwerkstatt – a contemporary music festival in Berlin and founded in 2000 together with Stephan Winkler the team Skart to present concerts based on interdisciplinary concepts. In 2007 he became the professor for electronic music at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne and director of the studio for electronic music.
As composer Michael Beil has colaborated with numerous ensembles and soloists. His music has been commissioned by festivals for contemporary music including Ultraschall in Berlin, ECLAT in Stuttgart or Wien Modern and has been featured in portrait or concert broadcasts on radio stations such as Deutschlandradio, RBB, SDR and many others. Furthermore he has received scholarships for Künstlerhaus Wiepersdorf, cité des arts in Paris and the Heinrich-Gartentor-Scholarship for video art in Thun, Switzerland. In addition he participated in the Nachwuchsforum für junge Komponisten of the Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (GNM) in collaboration with the Ensemble Modern.
Michael Beil’s work focuses on the combination of electronic music, instrumental music and video. His compositions are based on concepts concerning the situation on stage in a concert in connection with the development process of musical works. Therefore the instrumentalists are mostly involved in the compositional process and their participation is documented to be part of a composition. So the temporal formation and coherence of a musical work becomes perceivable and transparent for the audience in the performance. In order to do this Michael Beil employs live and prerecorded audio and video. A further fundamental aim of his music is to to call into question the art work as a masterpiece. With a view to this Michael Beil engages exclusively with musical readymades by transforming or deconstructing familiar musical works or by techniques of displacing well known musical material or material that is idiomatic for a certain instrument in an unusual connotation.
DIPL.-KULT. REBEKKA SMOLIBOWSKI-FUCHS M.A. (Coordinator)
Rebekka Smolibowski-Fuchs (born 1970) grew up in Koblenz, Bonn and Paris. She studied Art-History and English and American literature at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelm University of Bonn and Art and media Administration at the Hanns Eisler Musikhochschule Berlin. She was working as a referent for the Freie Universität Berlin, as a conference manager for the IIR Deutschland GmbH in Frankfurt, as a programme manager for the City of Aschaffenburg before she started her career at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln. Here she was academic referent for the management of the Master degree „International Arts Administration“ at the Center for International Art Management“ and lecturer from 2006 till 2015. Since 2015 she is working as a commissary for fundraising, is director of StartLive, the artistic agency of the HfMT, and organizes workshops for the career centre. She was author of several scientific texts concerning „Arts Management“ and directed conferences such as „International Arts Management Concepts – Higher Education for the Market?“ or EXISTA 0806, a symposium for artistic start-ups.
PARTICIPANTS
Vladimir Guicheff Bogacz (student)
Vladimir Guicheff Bogacz was born in 1986 in Montevideo, Uruguay. Composer, guitarist and improviser, Vladimir Guicheff began his studies on guitar at the age of 14. In 2005, he entered the Escuela Universitaria de Música (EUM – University School of Music). He majored in both guitar and composition. His Professors were Osvaldo Budón and Luis Jure on composition (instrumental and electronic), and Mario Paysée on guitar. In addition, he has studied tango guitar with Julio Cobelli. He has attended several courses and master classes led by national and international professors. In 2011, he won the first prize during the 1º Bienal de Composición y Arreglo coral “Acordelur” with a choral piece. Since 2006, he has been part of an instrumental and vocal trio, “Pechitos Ecuestres”, with whom he has developed many creative projects. He has also been part of multiple artistic collectives, particularly the various projects presented by the “Traspuesto De Un Estudio Para Un Retrato Común”, working side by side with several artists from other disciplines. Since 2009, he has worked in the EUM as an assistant teacher in the departments of Composition and Instrumentation. In 2012, he achieved both Bachelor degrees in composition and guitar. In 2016, he achieved a Master of Music on Instrumental Music in Cologne, Germany (Hochschule für Musik und Tanz, Köln), with Professor Johannes Schöllhorn as tutor. There, nowadays, he continues his studies on Composition on the Konzertexam program with Brigitta Muntendorf. He also founded in 2014 the trio “333”, for improvised music in Cologne. In 2014 he won the first Trabant composition competition organized by the Ensemble Phoenix Basel. In 2016, he was selected for the new talents biennale organized by the Cologne City Hall Cultural Office, in Germany. In 2016, he won the second National Music Prize of Uruguay with an ensemble piece.In 2017, his orchestra piece La Maleza was programmed at the Acht Brücken Festival for new music in Cologne. In workshops or concerts he could work out some of his pieces with ensembles like Ensemble Phoenix Basel, Ensemble Garage, Manufaktur für Aktuelle Musik, Spó ł dzielnia Muzyczna, Ensemble S201, Musikfabrik and Ensemble Modern. His pieces were performed in Germany, Uruguay, Argentina, USA, Poland, Italy, and Switzerland.
Menghao Xie (student)
Benjamin Grau (student)
Benjamin Grau, born 1987 in Hamburg, living in Cologne, is a musician and composer. His creative work is not restricted to certain genres or disciplines. Since octobre 2017 he has studied electronic composition in the masters program with Prof. Michael Beil at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne. His works and projects habe been performed throughout Europe and Asia.
Georgia Koumara (student)
Georgia Koumará, born in Thessaloniki, Greece in 1991 studied Composition (M.Mus.) in Thessaloniki (A.U.TH) and Cologne (HfMT), with among others Johannes Schöllhorn, Michael Beil, Michalis Lapidakis and piano in Thessaloniki (S.C.TH) Lenio Liatsou and Lilia Vaseiliadou. Master classes with a.o. G. Aperghis, F. Bedrossian, Ph. Manoury, A. Posadas, O. Neuwirth, W. Rihm, B. Ferneyhough, B. Furrer, R. Cendo, J.S. Chiong, M. Tsangaris, P.Kokkoras, J. Walsche, J.M. Lopez Lopez complete her musical education.
Her works have been performed on stage in Greece, Germany, Austria, Spain, Italy, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Great Britain and have been broadcast on Greek,German, Dutch and Austrian radio. Her music has been played by among others WDR Sinfonieorchester, Orchester der Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, IEMA Ensemble, DissonArt Ensemble, Ensemble hand werk, Ascolta Ensemble, Leise Dröhnung, Ensemble Inverspace, Kollektiv3:6Koeln, Ensemble Platypus, Kammermusik für Köln, Lucerne Academy Alumni Ensemble, Divertimento Ensemble, Kluster 5 Ensemble, Greek Contemporary Musik Ensemble, Lynx Quartet as part of festivals such as Acht Brücken Festival -Musik für Köln 2015, Wittener Tage für Kammermusik 2016, New Talents Biennale Cologne 2016, Lucerne Academy Festival 2016, Musica Festival Strasbourg 2016, Konzerthaus Wien, Gaudeamus Muziekweek 2017, ECLAT Festival 2018, Tectonics Festival Athens 2019.
From 2010ß2014 she was a member of the improvisation ensemble 6daExit which is based in Thessaloniki and as a performer and improviser she has collaborated with many artists based in Greece. Since 2017 she is a co-founding member of Kollektiv3:6Koeln, a collective for contemporary music, based in Cologne.
In her music she is interested in exploring the relationships that occur between conceptual, perceptual and actual measurable time, as it is formulated thought different ontological interpretations, from the process of performance and listening. Thus, by creating, developing and combining different sonic processes, she strives to achieve continuous flux and energy and intricate multi layered textures.