daniel ott, wolfgang mitterer, charles ives PULSE — AUSSEN : stadtmusik  

Daniel Ott

Born on 6 September 1960 in Grub (Appenzell, Switzerland), and later grew up in the Basel region. In 1980, he gained his piano diploma and went on to teach piano and music in the Basel and Graubünden regions. At the same time, he was also involved in the establishment of various independent theatre groups, including a horse-drawn wagon tour through Switzerland with a street theatre group. Theatre studies took him to Paris and London between 1983 and 1985, and from 1985 to 1990, he studied composition with Nicolaus A. Huber at the Folkwang University, Essen, and with Klaus Huber at the Freiburg University of Music.
Since 1990, Daniel Ott has been working on a freelance basis as composer, pianist and actor, mainly in the field of new music theatre - and has also been involved in interdisciplinary and room/landscape-related works. In 1990, he founded the »Rümlingen New Music Festival«. Between 1995 and 2004 he has been teaching experimental music at the University of Arts in Berlin. In 1999/2000, he wrote the music theatre cycle ojota I-IV. In 2000, he composed klangkörperklang — music for Peter Zuthmor’s Swiss Pavilion (EXPO Hanover 2000).
These works were followed by landscape compositions for the Harbour Sassnitz/Rügen (2002), the Heiligkreuz/Entlebuch (2003) and the river Neisse between Görlitz and Zgorzelec (2005), and the Rheinhafen Basel (2006). In 2005, he became professor for composition and experimental music at the University of arts, Berlin.

Wolfgang Mitterer

Mitterer studied organ, composition and electroacoustics in Vienna and Stockholm. He is not only one of the Austrian specialists for electronics as well as being equally brilliant on the keyboard and on the slide controls, but is also one of the most innovative composers. His work oscillates between composition and open form. Apart from music for organ and orchestra, a piano concerto and an opera he has produced electronic pieces, conceptualized sound installations, and engaged in collective improvisation with diverse groups, developing a language of extremes, tension and complexity. The pleasure he takes in experimenting leads him to combine contrasting elements in the creation of unpredictable musical events. In one major composition, for instance, he juxtaposes musical bands and children’s choirs with specialized instrumentalists and singers, while filling the hall with surround sound created by live electronics. But his work transcends the merely spectacular, precisely because of his musical presence and the high — deeply moving — intensity and complexity of his compositions. Listening intensely to low sounds has its place just as much as the »installing« of exploding sound fragments in the listeners’ minds. Far from being smoothly pleasurable, Mitterer’s music is still uncannily beautiful at times. (M. Meller for »Tirol multimedia«). Mitterer lives in Vienna.

Robyn Schulkowsky

Born and raised in South Dakota, percussionist Robyn Schulkowsky has been an innovator and collaborator throughout her life. Her continuous exploration of new sound dimensions has led to the development of new, unusual instruments. Schulkowsky moved to Germany during a heyday of experimental and adventurous classical composition. She has premiered and recorded some of the most important percussion works of the 20th and 21st centuries, working with composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage, Sofia Gubajdulina, Iannis Xenakis, Morton Feldman and Christian Wolff, presenting their works regularely on 5 continent. 2014 sees her at THE SAGE, Gateshead, England, celebrating their 10 year anniversary with a percussion project including up to 300 musicians from the region.
Robyn Schulkowsky has long followed her particular passion for education. Since 1998, as founder of Rhythm Lab, Schulkowsky has taken rhythm workshops to countless cities, incorporating indigenous drumming music from around the globe, and involving students, professionals and aficionados alike in workshops, study, and concerts. In 2005 Space And Frequency Rhythm Lab premiered for 10 days in the Vanderbilt Hall of New York City’s Grand Central Station. In 2009, working with 100 students from various backgrounds, she created a new music theatre project based on the story of Antigone.
Schulkowsky’s virtuosity as a percussionist has been captured on solo recordings, in duo with the drummer Joey Baron, violist Kim Kashkashian and trumpeters Nils Petter Molvaer and Reinhold Friedrich, and seminal recordings of chamber music compositions by Christian Wolff and Morton Feldman.
Her own composition Armadillo for percussion trio was recently released on the New World label. Her chamber opera The Child of the Sea Otter premiered in Mannheim and Oldenburg, Germany.
Along with her percussion band, Glorious Percussion and the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel she helped celebrate Sofia Gubaidulina turning 80 with the american premier of her concerto Glorious Percussion written for the group that carries the name. In addition to her usual solo recitals, the Drumssummit in Bonn, improvisation projects and concerts around the world, Schulkowsky is also the subject of a film by Brussels-based artist Manon De Boer. Schulkowsky’s talents have been recognized by numerous music awards in Germany, and the multi-faceted composer and performer is also sought-after as chamber music coach.