Prof. Volker Böhm

Volker Böhm, born in 1971 in Freiburg (D), is a musician, audio designer and programmer. He currently lives and works in Basel. Alongside his teaching commitments at the Electronic Studio of the FHNW Academy of Music, he is heavily involved in various art, music and media projects in a range of fields —New Music, theatre, (sound) installations and electroacoustic improvisation.

Prof. Christian Dierstein

Christian Dierstein has established himself among the most interesting performers in the contempory music of our time. He studied under Bernhard Wulff at the Freiburg Musikhochschule and under Gaston Sylvestre in Paris. He is the winner of numerous competitions and received scholarships from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes and the Akademie Schloß Solitude, Stuttgart.
He is the percussionist of the ensemble recherche since 1988. Together with Marcus Weiss and Nic Hodges he forms the trio accanto. In addition to his performances of new music, he has focused on non-European music and free improvisation.
He has given solo concerts throughout Europe. In the season 2010/11 he was one of the Rising Stars from the European Concert Hall Organisation. Important appearances include: Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Athens , Berliner Festspiele, Brussel Festival, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Huddersfield Festival, Lucerne Festival, Monday evening concerts Los Angeles, Rachmaninov Hall Moskau, Festival d'Autome Paris, Ircam Paris, Rome, Salzburg Festival, Schleswig Holstein Festival, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Wien Modern, Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, Zürich Festival für neue Musik and others.
He has recorded for several labels including Kairos, col legno, Stradivarius, Winter & Winter, neon and his recordings have been the recipients of numerous awards.
Christian Dierstein works together regulary with several of the greatest living composers, figures such as Hans Abrahamsen, Beat Furrer, Hugues Dufourt, Helmut Lachenmann, Rebecca Saunders, Salvatore Sciarrino.
Since 2001 he is Professor for percussion and new chamber music at the Hochschule für Musik in Basel, Switzerland.
He gave masterclasses in Buenos Aires, Berlin, Chicago, Los Angeles, Genf, Madrid, Moskau, New York, Oslo, Peking, Valencia,Tiflis and others. Since 2008 he is one of the percussion tutor of the Darmstädter summer courses, since 2011 he is the percussion tutor of the Impuls academy in Graz, since 2014 regular guest teacher in Madrid and 2017 tutor of the Luzern academy.

Fred Frith

Multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser Fred Frith has been active across a broad spectrum of music-making since the late 1960s, starting with the iconic rock collective Henry Cow. In a career spanning almost 50 years, Fred is renowned as a ground-breaking electric guitarist, improviser, and composer for dance and film. Through bands like Art Bears, Massacre, Skeleton Crew, the Fred Frith Guitar Quartet, and Cosa Brava, he has managed to keep one foot in the rock world while branching out into whatever other musical fields pique his curiosity.

His compositions have been performed by groups ranging from Arditti Quartet and the Ensemble Modern to Concerto Köln, from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra to ROVA Sax Quartet, from Robert Wyatt to Hieronymus Firebrain. Film music credits include Rivers and Tides by Thomas Riedelsheimer, The Tango Lesson by Sally Potter, Werner Penzel’s Zen for Nothing, and Peter Mettler’s Gods, Gambling and LSD. His collaborations with choreographer Amanda Miller have continued for over 20 years. An extensive catalogue of recordings is available on Tzadik, Winter & Winter, Intakt, ReR, and his own label Fred Records, among others.
Fred has performed or recorded with key figures in contemporary music including, for example, Lotte Anker, Derek Bailey, Gavin Bryars, Sylvie Courvoisier, Alvin Curran, Brian Eno, Evelyn Glennie, George Lewis, Ikue Mori, Butch Morris, Bob Ostertag, Zeena Parkins, The Residents, Christian Wolff, and John Zorn.

Since 1999 he has taught composition and improvisation at Mills College in Oakland, California, along with masterclasses, workshops and/or lectures throughout Europe, North and South America, and in Australia and Japan. Apart from teaching in Basel and at Mills, he is guest professor at the Universidad Austral in Valdivia, Chile. Fred is the subject of Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzels’ award-winning documentary film Step Across the Border.

Prof. Dr. Moritz Heffter

Moritz Heffter studied music theory and school music at the Freiburg University of Music (D) and Latin at Albert Ludwig University, Freiburg (D).

He has been a member of the academic staff of the Freiburg University of Music since 2012. The subject of his PhD thesis was 17th century music theory, in particular early triad concepts, and specifically the triga harmonica concept developed by Henricus Baryphonus. Prof. Heffter previously taught at the Institute for Early Music at the Trossingen University of Music, the HfK Bremen, the Department of Musicology at the Freiburg University of Music, and the HfM Karlsruhe.

The focus of his current work is the digital humanities, specifically the development and refinement of tools for use in both research and teaching. In recent years, a number of apps have been created which aim to support and supplement music theory teaching.

Prof. Heffter conducts and sings with a number of choral ensembles.

Prof. Jürg Henneberger

Der Dirigent und Pianist Jürg Henneberger, geboren 1957 in Luzern, studierte in Basel bei Jürg Wyttenbach und an der Hamburger Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst bei Klauspeter Seibel und Christoph von Dohnànyi.

Sehr bald machte er sich als Spezialist für Neue Musik einen Namen, was ihm Engagements bei den führenden Ensembles dieser Sparte eintrug. Die Gründung eines eigenen Ensembles, des «Ensemble Phoenix Basel», das er seit 1998 leitet, war letztlich die Konsequenz daraus, um mit ausgesuchten Musikern eigene Ideen adäquat umzusetzen.

Daneben ist Jürg Henneberger ein weithin gefragter künstlerischer Leiter grosser Opernproduktionen des mehrheitlich zeitgenössischen Repertoires. Hervorzuheben sind hier die Einstudierungen am Theater Basel «Aus Deutschland» von Mauricio Kagel und «Satyricon» von Bruno Maderna sowie die Produktionen unter der Regie von Christoph Marthaler «The Unanswered Question» (eingeladen zum Theatertreffen Berlin 1998) und «20th Century Blues» und die Schweizer Erstaufführung der Oper «Die Soldaten» von Bernd Alois Zimmermann. Am Staatstheater Hannover leitete er 2002 Alban Bergs «Lulu», an der Oper Köln 2003 die Uraufführung von Manfred Trojahns «Limonen aus Sizilien». Weitere wichtige Produktionen waren «in vain» (2003) sowie «Nacht» (2011) von Georg Friedrich Haas und «Unsichtbar Land» (2006) sowie «Gunten» (2008) von Helmut Oehring.

Von 1998 bis 2014 war er Präsident der Internationalen Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (IGNM) Basel. Seit 1989 ist Jürg Henneberger Dozent für Partiturspiel, Kammermusik und Interpretation Zeitgenössischer Musik an der Hochschule für Musik Basel. Seit 2009 ist Jürg Henneberger Professor und gemeinsam mit Mike Svoboda und Marcus Weiss künstlerischer Leiter der 2009 gegründeten Studienrichtung «Master of Arts in Spezialisierter Musikalischer Performance Zeitgenössische Musik» an der Hochschule für Musik in Basel.

Prof. Johannes Kreidler

Johannes Kreidler (1980) studied composition, electronic music and music theory in Freiburg (D) and The Hague, under leading lights like Mathias Spahlinger and Orm Finnendahl. In 2012 he won the Kranichstein Music Prize awarded by the Darmstädter Ferienkurse für Neue Musik [Darmstadt Summer University for New Music]. In 2019 he joined the FHNW Academy of Music in Basel as a professor of Composition and Music Theory.

Performances (selected): Donaueschinger Musiktage, Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik, Ultraschall Berlin, MaerzMusik Berlin, Foreign Affairs Berlin, Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz Berlin, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Eclat Stuttgart, La Biennale di Veneziag, Gaudeamus Music Week Amsterdam, Warschauer Herbst, Biennale de Musique en Scène Lyon, Ultima Festival Oslo, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Musica Straßburg, MusicAcoustica Festival Peking, Liquid Architecture Melbourne

Publications: Musik mit Musik – Texte 2005-2011, and Sätze über musikalische Konzeptkunst. Texte 2012-2018

Prof. Michel Roth

Michel Roth, born 1976 in Altdorf, lives in Lucerne. He is professor of composition and music theory at the FHNW Academy of Music Basel and a member of its research department. As long-time director of the Lucerne Studio for Contemporary Music, he worked with Pierre Boulez, Helmut Lachenmann and Peter Eötvös, among others. Many radio and CD productions document his work, for which he has received numerous prizes and grants. His works can be heard regularly at international music festivals, including the opera "Im Bau" (2012, Theater Basel, Zurich, Barcelona) and the depressive operetta "Die Künstliche Mutter" (2016, Lucerne Festival, Gare du Nord Basel). He also researches and publishes on music-theoretical and interdisciplinary topics with a focus on game theory and indeterminacy (e.g. David Tudor), collaborative art (e.g. Dieter Roth and his "Rarely Heard Music") and organology (e.g. trombone and percussion playing techniques).

Prof. Andrea Neumann

(*1968 Freiburg/Brsg) studied classical piano at the Berlin University of the Arts. Lives and works as a musician and composer in the fields of new music and experimental music in Berlin. She is part of the collective LABOR SONOR, which has curated a concert series since 2000 and festivals in Berlin since 2015.

Since 1996 she has been developing and playing her own instrument, the inner piano - an aluminium frame strung with strings, played by means of preparations and reinforced with the help of a mixing console and various pick-ups.

She has been instrumental in the development of Berlin's real-time music, which is situated between new music, improvisation, noise and sound art. Editor of echtzeitmusik berlin. self-determination of a scene, together with Burkhard Beins, Christian Kesten, Gisela Nauck, Wolke-Verlag Hofheim

Concert and festival performances in Europe, the USA, Canada, Argentina, Mexico, Russia, Australia, Taiwan, Vietnam, China and Japan.

Composition commissions from Deutschlandfunk, Bayrischer Rundfunk, MDR Leipzig, the Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik, EMS Stockholm, Nyy Musikk Oslo, among others

Prof. Mike Svoboda

The composer, trombone player and conductor Mike Svoboda is considered among the most innovative and versatile musicians of his generation. He grew up in Chicago and, after his composition and conducting studies, came to Germany with the help of a BMI Award to Young Composers in 1982. From 1984 to 1996 he worked with Karlheinz Stockhausen; during this time he stopped composing. His collaborations with Stockhausen and composers like Eötvös, Haas, Hosokawa, Lachenmann, Rihm, Smolka and Zappa have led Svoboda to premiere a plethora of new works over the last 35 years. After a self-imposed break of close to 20 years, Mike Svoboda began composing again in 2000. Since then, he has received commissions from festivals, orchestras and theatres, includes the State Opera Hannover and Stuttgart, the National Theatre Mannheim, the Südwestrundfunk [public broadcaster in southwest Germany] the ECLAT Festival and Lucerne Festival.

Mike Svoboda is a Professor at the FHNW Academy of Music in Basel. Together with his colleagues Marcus Weiss and Jürg Henneberger, he oversees the artistic direction of the MA in Performance, with a Major in Contemporary Music.

Prof. Caspar Johannes Walter

was born in Frankfurt/Main in 1964. He studied composition with V. D. Kirchner (Wiesbaden) as well as with J. Fritsch and C. Barlow (Cologne Conservatory of Music, 1985-90).
In 1985 he was cofounder of the Cologne-based Thürmchen Verlag (Publishing House). He has received several major composition awards, a CD with chamber music works by Caspar Johannes Walter released by the German Council of Music on the Label Wergo has been awarded the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik in 1998.
His interests as an interpreter - he is cellist in the Thürmchen Ensemble, which he also co-founded in 1991 - are focused primarily on young composers from the areas of experimental music and musical theatre.
In 2002/2003 Caspar Johannes Walter was teacher of composition and composer in Residence at the University of Birmingham/UK, since 2006-13 he was professor for composition in Stuttgart/Germany and since 2013 at the Musikakademie Basel/Switzerland. In 2014 he was elected into the Akademie der Künste, Berlin, where he is at the moment curating the international project Labor Beethoven 2020, that focusses the view of the young generation of composers towards the renewing of intrinsic musical ideas in the spirit of Beethovens laboratorium artificiosum.

Prof. Marcus Weiss

Having studied the saxophone at the FHNW Academy of Music in Basel under Iwan Roth, Marcus Weiss moved to Chicago where he studied philosophy und saxophone (under Frederick L. Hemke) at Northwestern University. In 1989 he won the Soloist Prize of the Schweizerischer Tonkünstlerverein [Association of Swiss Musicians]. During his soloist career, he performed with an array of European orchestras and ensembles, as well as the Trio Accanto chamber ensemble and the saxophone ensemble Xasax/Paris. He has collaborated with a variety of composers, who have written works for him. They include Aperghis, Cage, Furrer, Globokar, Haas, Hosokawa, Kyburz, Lachenmann, Netti, Prins, Saunders, Sciarrino, Stockhausen and Vassena. His textbook ‘The Techniques of Saxophone Playing’ was published by Verlag Bärenreiter.

Prof. Weiss also gives masterclasses at European universities (e.g. Paris, Madrid, London, Berlin, Vienna, Porto and Riga) and US universities. He has worked for many years as a lecturer at the Darmstädter Ferienkursen für neue Musik [Darmstadt summer university for New Music] and at the Ensemble-Akademie IMPULS in Graz, Austria. He continues to curate New Music festivals (Rümlingen and Zurich). Marcus Weiss is a professor of Saxophone and Chamber Music at the FHNW Academy of Music in Basel.

Prof. Qiming Yuan

Qiming Yuan was born in Shanghai into a family of musicians. His musical education began at a very early age, first learning to play the violin before moving on to the piano and later the trombone. When he was 11, he entered a music academy in Shanghai, where he specialised in the trombone. Before long, he discovered a passion for composition and began taking classes. Radio Shanghai broadcast his first work for piano, which Qiming Yuan performed himself. Soon afterwards, he became the youngest student of composition under Prof. F. Goldmann at the Berlin University of Arts (UdK). His studies also included orchestral conducting under Prof. H. M. Rabenstein and Prof. M. Husmann. As an exchange student in Copenhagen, he studied composition under Hans Abrahamsen. He was one of 200 entrants at the Besançon International Competition for Young Conductors, and was named among the 10 finalists. His keen interest in connecting with music on a deeper level led him to study music theory under Prof. Fladt. Having graduated from the UdK Berlin in composition, orchestral conducting and music theory, he taught at the HfM Weimar and the HfM Dresden. In 2009 he was appointed Professor of Music Theory at the FHNW Academy of Music in Basel. Alongside his teaching commitments, he successfully completed a postgraduate course in Jazz Piano at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). He has taught composition at the HfMT Cologne since 2017. He has also published many research papers and presented widely in Europe and Asia. His current work focuses on the relationship between cognition, interpretation and perception; the rhythmical function in music; the philosophy of music; historical events and music.

Prof. Alfred Zimmerlin

Alfred Zimmerlin, born in 1955, is an improvising musician (cello) who has enjoyed a prodigious international concert career, playing with many different formations, such as KARL ein KARL, the Kimmig-Studer-Zimmerlin Trio, and Zimmerlin-Stoffner-Meier. His oeuvre as a composer is equally prodigious and comprises pieces for piano, chamber music (with and without live electronics), vocal music, orchestral music, and music for theatre.  There are wealth of recordings documenting Alfred’s Zimmerlin’s output as both an improvising musician and composer. He has also won awards for his work, including the Kulturpreis des Kantons Zürich in 2014 and the Swiss Music Award in 2016. He has been a Professor of Free Improvisation at the Musikakademie Basel and the FHNW Academy of Music /Sonic Space Basel since 2012.