1960 Born in Lagos, Nigeria   

1979–82 Studies composition in Graz with A. Dobrowolsky and Gösta Neuwirth   

1982–90 Studies in Berlin: composition with Frank Michael Beyer and Gösta Neuwirth, musicology with Carl Dahlhaus, art history and philosophy   

1990–93 Pursues his studies with Hans Zender in Frankfurt/Main   

1990 Boris Blacher Composition Award Fellowship from the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris   

1994 Schneider Schott Award    

1996 Advancement Award of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin   

since 1997 Professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler“ in Berlin   

1998 Lecturer of composition at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt    

2000 Advancement Award of the Siemens Foundation    

2000–02 Professor of composition at the Musik hochschule in Basel    

2006 Project for Roche Commissions in cooperation with Lucerne Festival, Cleveland Orchestra and Carnegie Hall New York    

2010 Lecturer of composition at Acanthes in Metz Featured composer at many festivals and concert series, including in Akiyoshidai, Berlin, Bremen, Darmstadt, Donaueschingen, Graz, Los Angeles,

Lucerne, Paris, Salzburg, Strasbourg, Stuttgart, Vienna, Witten and Zurich.

The German-Austrian composer Brigitta Muntendorf creates music that exists at the intersection of various art forms and modes of expression, a web of multi-layered references and connections. A multimedia and interdisciplinary artist by default and steeped in the theatrical tradition, she aims to create a space for experimentation, both in her compositional work and as Artistic Director of Ensemble Garage. She treats music not as pure sound art, but as a social and aesthetic phenomenon in a society characterised by new digital media.

Her work with communication in the field of virtual reality – something she also explores on an academic level – is particularly displayed in her six-part Public Privacy series that she started in 2013, which combines amateur music videos by YouTubers with a solo instrument playing live on stage. Brigitta Muntendorf has also written several experimental music theatre pieces, including works for the Taschenoperfestival Salzburg (2011-15), FIGO for the Münchner Biennale 2016 and the social media opera iScreen, YouScream!, premiered with great success in 2017 at the ECLAT Festival in Stuttgart. Together with the choreographer Stephanie Thiersch she presented Anne Halprin’s City Dances as a large-scale “City Happening” in 2016, commissioned by the Philharmonie Köln and the German Federal Cultural Foundation. In May 2018 the GrauSchumacher Piano Duo gave the world premiere of the third part of her Trilogy for two pianos at the KunstFestSpielen Herrenhausen, and presented the trilogy, started in 2015, for the first time in its entirety.

Many of Brigitta Muntendorf’s artistic experiments are conducted with Ensemble Garage, which consists of ten musicians from seven different nations, and has already made a name for itself in the new music community with performances at the Darmstadt Summer Courses, Ultraschall Festival Berlin, aXes Festival Krakow, De Bijloke Ghent, Spor Festival Aarhus and at the Philharmonie Köln. The composer has also received commissions and performances from several other leading contemporary music ensembles at festivals including the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, Festival d’Automne Paris, Festival Musica Strasbourg, Acht Brücken Festival in Cologne, Gaudeamus Muziekweek in Utrecht, Warsaw Autumn, Klang Festival in Copenhagen and Wien Modern. In addition, she works on projects with artists from across various genres, including directors Thierry Bruehl and Abdullah Kenan Karaca, the DJ Cio D’Or, the electro duo Mouse on Mars and choreographers Anna Konjetzky and Stephanie Thiersch. She has curated the Frau Musica (nova) series for Deutschlandfunk Köln since 2013.

Brigitta Muntendorf completed her composition studies with Younghi Paagh-Paan at the University of the Arts in Bremen, as well as with Krzysztof Meyer, Rebecca Saunders and Johannes Schöllhorn at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln. She has received grants from the Cité Internationale des Arts Paris (2010), Ensemble Modern Akademie (2012), Villa Concordia Bamberg (2014/15) and Villa Kamogawa Kyoto (2017). In 2014 Brigitta Muntendorf received the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in connection with the release of her CD It may be all an illusion. Most recently, she was awarded the 2017 German Music Authors’ Prize by GEMA in the Young Talent category.

Since 2013 Brigitta Muntendorf has taught composition at the University of Siegen and has been a Visiting Professor of Composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln since October 2017.

Born in 1962, he studied with Klaus Huber, Emanuel Nunes and Mathias Spahlinger and musical analysis with Peter Förtig. He also attended conducting courses with Peter Eötvös.
Johannes Schöllhorns music has a wide range of genres from chamber music, vocal music and orchestra music to music for theatre. Besides his own compositions he is also working on different kinds of transkompositions of music from Renaissance until music of today. His music is performed by many international Soloists, Ensembles and Orchestras like Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Ensemble l’instant donné, Remix Ensemble, ensemble recherche, Neue Vocalsolisten ensemble ascolta, das Neue Ensemble, the Radio Symphony Orchestras of the WDR and SWR, the DSO Berlin, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra London and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. He awarded prizes like the Comitée de lecture of the Ensemble Intercontemporain in 1997 and the Praetorius Prize 2009. His chamber opera "les petites filles modèles" was played many times in Paris and France and had its premiere at the Opera de Bastille in 1997. In 2008 he was participant of the “into”-project in Hong Kong.

Johannes Schöllhorn was teaching from 1995 to 2000 at the Musikhochschule Zürich-Winterthur (CH). He was conductor of the Ensemble für Neue Musik at the Musikhochschule Freiburg (until 2004) and from 2001 to 2009 he was Professor for composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover and Director of the Institut für neue Musik “incontri”. From 2009 to 2017 he was Professor for composition and director of the Institut für Neue Musik at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne. Since October 2017 Johannes Schöllhorn is Professor of Composition and Director of the Institut für Neue Musik at the Musikhochschule Freiburg.

Johannes Schöllhorn gave several composition courses i.e. at the Fondation Royaumont (F) and at the Bartók-Festival (HU), at Schloss Solitude (D), at the Ictus-Seminar (B), the Conservatoire de Paris (F), the TrinityLaban College in London (GB), the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and the Conservatory of Music Shanghai (China), in Hong Kong, at the Takefu-Festival and the Tokyo Ondai University (Japan), the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra (Korea), at the Centro San Fedele Milano (Italy) in Lugano (CH), Kiev (Ukraine), Jakarta (Indonesia) and Manila (Philippines).

Christian Eggen, Founding member of Cikada.

Conductor, composer and pianist, Christian Eggen is one of the most influential personalities on the Norwegian music scene, ranging from contemporary music via genremerging projects, installations, television and radio drama productions to film, theatre, jazz, opera and classical music.

As a conductor, he is known as one of Europe’s finest interpreters of contemporary music and has worked closely with composers such as Morton Feldman, John Cage and Helmut Lachenmann. As artistic director of the Oslo Sinfonietta, he has developed the Norwegian sinfonietta repertoire since the nineties, and he regularly appears on the European contemporary music scene with groups such as the Ensemble MusikFabrik and Ensemble InterContemporain. His work with orchestras include the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala in Milan and the Royal Philharmonic in London.

He has written music for a vast range of formations and settings. His first opera, the Franz Kafka Pictures will receive its complete world premiere at the Norwegian National Opera in the autumn of 2013. Sections of the opera have been performed since 2009.

As a pianist, Christian Eggen has gained international acclaim for his interpretations of Mozart and the Danish composer Carl Nielsen, as on the recording Carl Nielsen: Piano Music on the Victoria Label

Christian Eggen appears on a great number of recordings within all aspects of his wide musical horizons. He has been principle featured performer at the Bergen International Festival and in 2007, he was appointed Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav for his work with Norwegian and international contemporary music.

Sandro Gorli studied composition with Franco Donatoni, while also studying at the Faculty of Architecture in Milan and taking a diploma in pianoforte.

He carried out research at the Phonology studio at the RAI studios in Milan, and he attended the orchestra conducting courses held by Hans Swarowsky in Vienna. In 1977 he founded – and still conducts – the Divertimento Ensemble, which runs an intense concert programme with the objective of increasing the diffusion of contemporary music.

He was principal conductor of the Elision Ensemble, Melbourne, from 1990 to 1998. With the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, he led the first Italian performance of Philip Glass’ Low Symphony, and, conducting the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano G. Verdi, he has recorded two CDs entirely dedicated to Bruno Maderna.

His compositions, regularly performed on occasion of the most important Italian and international events, include: Me-Ti, for orchestra, a request by Bruno Maderna for the RAI Orchestra, Milan (1975 SIMC prize), Chimera la luce, for vocal sextet, pianoforte, choir and orchestra, whose premier performance was held at the Royan Festival in 1976, conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli, On a Delphic Reed, for oboe and 17 performers (1980 SIMC prize), Il bambino perduto, for orchestra, Quartetto, for strings, Le due Sorgenti, for chamber orchestra, Super flumina, for oboe, viola and orchestra, written for the 1987 Babilonia Festival (1989 City of Trieste prize), and Requiem, for unaccompanied mixed choir, written for La Chapelle Royale conducted by Philippe Herrewege (CD Harmonia Mundi).

The organizations that have commissioned his scores include: RAI, Milan (1973), I Solisti Veneti (1975), the Gulbenkian Foundation (1976), the French Ministry of Culture (1979, 1983, 1984, 1989 and 1993), the Italian Foreign Ministry (1987), Radio France (1981 and 1988), the Orchestra Regionale Toscana (1990), the Ensemble Elision, Melbourne (1990 and 1994), the Geneva Festival (1991), the Atelier du Rhin (1993), the Japanese Theatre Winter festival (1997), Agon (1997), the Archdiocese of Milan (1999), and the Lisbon Symphonic Orchestra (2000), Milano Musica (2003), Ex Novo Ensemble (2009), Accademia Filarmonica Romana (2010).

In 1985 he won the Europa prize for musical theatre with the opera Solo, and his second opera, Le mal de lune, was staged in March 1994 in Colmar and Strasbourg.

Tarmo Johannes (1976, Tallinn) is an Estonian flutist dedicated primarily to performing contemporary music. He is founder and leader of ensembles U: (flute-clarinet-violin-cello-piano) and Resonabilis (voice-flute-cello-kannel) and has played a number of concerts of solo flute repertoire with great success.  Next to countless concerts in Estonia, he has performed in Finland, Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, United Kingdom, Romania, Spain, Iran, USA. 

Tarmo Johannes studied flute at the Estonian Academy of Music with Jaan Õun, Matti Helin and Neeme Punder. He completed his Post Graduate Course at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Harrie Starreveld (1999–2001) and got his PhD at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (2001–2005) on Italian contemporary flute music. His doctoral thesis is a research of influence of analysis on the musical performance, based on works of three Italian contemporary composers: Bruno Maderna, Franco Donatoni and Salvatore Sciarrino. He has also studied at the Latvian Academy of Music with Imants Sneibis (1997–1998) and Italian contemporary flute music at Bologna Conservatory with Annamaria Morini (2004).

Tarmo Johannes has written numerous articles on contemporary music for the main Estonian magazine of music “Muusika”.  He has given supplementary courses for music teachers (organised by Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre and Georg Ots Tallinn Music school) and lectured at the Doctoral School of EAMT. Tarmo Johannes teaches flute at Georg Ots Tallinn Music College, Estonia.

In recent years Tarmo Johannes has been actively engaged also with sound synthesis and programming. His interactive piece “Chebychev” was selected for performance in Csound World Conference in Hannover 2011, sound-game “Android drummers” was performed in LAC 2013 (Graz), interactive piece “Pattern-game” performed in Csound Conference in St. Petersburg.

Tarmo Johannes has been an active contributor to the main front-end program of Csound, CsoundQt.

In autumn 2014 Tarmo Johannes started original concert series “Participation concerts” (Tallinn, Estonia) that tries to bring people to making music and led them through active action to active listening. Every concert consists of an interactive sound-game, a lecture about some aspect of sound and some chosen pieces for flute and electronics. 

Ignacio Torner, is the pianist of the contemporary music group Taller Sonoro, ensemble with which he has offered concerts in Vienna (Musikverein), Rome (Academy of Spain), Paris (Les Invalides, Instituto Cervantes), Berlin (Instituto Cervantes), Brest (Teatro Quartz ), Bremen (Sendesaal), Frankfurt (Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst), Bordeaux (Opus 5.1 Cycle), Madrid (Reina Sofía Museum Auditorium, National Auditorium, Canal Theaters, Sala Conde Duque), Ljubljana (World Saxophone Congress) , Bogotá (Auditoriums León de Greiff and Fabio Lozano), Buenos Aires and Rosario (Argentina), Valencia (Palau de les Arts and Palau de la Musica), Lima (Contemporary Music Festival of Lima), Santander (Menéndez Pelayo International University) , National Arts Center (Mexico City), Morelia (Mexico), Donostiarra Musical Fortnight, Barcelona (Teatro del Liceo and Auditori), etc.

He has premiered works by José Manuel López López, César Camarero, David del Puerto, José María Sánchez Verdú, Jesús Rueda, Tristán Murail, Thierry Alla, Françoise Rossé, Mauricio Sotelo, Elena Mendoza, Cristóbal Halffter and Tomás Marco among many other authors.

He has taught courses on contemporary music at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt, Javeriana University in Bogotá, Conservatorio Superior de las Rosas (Morelia, Mexico), National Center for the Arts of Mexico, Arrigo Boito Conservatory in Parma, Complutense University of Madrid and has recorded six CDs, dedicated respectively to the music of Luis de Pablo, César Camarero, David del Puerto, José María Sánchez Verdú, Nuria Núñez and Juan Cruz Guevara.

He has a duet with the soprano Mariví Blasco with which they offer concerts of Spanish music and old music accompanied by piano prepared, and another duo with the also pianist Alborada Moreno. He directs the Proyecto Piano Joven, dedicated to the promotion of contemporary music among young pianists.

He works as piano teacher at the Cristóbal de Morales Professional Music Conservatory in Seville.