Mixture

Kanun Bassem Alkhouri Trumpet Liz Allbee Drumset Ketan Bhatti Contrabasson Florian Bensch Tuba Matthew Bookert Viola Luis Cordero Cello Anil Eraslan Ney / Kaval Mohamad Fityan Percussion Ali Hasan Koto Naoko Kukuchi Trombone Florian Juncker Duduk Mahir Kartal Balafon Aly Keïta Didgeridoo Marc Miethe Kamanche Farhang Moshtagh Oud Mohannad Nasser Cuatro Eleonora Gotopo Theremin Clemens Rynkowski Bass clarinet / Electronics Milian Vogel Violin Biliana Voutchkova Sheng Wu Wei Bağlama Derya Yıldırım Alpine horn Katrin Vogel Musical direction and composition Ketan Bhatti & Clemens Rynkowski Recording engineer and mix Jan Brauer Recording assistant Ole Breuer

Liz Allbee, Trumpet

Liz Allbee is a composer-performer & improviser residing in Berlin. She performs most often on self-designed quadraphonic trumpet, trumpet, electronics, and voice. Her work encompasses electro-acoustic composition, improvisational strategies and instrument creation, often focusing on issues of embodiment and extension.

Bassem Alkhouri, Qanun

Bassem Alkhouri was born in Damascus, Syria. With his kanun – a zither-like instrument – he performed as a soloist in many concerts with the National Syrian Symphony Orchestra. Since 2003 he is part of the New Ensemble and the Atlas Ensemble in Amsterdam under the direction of Ed Spanjaard, where he plays contemporary music written especially for the kanun.

Florian Bensch, Contrabassoon

Florian Bensch lives and works as a freelance bassoonist in Berlin. He is a member of the ECHO- and OPUS- Klassik award-winning Berolina Ensemble and a regular guest at the Kammerakademie Potsdam and Ensemble Resonanz. He is also intensively involved with new playing techniques on the bassoon and contrabassoon.

Ketan Bhatti

Ketan Bhatti is a composer, drummer and crossover artist working between different genres and cultural worlds. His works range from contemporary chamber music, through to experimental musical and dance theatre, to electronic hip-hop based productions.  Along with his brother Vivan Bhatti, he has composed music for theatrical productions by Nuran David Calis since 2003, and for the urban Berlin dance company Flying Steps since 2009. Ketan founded the Trickster Orchestra together with Cymin Samawatie in 2013 as a chamber orchestra for contemporary, trans-traditional soundscapes and experimental development methods.

Matthew Bookert, Tuba

The multi-faceted US tuba player Matthew Bookert moves between genres such as jazz, pop, world, electro, classical orchestra, solo and chamber music. He has lived in Germany since 2007 and travels through Europe with various formations, including Volxtanz, Mr. Zarko, Brass Band Berlin and Marshall Cooper. Matthew Bookert also regularly records soundtracks for productions by Netflix and Disney.

Luis Cordero Jr., Viola

Luis Cordero Jr. was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and participated in El Sistema, the Venezuelan system of youth orchestras (FESNOJIV). He obtained his Master of Music degree from the Conservatoire Toulouse and the Centre des Études Supérièures de Musique et Danse de Toulouse. He regularly works with prominent international soloists such as Rolando Villazon, Ilya Kaler, Stella Doufexis, Radek Baborak and Antoine Tamestit, as well as with some of the most important conductors of our time: Simon Rattle, Gustavo Dudamel and Tugan Shokiev.

Anil Eraslan, Cello

Anil Eraslan is multiplying various musical experiences between Berlin, Strasbourg, Paris and Istanbul. He is currently working with ensembles such as Trickster Orchestra, Ap Lla, Eponj, Klub Demboh, Racines, ‘H’, Sousta Politiki and collaborating with musicians such as Fred Frith, Antonis Anissegos, Sevket Akinci, Taner Akyol, Matthias Mainz, Tom Malmendier and Clara Weil. Besides, he is working on film projects.

Mohamad Fityan, Ney / Kaval

Mohamad Fityan, born in Aleppo, Syria is a musician and composer known for his mastery of the Nay and Kawala. Aside from being a composer and a musician, Fityan also has a wide experience as a musical teacher. He taught at various institutes across Syria including the Solhi al-Wadi Institute for Music, the Syrian-Dutch “Music in Me” supported by UNRWA and the UNICEF SOS Village.

Eleonora Gotopo, Cuatro

Eleonora Gotopo is a singer, composer, orchestra conductor and educator. She studied and later taught in the renowned Venezuelan program for children and youth El Sistema. Now based in Berlin, her last projects include a dance collaboration on Amanda Piña’s piece Dance & Resistance, Endangered Human Movements performed in HAU Berlin; composing the Soundtrack for the Angolan film Para lá dos meus passos premiered at Encounters (South Africa) and Cinedans (Amsterdam), and her solo artist debut: her song Malembe.

Ali Hasan, Percussion

Ali Hasan, a Syrian musician, was born in Damascus and is now based in Berlin. He is co-founder of Baynatan, the arabic library in the public library of Berlin, and the founder of We belong to Music. He is a regular percussionist for the Dabke group hosted by Sasha Waltz & Guests and recently performed for United We Stream.

Florian Juncker, Trombone

Florian Juncker lives and works as a musician in Berlin. He is a member of various ensembles and bands in the field of new music, jazz and experimental music. His main interest lies in the area of transformative processes between different genres of music and different musical cultures, as well as bridging to other creative arts. Florian is a member of the chamber ensemble LUX:NM, the Trickster Orchestra and the Hannes Zerbe Jazz Orchestra.

Deniz Mahir Kartal, Duduk

Deniz Mahir Kartal plays the duduk, kaval, çağlama and other traditional instruments, as well as saxophone, clarinet and guitar. He plays in different bands from Turkey, Sweden, Germany and the Czech Republic dedicated to the most diverse musical genres – from Anatolian music to Balkan, Ska, Reggae to electronic music. Mahir has been living in Berlin since 2013 and gives regularly concerts all over Europe. He is currently concentrating on his solo project KafaNar, in which he creates a hypnotic danceable sound with his various instruments, vocals and loops.

Aly Keïta, Balafon

Aly Keïta, artist, musician and balafonist, was born in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. As part of a family of musicians, he has been building and playing his own instruments since childhood and has achieved mastery on the balafon. He became famous for his ability to use this thousand-year-old instrument in a modern context. Today Aly Keïta lives in Berlin and combines musical worlds with virtuosity. He wanders between spectacular African rhythm, polyphony and elements of jazz and combines them to a wonderful and unique sound world.

Naoko Kikuchi, Koto

Naoko Kikuchi was born in Sendai, Japan and has lived in Frankfurt am Main, Germany since 2007. She took lessons with Tadao Sawai and Kazue Sawai. Naoko received a one-year scholarship from the Office for Cultural Affairs and came to Frankfurt where she studied contemporary ensemble music at the IEMA (Internationale Ensemble Modern Akademie). Her repertoire includes not only classical but also modern Koto music. Naoko Kikuchi is a versatile artist, who is involved in a wide variety of projects including with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, or for the new edition of “Barcelona spezial Edition” by Freddie Mercury & Montserrat Caballé.

Farhang Moshtagh, Kamanche

Farhang Moshtagh is a freelance musician born in Iran and started to learn persian traditional music first at a music school, later at the University of Music in Iran. He went then to Ukraine to study Jazz music at the Conservatory of Art. Back in his home-country, he started to work as a teacher at the Conservatory of Music in Teheran. The main instrument of Farhang is the Kamancheh. He is a member of the well-known Babylon Orchestra in Berlin as well as playing several concerts with bands and also as a soloist – playing his own music.

Marc Miethe, Didgeridoo

The didgeridoo professional Marc Miethe already sang in the boys’ choir of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and discovered the Aboriginal Australian instrument as a bass player in 1992. His “spectacular virtuosity” and “inventiveness that is second to none” has led him to worldwide concerts with superstar Arijit Singh (MTV India), the wind quintet of the Staatskapelle, at the Fusion Festival, the DLD, Sennheiser Global Conference, for BMW (Monte Carlo), SAP (Nice), Thomas Cook or the 12th IAAF World Championship.

Mohannad Nasser, Oud

Syrian Oudist and composer, Mohannad Nasser has emerged as an innovative and creative musician with years of experience in performing on the Middle East musical scenes and expertise in teaching oriental music. His compositions have been described by audiences as “delicate, serene and magical”. In 2017, Mohannad released the first album of his group Oumi ensemble, Imaginary Dance, and started his solo project L’Oud whispers. Mohannad received several prizes at international Oud competitions and he is performing his music all around the world.

Clemens Rynkowski, Theremin

Clemens Rynkowski is a composer, thereminist and musical director. He lives in Berlin and works transdisciplinarily for orchestra, chamber ensembles, film, dance, theatre and music theatre. Previous positions: Berliner Ensemble, Bayerische Staatsoper München, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Saarländisches Staatstheater Saarbrücken, Nationaltheater Weimar, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Goethe-Institut Ramallah. Lectureships at the universities of Weimar, Rostock, Erfurt.

Katrin Vogel, Alphorn

Katrin Vogel grew up in Berlin (East). She is working at Komische Oper Berlin since 1990 as assistant solo horn player. In the last years the alphorn became her favourite instrument, where she is especially interested in modern music and improvisation.

Milian Vogel, Bass clarinet / electrionics

Multi-instrumentalist Milian Vogel combines improvisation with sound design. His stylistic spectrum ranges from jazz and hip hop to contemporary chamber music, free improvisation and electronic music. He learned West African rhythms in Ghana, studied saxophone in Berlin and as a drummer and bass clarinettist has shaped the sound of numerous productions.

Biliana Voutchkova, Violin

Bulgarian violinist Biliana Voutchkova works as a soloist and with renowned ensembles such as Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, the Splitter Orchestra, Ensemble United Berlin, Zeitkratzer, etc. She is a thoroughly engaged performer, composer and improviser with truly personal artistic language. Her work spans the widest possible range of sound and movement and her interests lead into various multidisciplinary collaborations.

Wu Wei, Sheng

Sheng virtuoso Wu Wei has performed with such leading orchestras and ensembles as the Berlin, New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras, BBC Symphony Orchestra and many others. Wu Wei has appeared at prestigious festivals, including the BBC Proms, Paris Autumn Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, Berliner Festspiele, Warsaw Autumn, and Musica Nova Helsinki. He has performed the World Premieres of 400 works, including 20 concertos for sheng and orchestra by different composers.

Derya Yıldırım, Bağlama/ Saz

Derya Yıldırım is a singer and multi-instrumentalist currently based in Berlin. In recent years she has become one of the leading figures to bring Anatolian folk music to a contemporary audience across Europe. Yıldırım learnt the piano, guitar, ud, saxophone and bağlama from an early age. She studied at Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg transferred to Universität der Künste in Berlin to specialize in the bağlama with Taner Akyol – where she graduated in 2020. Yıldırım works creatively with the repertoire of anatolian folk music – with an eagerness to lead it into the future without losing awareness of its past.