Star Dust Music

Paul-Jakob Dinkelacker grew up in a musical household, learned French horn as well as classical percussion and gained his first stage experiences in orchestras and theater. In 2014, he completed his music studies (jazz and popular music) at the HfMdK Mannheim. Since then he has worked mainly as a theater musician and performer in about 30 productions so far. As a drummer he plays with Fabian Simon&The Moon Machine, Hotel Rimini, Bayuk, and others. In the “silent period” of the pandemic between 2020 and 2022, he was increasingly involved in the hybridization and preparation of electroacoustic instrumental setups and continued his education in the field of sound design. Dinkelacker is interested in sounds that are different but can be aestheticized into something that has already been there. In this search he builds or prepares instruments experimentally and intuitively. Most recently, this resulted in a drum and string construct made of metal and wood.

Lucas Dorado, born in 1995 in Biel, learned to know and play Latin American rhythms as a small child through his father. He later studied percussion at the Biel Conservatory and eventually focused on the vibraphone. Since 2012 he has performed in internationally renowned halls such as the Berlin Philharmonie or the Pavillon Habib Bourguiba Paris as well as in Germany, Norway, Portugal and Argentina. After further studies in Switzerland, in 2015 he received a scholarship for his bachelor studies in jazz vibraphone at the Berlin University of the Arts, which he graduated in February 2020 with top grades. He then graduated from the same university in July 2022 with the prestigious master’s program “European Jazz Master” – in collaboration with jazz universities in Paris, Copenhagen, Trondheim and Amsterdam. In September 2017 he won the 1st prize at the first “Jazz Vibraphone Competition” in Pescara (Italy) and a year later he became an official ambassador of a famous vibraphone brand .

www.lucasdorado.com

Mohamad Fityan, born in Aleppo in 1984, is a Syrian musician and composer especially known for his outstanding skills on the flutes ney and kaval. In 2009 he graduated from the Academy of Music and was a soloist with the Syrian Orchestra and the Syrian Jazz Big Band from 2003 to 2013. He has been living in Germany since 2014, where he has performed as a soloist with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Brussels Jazz Orchestra, and the Bavarian Philharmonic Orchestra, among others, reaching an ever-growing audience through radio, television, and the internet. A master of the ney, Mohamad Fityan represents his instrument on the Elbphilharmonie’s YouTube channel.
He was awarded, among others, the Best Nay Player Award at the Contest of Syrian Youth Musicians in Syria (2002) and Best Conductor Award at the Contest of Syrian Youth Musicians in Syria (2003).

www.fityan-music.com

Gal Golob finished his studies at the Conservatory for Music and Ballet Ljubljana as a classical cellist and jazz double bassist and continued his studies at the renowned Jazz Institute Berlin. He has performed at many competitions (most recently he was awarded 2nd place at Jazzon 2022) and festivals such as Jazzopen Stuttgart, Druga Godba, Jazz Festival Ljubljana, Bayerisches Jazzweekend, Futurum Festival Leipzig, Festival MENT and others. He regularly performs with bands such as Fabia Mantwill Quintett, Nomadia, Gugutke, Kerida.

Ganna Gryniva is a Ukrainian jazz singer who came to Germany from Ukraine with her parents in 2002 at the age of 13. In her music she unfolds her different cultural roots: in her ethno-jazz quintet GANNA, performing for “Airing Out” in the Schlüterhof,  and solo with loops/electronics she combines Ukrainian folklore with jazz and improvised music. Inspired by research trips to different regions of Ukraine, Ganna is committed to spreading Ukraine’s cultural heritage internationally. Her new album HOME was celebrated by the music press as “Album of the Year” (Ulrich Habersetzer, DLF Kultur) and “Jazz Highlight of the Year” (Roland Spiegel, Bayerischer Rundfunk).

Currently Ganna Gryniva lives in Berlin and tours regularly in various European countries with her own bands, as a sidewoman and as a lecturer for jazz and improvised voice.

www.ganna-gryniva.de

Ali Hasan is a Syrian musician born in Damascus, now living in Berlin. As a percussionist, he collaborates with various groups, including Pulsar Collective, Musiqana and Matar. He is co-founder of Baynatna, the Arabic library at ZLB Berlin and founder of Wir gehören der Musik. He plays regularly for the Dabke group invited by Sasha Waltz & Guests and performed at United We Stream. As a fram drummer and musical advisor, he was involved in the founding and concerts of the Resident Music Collective at the Humboldt Forum.

www.alihasan.berlin

Annegret Holjewilken studied french horn in Berlin and works as a coordinated solo horn player with the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg. With the alphorn and her ensemble Naturklang Potsdam, she goes on an exploratory journey to the origins of horn playing.

Aly Keïta comes from a family of musicians from the ivory coast and grew up surrounded by traditional instruments such as djembe and kora. He has been building and playing his own instruments since childhood, but his favorite instrument has become the balafon, for which he has gained worldwide renown. Although rooted in tradition, Keïta’s Afro-pop and funk-heavy rhythm section and his penchant for complex, jazz-oriented arrangements set him apart from most balafonists. He has performed with renowned musicians such as Omar Sosa, Joe Zawinul, Rhoda Scott and many more and was nominated for the German Jazz Award in 2022. At the Humboldt Forum he is part of the Resident Music Collective and performed as part of the  2021 “Airing Out” festival in the Schlüter courtyard.

Christian Müller, born in Garbsen in 1990, is a bassist and composer who, after stations in Hamburg and Amsterdam, has moved the center of his creative work to Berlin in 2019. He studied at the HfMT Hamburg as well as at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. At the same time he was accepted into the Bundesjazzorchester under the direction of Niels Klein and Jiggs Whigham. Concert tours have taken him to stages in and outside Germany, including: Elbjazz Festival, Jazz Baltica Festival, Uitmarkt Festival, Borneo Jazz Festival. He has played with John Schröder, Henrik Walsdorff, Seamus Blake, Marcio Doctor, Wanja Slavin and Ensemble Resonanz, among others. Christian Müller’s work as a sideman is documented on several albums with diverse projects. In early 2023 he recorded his debut album as a bandleader, which contains exclusively original compositions.

@christian.cuevas.mueller

Laura Robles is an award-winning improviser, composer, multi-instrumentalist and researcher born in Eswatini and raised in Lima. She studied traditional Afro-Peruvian and Cuban music and shared a stage with renowned artists such as Amador Ballumbrosio, Juan Medrano Cotito, Nilo Borges, Laureano Rigol, Roberto Borrell, Susana Baca among others. Considered one of the most accomplished Cajón players in the world, she has dedicated her career to the analysis of Folk rhythms with a strong focus on Afro-Peruvian folklore. Robles has continued experimenting and with rhythm and possibilities of expression in modern jazz and improvised music. In the last few years she has worked with artists and groups as diverse as American composer and Grammy Award winner Maria Schneider, Petros Klampanis, Bodek Janke, Lauer Large Orquestra, Pablo Held, Niels Klein, Ensemble Neue Musik Zürich, WDR Big Band, Wanja Slavin, Steffen Schorn among others. Robles lives in Germany and is currently working on her first solo album.

Lydia Röder is a palliative care expert and death and bereavement counselor as well as a sound therapist and yoga teacher and has been working with people at the end of life since 1988. She has directed a hospice service for over twenty years. Today she is a freelancer dealing with the issues of dying, death and mourning. As a sound therapist, she plays the body tambura, an instrument that can be played in direct contact with the human body and with whose vibrations Röder accompanies dying people in their last days.

www.lydia-roeder.de

Edgardo Rudnitzky has lived in Berlin since 2003. He was born in Argentina in 1956. He was trained as a composer and has worked extensively as a composer for stage, dance and film in parallel with his work as a sound artist. The idea of the physicality of sound and movement is one of the central aspects in his work, leading him to explore the limits and possibilities of mechanisms and to reinvent the functionality of objects and machines through carefully constructed systems. The visual presentation of his works is as important to him as the sonic component, and he often incorporates the environment to breathe new life into unusual places.

Rudnitzky’s work has been shown and heard at venues including the Biennale di Venezia, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, the Yokohama Triennale, the Naturkundemuseum Halle, HKW Berlin, the Istanbul Biennale, and other public and private venues.

He has lived in Berlin since 2003.

www.rudni.com

Clemens Rynkowski is a composer, thereminist and musical director. He lives in Berlin and works transdisciplinary for orchestra, chamber ensembles, film, dance, theater and music theater. Previous positions: Berliner Ensemble, Bavarian State Opera Munich, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Saarländisches Staatstheater Saarbrücken, Nationaltheater Weimar, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Goethe-Institut Ramallah. He is lecturing at the art universities of Berlin (Ernst Busch), Weimar, Rostock, Erfurt.

Born in Paris in 1986, Grégoire Simon works as a performer and composer. After studying violin and viola he was part of the Ensemble Intercontemporain – Paris, performing as a soloist Gérard Grisey’s “Prologue” and Hugues Dufour’s viola concerto “Les Chardons d’après Van Gogh” at the Philharmonie de Paris.

At the same time he developed aactivities as a composer and electronic music producer. His “Prédèle” for viola and electronics and his multimedia performance “Infrarouge” were premiered in 2016 and 2017 at the Wien Modern festival. With his duo Yes Soeur! Grégoire Simon has been producing music for contemporary dance shows at the Opéra National de Lyon, Ballet National de Marseille, Festival d’Automne, Palais de Chaillot in Paris.

Recent composition commissions includes: IRIJORI for viola and electronics – Ensemble Flashback (Perpignan), IOGI-JOGI for string trio and clarinet – Zafraan Ensemble, and an orchestral Suite for the Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra (Berlin).

www.gregoiresimon.com

Joachim Striepens is a clarinettist. The focus of his artistic activity lies in the performance of contemporary music with numerous world premieres and in projects with multimedia or improvisational aspects. Programs curated by Joachim Striepens often incorporate other art forms and, in their precisely staged form, like to respond specifically to the conditions of the performance venue.

In 1999 he founded the E-MEX Ensemble with its own concert series, e.g. at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne or the Folkwang Museum, Essen, as well as invitations to festivals and guest performance tours within Europe and to the USA, Japan, South Korea, Chile and China. Numerous CD and concert recordings, e.g. for WDR, DLF, BR or SWR document these extensive activities.

He is a member of the ensemble reflexionK and has played with Roberto Fabricciani, Ian Page, Theo Bleckmann, Christina Ascher, his brother Ansgar Striepens, as well as with ensemble modern, musikFabrik and Ensemble Recherche, among others.

Cansu Tanrıkulu is an internationally acknowledged, award-winning singer, multimedia artist, composer and improviser living in Berlin. Tanrikulu, one of the most active young voices in the European Creative Music Scene, works also as a recording and performance artist in prestigious projects and stages. She composes for a wide range of projects, from solos to large ensembles, installations to theatre works, and now expands her experimental vocal art repertoire, which she combines with sound design and variable musical structures in collaboration with interdisciplinary artists.

www.aysecansutanrikulu.com

Mathilde Vendramin is a cellist, singer, improviser and composer. She works at the crossroads of genres, mixing her classical roots with jazz and experimental music, while using improvisation as her main creative window. After graduating in musicology in Strasbourg and classical cello in Graz, she now specializes in jazz singing and jazz cello at the Jazz Institute Berlin.

Active as a cellist and singer in several modern jazz groups (Eloà Goncalves Quartet, Matthias Schriefl Geläut, Lucia Boffo Group, Axel Filip Maleza Quintet), and German rap with rapper Keno Langbein and drummer Tilo Weber, she also performs as a soloist, accompanying herself on the cello.

In July 2023, she will work with director Christoph Clausen for the musical composition and solo performance of a play in Berlin at the Delphi Theater.

Katrin Vogel grew up in East Berlin. Since 1990 she has worked as deputy principal horn at the Komische Oper Berlin. In 2006 she discovered her love for the alphorn. In addition to her concert activities, she writes her own pieces and gives courses. She is a member of the ensemble alphorn absolut berlin. She is particularly interested in expanding the traditional sound language of the alphorn and in improvisation.

www.katrinvogel-alphorn.de