Eivind Buene (*1973 in Oslo) is living and working in Oslo, writing for a wide array of European ensembles and orchestras. He also frequently engages in collaborations with improvising musicians, developing music in the cross-section between classical notation and improvisation. Buene has a keen interest in text, and has published several novels and essays beside the musical work. He currently teaches composition at the Norwegian Academy of Music.

Oxana Omelchuk (*1975 in Belarus) studied with Johannes Fritsch and Michael Beil at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln. In addition to her compositional activities, she performs as a musician in various formations, and her range as a performing musician is reflected in her works. In her approach to existing material, the composer does not distinguish between U and E or High and Low. In her compositions she does not primarily want to create something new, but rather to transform existing, rediscovered material into the present.

For several years, she has also been intensively involved in her compositional work with modular synthesizers, which for her means developing works out of experimental trial arrangements and improvisational processes.

Since 2020 Oxana Omelchuk is part of the collective Polar Publik, a community of artists from the genres of dance, theater, new music and visual arts, who in their transdisciplinary projects at the interface of art and science address current situations in which the phenomena of power and powerlessness become explicit.

Milica Djordjević (*1984 in Belgrade) has an exuberant sound imagination and, thanks to her access to the entire arsenal of contemporary sound and playing techniques, “is able to transform the sounds produced by a lone cello into an acoustic thunderstorm of sheer existential dimensions by means of live electronics, conversely, to let twelve percussionists sink into the transitional field from the inaudible to the shadowy, or in ensemble and orchestral compositions to gently liquefy static sound surfaces and transform them into sluggish and viscous currents. In her music, the listener can never be sure of surprises.”

Her music is strange and familiar at the same time – strange because it unleashes darkness, fear, hidden and suppressed things; familiar because it makes these things explode and their splinters glitter. As brittle and abstract as the surface of her pieces may initially appear, the elaborate textures and dramatic tensions are sensually captivating.

She began her composition studies in Belgrade, where she was already involved in electronic music, then went to Strasbourg and the Paris IRCAM, and completed her studies in Berlin at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music from 2011 to 2013. Her already extensive output, performed by leading soloists and contemporary music ensembles, includes works for solo instruments, chamber music ranging from instrumental duos to double quartets, vocal works and large-scale orchestral compositions. Milica Djordjević has received numerous prizes and awards for her works, including the Belmont Prize in 2015, the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung Composer Prize in 2016, and the Claudio Abbado Composition Prize in 2020.

Dariya Maminova (*1988 in Saint Petersburg) works as a composer, pianist, and singer in the fields of contemporary instrumental and electronic composition, improvisation, and music theatre. She has a strong interest in synthesizing experimental contemporary music with genres of popular music as well as music from other cultures. This is reflected in her project Dariya’s Songs, where she performs her own songs.

Gordon Kampe (*1976 in Herne) studied composition with Hans-Joachim Hespos, Adriana Hölszky and Nicolaus A. Huber as well as music and history in Bochum after training as an electrician. He has received several awards, including the Composition Prize of the City of Stuttgarter (2007 and 2011), the Composer Prize of the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung and the Rome Prize. Since 2017 he is professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg. One focus of his work is in the field of vocal music and music theater. The genres here range from experimental forms and piece developments, live radio plays, and music theater for children to opera. Grdon Kampe likes sounds, dance and songs.

Hannah Weirich was a young student with Prof. Federico Agostini, studied with Prof. Ingolf Turban at the HfM Stuttgart from 1999 – 2004 and attended master classes with Franco Gulli, Yfrah Neaman, Igor Ozim and Dénes Zsigmondy, among others. Since 1992 she has performed worldwide with her piano trio Trio Fridegk, with which she has won several national and international prizes. In 2005 she became a permanent member of the Ensemble Musikfabrik. She has performed as a soloist with, among others, the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra and the Krakow State Philharmonic Orchestra, worked with Ensemble Resonanz, ascolta, the Neue Vocalsolisten, or the jazz formation Shreefpunk, and was a lecturer with, among others, the German Federal Youth Orchestra, Studio Musikfabrik, and from 2014 to 2017 as part of the master’s program in New Music at Folkwang University of the Arts Essen. In 2004 she received a scholarship from the Rudolf Eberle Foundation with a one-year residency at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, and in 2011 she was awarded the Förderpreis des Landes NRW.

Ulrich Löffler completed his piano studies at the Folkwang Hochschule Essen. As a soloist, he has performed with the Bavarian Radio and SWR Symphony Orchestras, among others, and has been a guest at international festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and Ars Musica Brussels. Löffler is a prizewinner of the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music. As a founding member, he has performed with Ensemble Musikfabrik at all international festivals since 1990. As a lecturer, Ulrich Löffler taught at the Folkwang University of the Arts Essen from 1998 to 2003 as part of the master’s degree program in New Music. In addition to his commitment to composed contemporary music, he also performs in improvisation projects and gives concerts with rock and jazz bands.