Catalogue | Katharina Rosenberger

“Lightning, always the avant-garde, precedes downpours. When the waters recede, criss-cross their artistry – patterns in the sand, sculpted as a topographic map or an open book in braille” – Amy Sara Carroll

More videos: Music Theatre & Vocal Works on Vimeo →

Sillons de Mémoires in full length is a collaborative work in four acts in co-creation with composer Dzovinar Mikirditsian, Eklekto and the Opernhaus Zürich.  The opera refers to traces that inscribe themselves indelibly into bodies, biographies, and collective memories. At the heart of this music theatre performance are questions of home, migration, and displacement, as well as the fragility of memory and its simultaneous persistence. How vivid, how fleeting and ephemeral is memory? What happens when the memory of a place becomes fragmented, contested, or erased? How do experiences of war, crisis, and loss shape one’s self-image and one’s outlook on the future?

Récits of the Desert – Acts of Resistance is dedicated to forms of humanitarian, artistic, and political activism in the shadow of the borderlands between the United States and Mexico, particularly in the border regions south of San Diego. Katharina Rosenberger has been active in this area as both an artist and teacher at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) between 2008 and 2020. The work draws in particular on the Transborder Immigrant Tool, a project developed by the Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0 / b.a.n.g. lab, including collaborations with humanitarian initiatives such as Border Angels.

Anne Briset, Videostill © Michelle Ettlin

Details

Premiere: 5–7 February 2026, Opernhaus Zürich – Studiobühne
Commissioned by the collectif Eklekto, co-produced with Opernhaus Zürich

This video documentation offers insights into selected sections of the work:

Prologue (2026)
Audio installation: Raphael Paciorek / Steven Whiting

Topographies (2025/2026)
Installation: Louis Delignon / Katharina Rosenberger

Récits of the Desert – Acts of Resistance (2025/2026)
Music theatre in one act for soprano, tenor, percussion quartet and turntables: Katharina Rosenberger

Recorded during the dress rehearsal on 4 February 2026 and the performances from 5–7 February 2026 at Opernhaus Zürich – Studiobühne.

Libretto (based on the Transborder Immigrant Tool Project)
Amy Sara Carroll (EDT 2.0) – poetry
Ricardo Dominguez – spoken text
Katharina Rosenberger – text (aria «Água comida roupas quentes»)

Cast – Opernhaus Zürich
Flavia – Flavia Stricker (soprano)
Sam – Samuel Wallace (tenor)

with Eklekto
Corentin Marillier – percussion, turntables
Anne Briset – percussion, turntables
Louis Delignon – percussion, turntables
Pascal Viglino – percussion, turntables

Choirs and extras
SoprAlti of Opernhaus Zürich
Zusatzchor of Opernhaus Zürich
Opernhaus Zürich Extras Association

Production team – Opernhaus Zürich
Steven Whiting – concept, direction and design
Ismael Gatti – chorus master
Raphael Paciorek – sound design and live electronics
Taina Bucheli – lighting design
Sarah Bigler – costume design
Jana Beckmann – dramaturgy

Sillons team
Nathalie Baranger – administration
Eva Marie Herbert – communications
Michelle Ettlin – video documentation
Leandro Gianini – additional audio mixing
Milutin Kostic – additional footage

We thank the Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0 / b.a.n.g. Lab – micha cárdenas, Amy Sara Carroll, Ricardo Dominguez, Elle Mehrmand and Brett Stalbaum – for permission to use the poems and audio recordings. More about the Transborder Immigrant Tool Project →

With sincere thanks to Ville de Genève, République et canton de Genève, Pro Helvetia, Fondation Oertli and Opernhaus Zürich.

«Se essa rua fosse minha» – traditional Brazilian children’s song (public domain)

A trailer presenting the complete production of Sillons de Mémoires is currently in preparation.  A link will be added here soon.

“Every human being is a beginning, a beginner, a novelty, something that never existed before, something new and unprecedented…” - Hannah Arendt

THE GAP – performance installation, excerpts

Somewhere, where future and past collide, there must be a space in between — a gap. Or perhaps secret portals to other worlds. Maybe just a speck of dust carrying the idea of a new beginning? Step with us into the gap and search for the loophole in time.

The starting point for THE GAP is a short parable by Franz Kafka from 1920. In it, he describes the human condition as caught between past and future, forced to struggle against both. Hannah Arendt places this story at the beginning of her book Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought and counters Kafka’s image of despair with a belief of her own: “Every human being is a beginning and a beginner.” For Arendt, a new beginning is — despite everything — always possible, because the human being is free. But how can one live up to the demands of that freedom? Which stories should be retold and carried into the future — and which should not? Is history a prerequisite for freedom, or does it stand in its way?

In the performance-installation, different temporal experiences in music become tangible: the pushing forward and being pulled back, moments of stillness, resistance, and repetition. THE GAP creates a sensuous space between past and future, between decay and renewal, and asks how histories are collected, shared, or reimagined — and whether other realities are possible.

The audience moves through a spatial parcours on different paths. They encounter installations activated by small musical-performative ensembles. They may play sound topographies of memory, rummage through visual and sonic archives, or enter the writing room where the murmur of books can be heard and new texts can be woven into an endless fabric of words. Along the way, they meet strange time travelers who have become stranded in the present with their time machines — all of them searching, like us, for the energy of a new beginning, which is ultimately summoned in a grand tutti ensemble piece.

The image shows the back side of THE GAP flyer and lets know that the performance is on September 27 and 28 at the Alte Krematorium Sihlfeld in Zurich

Impressions of THE GAP

Audience spreading out between the sound installation in Salle comunale du Faubourg

Images above and below: THE GAP @La Bâtie-Festival de Genève, Salle communale du Faubourg, ©Guillaume Collignon

we see a contra bassist and a cellist performing while pulling an elastng band that is attached to the turntable and moves the platter

Noëlle Reymond on Contrabass and Ingrid Schoenlaub on Violoncello of Contrechamps, ©Guillaume Collignon

THE GAP - ZONE THE ARCHIVE, Vinyl 1 - basis material for scratching

ZONE – THE ARCHIVE
A string trio engages directly with a set of turntables, creating a dialogue between analog memory and live sound. Fragments of recorded material—voices narrating Hannah Arendt and string excerpts from the composition “Final Act,” which the audience will hear at the end of THE GAP—are mixed, scratched, and thus reinterpreted in real time. The musicians respond to these sonic remnants while being connected by elastic bands to the spinning platters, weaving their playing and the sound of the vinyl into a single, evolving musical fabric.

Also in THE ARCHIVE, the audience encounters the installation TOPOGRAPHIES—a turntable-based installation in which, instead of vinyl, objects are placed on the platter, and instead of a needle, a contact microphone picks up the surface qualities of diverse materials and object textures (see image below). Here, visitors can manipulate the turntables themselves, triggering and reshaping “sounding topographies” by, for example, changing playback speed, rearranging materials, adding objects, or switching engraved clay records, among other actions.

Audience members interact with turntables that instead of a vinyl they have objects on the platter, like fake fure, or earth, with touch microphones they can listen the quality of the material

Audience members engage with the installation TOPOGRAPHIES @Guillaume Collignon

ZONE – TRANSCIENCE
In this environment, a percussionist performs within a 9-meter-long wooden construction reminiscent of a skeletal whale, overgrown with dark, moss-like vegetation. The performing body in movement, carefully selected instruments, and the arching architecture merge into a single resonant body: struck, brushed, or disturbed by the rustling of the performing body passing by—when activated, the structure itself becomes a strangely sonorous organism. Sounds emerge as if from a fossil in slow, evolving transformation—oscillating between organic decay and latent vitality, embodying time as both fleeting and persistent.

a big wooden construct reminding of a whale sceleton, in which percussion instruments hang, the structure is seen from afar with the audience surrounding it

we see the percussionist in the percussion installation in the middle of gongs in the whale-structure with very cool lighting

Percussionist Brian Archinal in the transcience percussion installation, @La Bâtie-Festival de Genève, ©Guillaume Collignon and just above @Altes Krematorium Sihlfeld Zürich, ©Michelle Ettlin

ZONE – SALON ÉCRITURE
This writing room offers a quieter, introspective encounter. Books murmur softly, whispered texts excerpts of Kafka's and Arendt's writings unfold within softly trempling paper sculptures creating a sensory acoustic tapestry. The audience is invited not only to listen but to participate: writing responses on small cards to questions that probe and provoke wishes and hopes for the future, while prompting unexpected journeys down memory lane.

All responses are then hung in a paper forest, readable for present and future audiences.

ZONE SALON ECRITURE - tugged away under the stage in a dress room situation, low ceiling, everywhere book and paper sculptures and whispering and shaking paper scultpures

@La Bâtie-Festival de Genève, ©Guillaume Collignon

ZONE – TIME MACHINE
Along the way, visitors encounter two eccentric time travelers stranded somewhere in the future with their malfunctioning time machine. Searching for a secret and magical instrument with unique sonic powers to overcome temporal dislocations—the duo wants to return to Earth. At times successful, a wondrous portal opens to a video-animated, electrified cosmic stream. However, the retrofitted control room has its quirks: only if all participants truly seek the energy for a collective restart by rubbing magic stones can their fragmented stories and actions gradually converge toward a blissful final return.

So far, the galactic counter-forces have never been overcome, so strong that they break the collective endeavors and completely dismantle the oscillating machines into whimsical groans and creaks.

And the two unusual time travelers are still stranded somewhere in the future…

Two time travelers in the time machine, a space with much video, fog machine, they wear funny costumes and are playing self made instruments or synthesizers

The photo shows an electronic musician in retro-chic outfits playing an analog sampler

Kevin Toksöz Fairbairn on a Chimeracord and Gilles Grimaître on Synthesizers @Altes Krematorium Sihlfeld Zürich, ©Michelle Ettlin

After ca. 50 minutes, the meandering installation phase of THE GAP culminates in a large, spatialized tutti ensemble composition—FINAL ACT—in which the audience gathers at the center of the unfolding action, surrounded by four instrumental groups. A final, powerful push and pull unfolds across the ensembles, guiding the listeners toward a possible, sonically evaporating loophole, and into a vast, open stillness where the inherent silence of the performance space resides.

Listen to the FINAL ACT

Video & Audio

Documentation of THE GAP, 28 September 2025, Altes Krematorium Sihlfeld, Zurich
Video documentation: Michelle Ettlin

Trailer (1')
Performance installation, excerpts (5')
Full documentation with scene markers (45')

All videos of THE GAP on Vimeo →
Also on YouTube: THE GAP at Freq-Werker

Details

Premieres: 30/31 August 2025, La Bâtie – Festival de Genève, Salle communale du Faubourg · 27/28 September 2025, Altes Krematorium Sihlfeld, Zurich
Duration: approx. 70 minutes

Katharina Rosenberger – composition, sound installations
Matthias Rebstock – mise en scène, text
Betina Kuntzsch – video
Sabine Hilscher – installations

With Collegium Novum Zürich and Ensemble Contrechamps
Brian Archinal – percussion installation
Louis Delignon – installation Topographies (with Katharina Rosenberger)
Kevin Toksöz Fairbairn, Gilles Grimaître – Time Machine
Francesco Palmieri / Simon Aeschimann – electric guitar, Neuanfang (composition: Simon Aeschimann)

THE GAP is a co-production of Collegium Novum Zürich, Ensemble Contrechamps and Verein FreqWerker. Many thanks to Friedhof Forum Sihlfeld, Zurich.

For more information: https://the-gap.space/

“If place is defined by memory, but no one who remembers is left to bring these memories to the surface, does a place become no place?” - Lucy R. Lippard

Photo: Antonio Cerezo

URBAN MORPHOLOGIES Issue #21/09 - a concert installation
by Katharina Rosenberger (composition) and Betina Kuntzsch (video)
premiered by and in close collaboration with ensemble mosaik

Three Cities in Transition. URBAN MORPHOLOGIES Issue #21/09 is about disappearance, longings and becoming, utopia, resistance and resilience. Architecture for money, divided neighborhoods and rapid change, but also the need for dialogues and exchanges through all social structures are the consequences. The challenges are the same everywhere. The selection of Berlin - Los Angeles - Basel resulted from the collaboration of the participating artists* who inhabit them, witness their transformation and ask themselves how much this change is their responsibility after all?

In URBAN MORPHOLOGIES Issue #21/09 the audience embarks together with the artists on an audiovisual, chamber music and installation tour with indications of the past, present and hypothetical future of these three cities. In the process, the boundaries become blurred and it is sometimes unclear in which city one is currently located. Individual places come into focus, parallels and points of connection emerge, memories and fantasies take on a life of their own. In interviews and recitations, local populations as well as academics have their say; sound worlds of distinctive places are recreated and spun on. The photo and video documentations of the changing cities and their people merge into dynamic visual worlds.

Video & Audio

URBAN MORPHOLOGIES Issue #21/09 – Berlin, Silent Green

All videos of Urban Morphologies on Vimeo →

Details

Premiere Berlin: 1 September 2021, Silent Green, Betonhalle, Berlin
Premiere Basel: 19 September 2021, ZeitRäume Basel, industrial spaces of CIBA, K26, Klybeckstrasse 161

Katharina Rosenberger – composition
Betina Kuntzsch – video

ensemble mosaik
Simon Strasser – oboe
Christian Vogel – clarinet
Sebastian Lange – saxophone
Ernst Surberg – piano, turntables, performance
Chatchatur Kanajan – violin
Karen Lorenz – viola
Mathis Mayr – cello
Arne Vierck – sound direction

Gwen Kyrg, Camilla Fehér – performance and voice
Patrick Klingenschmitt – dramaturgy
Kalma X / Eckehard Güther – video technology
Panagiotis Botzios – electricity-generating bicycles, usher (Berlin)
Benjamin Janisch – research assistance on mushrooms & mycelium, usher (Berlin)

voices past present
Barbara Strozzi / Katharina Rosenberger

This is a collaboration of violinist Miranda Cuckson, composer Katharina Rosenberger and media artist John Burnett. Folds presents a sensory journey from the present to the past, engaging with the voices of other artists and bringing the ephemeral nature of sound and thought into dialogue with the tangible world. An array of paper objects — sculptures, manuscripts, scraps woven between the strings of the violin — highlights the importance of capturing the art and thought of past centuries. These traces of our physical world further serve as an impulse to reflect on our current dependency on the digital and virtual realms.
The performance takes as its starting point a cantata by the remarkable 17th–century composer/vocalist Barbara Strozzi, which is fragmented and dovetailed with Rosenberger’s audiovisual response. Ghostly projections and evocative electroacoustic sounds drawn from paper complement Cuckson’s expressive playing. The artists then “fold the page” and turn to the current era with an interpretation of recent music played and chosen by Cuckson herself to reflect further on the notation and transmission of ideas.

folds is generously supported by National Sawdust, and in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant.

testing various papers, summer 2017

miranda cuckson in the rehearsal for Folds

rehearsal of folds, November 30, 2018, National Sawdust, Brooklyn

commissioned by Fritz Hauser / Chortrommel Project

Premier of the concert version August 18, 2018, Festival Lucerne, KKL Lucerne, featuring the Basler Madrigalisten and Trio Klick

"Meeresgesänge" combines vocal sounds with physical gestures and presents a choir sculpture that slowly moves across the stage. The three percussionists are positions in a triangle shape around the audience.

Based on Homer's Odyssey, Cantos 9 - 12 (Project Gutenberg)

For six choreographed a cappella voices.

Katharina Rosenberger (music), Ludger Engels (direction), in collaboration with the Neue Vocalsolisten. Featuring contemporary and early music by Adrian Willaert (ca. 1490– 1562), Cipriano de Rore (1516– 1565) and Katharina Rosenberger (*1971), based on texts by Francesco Petrarch
(1304–1374).

Premiered March 18, 2016, Neue Vocalsolisten, St. Markus Church, Stuttgart, Germany.

tempi agitati is a full evening length vocal performance project, where the singers’ movements and positioning in space are driven by the music’s rhythms, textures and tempi. In close collaboration the composer Katharina Rosenberger and theatre opera director Ludger Engels have developed a performance strategy, which intents to merge vocal sounds, spatialization and body movement with the underlying narrative derived from Francesco Petrarch’s (1304–1374) Canzoniere and fragments of his letter Familiaris IV, I that describes his arduous ascent to the Mount Ventoux.

Evoking the spirit of the great Renaissance masters tempi agitati pays tribute to the composers Adrian Willaert (1490-1562) and his pupil Cipriano de Rore (1516-1565). As their madrigals fuse with Rosenberger’s score, rather, than a linearly unfolding concert performance, tempi agitati presents itself as a performance-laboratory; with each rendition given in a different architectural setting, new scenic concepts are developed to match the performers’ movements throughout the space, sound and structure of the open form compositions.

Photo Credit Teaser: https://tacx.com/product/mont-ventoux/

“And men go about to wonder at the heights of the mountains, and the mighty waves of the sea, and the wide sweep of rivers, and the circuit of the ocean, and the revolution of the stars, but themselves they consider not.” – Francesco Petrarca, Familiaris VI, I

Christa Wenger's light design in the Grossmünster Zurich

A site-specific performance for four voices, choreography and light design, with music by Adrian Willaert (1490–1562), Cipriano de Rore (1516–1565) and Katharina Rosenberger.

The three singers of madrigali notturni in the Stadthaus Zurich

Leslie Leon in madrigali notturni and the golden rain

Video & Audio

All videos of madrigali notturni on Vimeo →

Details

Premiere: 7 June 2013, KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen, Hanover, Germany

Christa Wenger – light
Ric Schachtebeck – choreography

Project website: madrigali-notturni.krosenberger.ch

By Katharina Rosenberger / Ivan Talijancic (WaxFactory)
Inspired by Sophie Calle's "Suite vénitienne" and Jean Baudrillard's "Please follow me".
For 3 voices, fl, sax, vln, vcl, cb and electronics and dual-layered video projection, premiered August 18, 2007, Zürcher Theaterspektakel, Zürich, Switzerland.

...le malin génie de la séduction

We see the vocalist Leslie Leon in front of a double projection

... séduir-désir...
… suivre et être suivi…
c'est la règle du jeu et de son arbitraire qui seul exalte les passions....

Leila Pfister is standing before the screen

"For months I followed strangers on the street. For the pleasure of following them, not because they particularly interested me. I photographed them without their knowledge, took note of their movements, then finally lost sight of them and forgot them.
At the end of January 1980, on the streets of Paris, I followed a man whom I lost sight of a few minutes later in the crowd. That very evening, quite by chance, he was introduced to me at an opening. During the course of our conversation, he told me he was planning an imminent trip to Venice…"

_Sophie Calle

...c'est la filature elle même qui est la double vie de l'autre....

To follow the other is to take charge of his itinerary; it is to watch over his life without him knowing it; it is to relieve him of that existential burden, the responsibility for his won life. Simultaneously, she who follows is herself relieved of responsibility for her own life as she follows blindly in the footsteps for the other. A wonderful reciprocity exists in the cancellation of each existence, in the cancellation of each subject’s tenuous position as a subject. Following the other, one replaces him, exchanges lives, passions, wills, transforms oneself in the other’s stead.

_Jean Baudrillard

Voc 1a

Intermezzo 1a (excerpt)

Intermezzo 2b

Details

X - suite filante (video opéra)

Katharina Rosenberger, music and artistic director
Ivan Talijancic, directing, text
Iva Sanjek, dramaturgy, text

with
Sylvia Nopper, soprano
Leslie Leon, mezzo soprano
Leila Pfister, mezzo soprano
ensemble für neue musik zürich
under the direction of Andreas Brenner

Erika Latta, acting
Nolwenn Moreau, Stéphane Pastor, off-voices
Antonio Giacomin, video
Spela Ursic, Nejc Batistic, stage design
Guiomar Giraldo, Elisabeth Schubiger, costumes
Daniel Müller, Blaise Dutoit, light
Thomas Peter, sound
Thomas Keller, Verein Freqwerk + Association X, production

Photo: Isabelle Meister

see also: https://soundcloud.com/katharinarosenbergeropera

a play Matthias Lehmann
premiered September 17, 2005, Theater Tuchlaube, Aarau, Switzerland

in collaboration with Mela Meierhans for “Sogni – Più belli della realtà svelata”, a music theater by Esther Flückiger after “Die Wachsflügelfrau” by Emily Hasler
premiered January 31, 2003, Teatro Sala Uno, Rome, Italy

a play by Nuria Alcorta for string quartet and electronics commissioned by the Institutes Cervantes, New York, USA

after Euripides, libretto K.Rosenberger / Steven Dooner for 4 soloists, narrator, choir and orchestra premiered by the Synergon Orchestra & Chorus, under the direction of Tibor Pusztai, December 8, 1997, St. Cecilia Church, Boston, USA

Commissioned by ZeitRäume Basel and the Basel Sinfonietta with the generous support of Pro Helvetia.

Premiered under the baton of Baldur Brönnimann, September 15, 2019
Festival ZeitRäume Basel @Mitteldeck
http://baselsinfonietta.ch/tv/musik-im-fluss

https://soundcloud.com/chrrroseberger/rein-for-orchestra-201819
Radio SRF2 Kultur live recording Festival ZeitRäume Basel, Mitteldeck, September 15, 2019

REIN is the Rhaeto-Romance name of the river Rhine and refers to the region in the Swiss Alps where the river emerges from beneath dense granite rocks. The Rhine runs through a number of European countries and plays a prominent role in their histories and mythologies. Even though rivers demarcate borders, they also connect countries and contribute to prosperity and cultural exchange. Promoting unity rather than separation between lands and peoples, Rein also speaks of the severe challenges threatening the Rhine and other rivers due to climate change and drought. Rivers are vital arteries, and this music reflects on their life-sustaining essence and on the environmental precariousness of the world that we currently live in.

Audio

SPUREN leads the listener back into the early 1940s, an extremely difficult, uprooting time in Germany not only for my family but also the entire world. This composition is dedicated to my father; his sister, my aunt; and to my grandparents, who fled from East Prussia back to their native country, Switzerland, in the early autumn of 1944. I have listened to many anecdotes about their escape, the separation of the family, the packing, and the setting off, and certainly, I have heard their grief for their lost childhood.

The composition SPUREN and its ever-growing sonic swells and soaring e-guitar sounds that surround the audience indicate the approaching enemy and the unavoidable fate of fleeing and abandoning one’s home and native city. SPUREN also tells of the imagery of the lost homeland – partly clear and partly distorted or increasingly blurred – emerging from the depths of one’s memory.

Listen: https://oeuvressuisses.ch/en/works/#werk_ele_24

Audio

SPUREN

Details

Premiere: 27 January 2016, KKL Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland – Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Yaron Deutsch and Maurizio Grandinetti (e-guitars), Steven Sloane (conductor)

Commissioned by the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra within the framework of «Oeuvre Suisse».

commissioned by the Société de Musique de la Chaux-de-Fonds, pemiered by the L'Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, François Volpé (solo percussion), David Greilsammer, March 18, 2012, Salle de Musique de L'heue bleue, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland

Audio

premiered by the Manhattan Sinfonietta under the direction of Jeffrey Milarsky, May 6, 2008, Merkin Concert Hall, New York, USA

parcours III (excerpt)

commissioned by the City of Nîmes, premier in November 2005, Orchestre de Nîmes, under the direction of Jean Deroyer

commissioned by the Hans Scheuble Stiftung, Zurich, Switzerland

premiered by John Bisset, mo ensemble, under the direction of Christopher Austin, June 27, 2001, Red Rose, London, UK

premiered by the Manson Ensemble, under the direction of Simone Fontinelli,
November 3, 2000, Duke's Hall, London, UK

premiered by the RAM soloists, under the direction of Clio Gould, Duke's Hall, London, UK

Guitar effect pedals and lots of cables that Hanna Weirich used in the composition Wälzung

Wälzung was being developed in close collaboration with the two violinists Hannah Weirich and Sara Cubarsi and MUSIKFABRIK. We explored the sonic universe of the electric violin with the glory of exquisites sounds from the Mooger Fooger Ringmodulation pedal, the Whammy-Bar, Cry Baby and some other goodies.

"Wälzung" refers to the slow, ongoing cycles of rock formation, transformation, destruction, and reformation over vast stretches of geological time.

As humans, we are reminded that we too, remain trapped in recurring cycles of decay—and, regrettably, violence—constantly facing the need to begin anew.

the two violonists Hannah Weirich and Sara Cubarsi at Musikhochschule Lübeck

Happy after two intense days of experimentation with violonists Hannah Weirich and Sara Cubarsi, Musikhochschule Lübeck

Audio

Recording from 3 October 2024, WDR Funkhaus, Wallrafplatz, Cologne – «Musikfabrik im WDR 90», WDR 3 series «Musikfabrik beim WDR»

waelzung_excerpt1.mp3

walzung_excerpt2.mp3

walzung_excerpt3.mp3

Details

Hannah Weirich, Sara Cubarsi – e-violins
Ensemble Musikfabrik
Brad Lubman – direction

two self-pressed records for the project waelzen, schieben, frachten

wälzen, schieben frachten (2023/24)

Wälzen, schieben, frachten — over aeons, sediment rolls and swirls, driven by natural forces, embarking on endless cycles of dissolution and reformulation, from decay to reconstruction. Humans observe and feel; we are only briefly immersed, part of it with our bodies and senses. In flow and resistance, now the bow presses against the string while the hand moves the record back and forth.

Audio

waelzen, schieben, frachten - excerpt

Details

Instrumentation: violin, viola, violoncello, turntables
Premiere: 7 May 2024, Wiener Konzerthaus, Berio Saal, Vienna – Ivana Pristasova Zaugg (violin), Petra Ackermann (viola), Roland Schueler (cello), Jorge Sanchez-Chiong (turntables)

A commission from Ensemble PHACE, supported by Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council.

The empty stage at Royal, Baden set up for Ensemble Soyuz21

ready for Soyuz21 @Royal, Baden, Switzerland

Wacken (2023) 10'20
(formerly "Wälzung")

for
alto sax (with Whammy Pedal, Mooger Fooger Ringmodulator, Cry Baby and Volume Pedal)
e-guit
keyboard
fixed media

commissioned by and written for Soyuz21

Atchafalaya National Park is the largest swamp area in the United States and is located in the Mississippi River estuary plain in southern Louisiana.
The Atchafalaya Basin, wild and impassable and haunted by myths of people disappearing into the thicket or falling prey to the "Rougarous" (Louisiana's werewolf), is one of the most important bird sanctuaries in America. It is populated by migratory birds or endangered species that have lost their habitat elsewhere. Meanwhile, Atchafalaya Swamp itself is threatened by human destruction.

Atchafalaya (Remix)'s world of sounds consists of sound fragments of endangered birds, sonic descriptions of the swamp as described in narratives, and recordings made by the composer during a road trip in southern Louisiana in 2010.

Atchafalaya (Remix) has been commissioned by the Ensemble Lemniscate and has been composed in close collaboration with the individual performers.

Details

Recorded at Gare du Nord, Basel, 21.05.2021

Azra Ramic - bass clarinet
Miguel Angel Garcia Martin - percussion
Helga Karen - piano, ARP Odyssey
Sophie Wahlmüller - viola
Ellen Fallowfield - cello

Andreas Eduardo Frank - live sound

The composition Glimmer explores the sonic amalgamation between two instruments that both offer a richness of timbres and toneless sounds. I was particularly fascinated by the immense range of the accordion and how the percussion fills this range with complex sonic textures, contributing to a unified sound image.
During the composition process I thought of different granite formations and how these formations, consisting of different minerals, come together to form a rock. I have a preference for glimmer, which is a delicate layered silicate that shimmers in the sunlight. Grown into the hard rock, these vividly reflective and pliable platelets can be removed effortlessly.

Glimmer is dedicated to the accordionist Margit Kern and the percussionist Olaf Tzschoppe.

Performance of world premiere by Margit Kern and Olaf Tzschoppe, May 9, 2021, Klangbrücken/Musik21

Details

Instrumentation

Percussion

Vibraphone
Belltree
Watergong

Ride (22‘)
1 small China Cymbal, which is held against the Ride
1 medium China Cymbal, which is placed up-side-down onto the bass drum

Bass Drum

Accordion

A commission of the Hannoverschen Gesellschaft für Neue Musik

Details

commissioned and dedicated to Ensemble Lemniscate

premiered at reMusic.org during COVID 2020 online-channel

video recording, June 13, 2020, Druckereihalle Ackermannshof, Basel, Switzerland
documentation: Andreas Frank
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdsSm-hDLKY

spät nachts im Taxi durch New York. Erst die langen Avenues, später die Brücken. Schrille Lichter, Neonanzeigen in allen Farben, verschwommen in der Ferne, dann sind sie schon vorbei. Sie alle flackern und zittern auf den kräuselnden Wellen, nur der Mond ist auffällig still. Rot – Grün – Gelb, das Spiel der Ampeln, ansonsten rauscht es nur

Photo: Hans Gut Photography

Video & Audio

Schallfeld Ensemble performs blur (septet), 18.12.2021 in Theater am Lend, Graz.

More videos: Selected Works on Vimeo →

Details

blur (2019)
bass flute, bass clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, violoncello
commissioned and written for ensemble für neue musik zürich

blur (2020), septet
bass flute, baritone saxophone, electric guitar, percussion, piano, violin, violoncello
adaptation of blur (2019)

Performance in the video: Schallfeld Ensemble, 18 December 2021, Theater am Lend, Graz

Photo: Annette Boutellier

premiered September 8, 2018 Musikfestival Bern, "Nachtgezeiten / Zeitinseln" Münster Bern by organist Daniel Glaus, diffusion electronics Beat Müller, Katharina Rosenberger

unzeitig – Zeitdehnung / Zeit(ent)faltung / Zeitinseln – dies sind alles Begriffe, welche sich bei einer Betrachtung von imposanten alpinistischen Gesteinsstrukturen in meinen Gedanken wiederfinden. So beherbergen gewaltige Felsformationen eine Vielzahl von Schichten und Materialien aus verschiedenen geologischen Zeiträumen. Monolithisch und scheinbar unveränderlich thronen sie über den Tälern, doch klimatische Veränderungen infiltrieren das Sediment und schmelzen kurzfristig lang bestehende Gesteinsschichten, glätten Felsfalten und waschen Eisinseln weg.

Schichtung für Orgel und Elektronik orientiert sich nach diesen geologischen Entwicklungen. Die dreiteilige Komposition alteriert zwischen sich langsam etablierenden harmonischen- sowie klangfarblichen Schichtungen und schnell verlaufenden chromatischen Strängen. Gewaltig brechen die vertikalen Strukturen auseinander, dann wiederum kaum hörbar reihen sich raunende Säulen vor und unter linearen Schichtungen ein. Die Elektronik dient als subtiles Bindeglied zwischen der spielenden Orgel auf der Empore und dem lauschenden Publikum. So greift die Elektronik mikroskopische Elemente einer dichten Klangtextur auf und drapiert diese gezielt um die Zuhörerschaft herum. Schwingungen, Klangfarben und Rhythmen werden näher an die Ohren und an die Körper der Lauschenden herangetragen und unterstreichen so die physische Einbindung des Publikums in die Entfaltung eines Tons, einer harmonischer Struktur und von Klangfeldern oder Klangschichtungen.

Ich danke für die inspirierende und enge Zusammenarbeit mit dem Organisten Daniel Glaus. Komposition und Bearbeitung Elektronik: Katharina Rosenberger, Programmierung Max/MSP: Elliot Patros, Klangregie: Beat Müller.

Listen:

https://soundcloud.com/chrrroseberger/schichtung-organ-and-multichannel-electronics

Photo: Annette Boutellier

Audio

surge für Bassklarinette, präparierten Flügel und Violoncello befasst sich mit kompositorischen Methoden, wie sie in der elektronischen Musik vorkommen, zum Beispiel mit Sampling und Recycling, mit dem Anbringen von Filtern oder mit additiven Klangverfahren. Musikalisches Material und Passagen werden dabei fortwährend wiederverwertet und modifiziert, der Gestus der Komposition ist vorwärtstreibend. Ein konstanter Energiestrom, analog eines Perpetuum Mobiles mit sich rasant windenden Figuren, wird immer wieder von kurzen perkussiven Einschüben unterbrochen. Es entsteht eine Zug-Stoss-Dynamik, welche die Bewegung teils komplett unterbindet oder auch in einem Schwall von Aktivitäten ausbrechen lässt.

Ohrknacker Nr. 14 - Trio Catch presents surge

Bei Ohrknacker-Konzerten des Trio Catch werden Ohren geöffnet, hier erklingen neue Töne. Im Zentrum steht jeweils ein Werk, das zweimal gespielt und dazwischen im Austausch mit dem Publikum genauer betrachtet wird. Alles kann, nichts muss: ohne Altersbeschränkung, ohne Berührungsängste, ohne die Notwendigkeit musikalischer Vorkenntnisse. Die Veranstaltung dauert etwa eine gute Stunde, die Komponistin ist anwesend. Vor und nach dem Konzert laden wir zum Verweilen und zum Austausch ein.

surge excerpts recorded live Radio WDR 3 Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, Saalbau, April 28, 2018

Details

surge has been commissioned by Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik with the great support of the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia

premiered by Trio Catch, April 28, 2018, Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, Saalbau, Witten, Germany

Details

commissioned by Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo, premiered on May 22, 2017, Gare du Nord, Basel, CH

Part of Amy Williams' and Helena Bugallo's "Microludes, György Kurtág Program"

commissioned by Swiss Chamber Music thanks to the great support of Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia

premiered by RAGE THORMBONES, Matt Barbier and Weston Olencki, January 12, 2016, Beta Level, Los Angeles, USA

On SHIFT hat [now]ART 199, 2017

Katharina Rosenberger
SHIFT
WasteLAnd with
RAGE THORMBONES
Nicholas Deyoe, e-guitar, conductor

Re-SHIFT is performed by RAGE THORMBONES, Matt Barbier and Weston Olencki

Audio

one sees the set up of the saxophone and all its effect pedals

modules is a composition, which can be performed from top to end without interruption, or alternatively the piece can be split up in five smaller sections. These sections I call modules. The composition is conceived for a spatialized set up that invites the audience to dwell in the middle surrounded by the geometry of the ensemble's sonic calls and textures.

modules has been commissioned by Gare du Nord, Basel, for the 2014/2015 Ensemble Nikel Residency.
World premier, March 12, 2015, Gare du Nord, Basel, Switzerland.

Photo: Ensemble Nikel at the Felicja Blumental Festival, Tel Aviv, Israel, April 2016

Ensemble Nikel playing modules in Israel

Recording:

wasteLAnd
Brian Walsh, saxophone
Nicholas Deyoe, e-guitar
Justin DeHart, percussion
Richard Valitutto, piano

for the Portrait CD SHIFT, Hat Hut Records, hat [now] ART 199

Audio

commissioned by AMS, Lausanne, premiered by the Nouvel Ensemble Contemporaine, August 26, 2014, Festival des Jardins Musicaux, Cernier, Switzerland under the direction of Pierre-Alan Monot

Recorded on SHIFT at hat [now]ART 199, 2017

with WasteLAnd and RAGE THORMBONES (Matt Barbier and Weston Olencki)
Nicholas Deyoe, e-guitar, conductor

Members of WasteLAnd during recording SHIFT, photo: K. Rosenberger

Audio

commissioned by Musik & Wort, Lucerne, premiered by the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble, October 7, 2013, Moscow, Russia

After Igor Stravinsky's "L'Histoire du Soldat"

Audio

In collaboration with New York based artist Abdolreza Aminlari.
Commissioned by Gare du Nord, Basel and the Swiss Arts Council as a part of the tri-national initiative “Triptic”. Premiered by the ensemble recherche, January 16, 2014, Gare du Nord, Basel, Switzerland.

Rosenberger and Aminlari take influence from the 1503 publication “Mundus-Novus”, Amerigo Vespucci’s recollection of his travels to the “unknown” coastal regions of Southern America, and from the first cartographies of the region drawn by Martin Waldseemüller, naming the “newly discovered” continent Amerika. The Score and the installation examine and reinterpret the significance of the travels and the subsequent encounter with the unknown cultures and terrain. The musical composition features an open-score, allowing the musicians (Violin, Viola, and Violoncello) to travel and choose their own path through the score. The subsections, closely structured around Aminlari’s three part Installation of tapestries, further pay tribute to Pablo Neruda’s “Canto General” and reveal the core of the composition, paying homage to the pre-Columbian flute melodies of the Los Warao people of northeastern Venezuela.

Photo: Reza Nadji
Performance of Gesang and das noch namenlose Land with the Mivos Quartet, March 26, 2014, Longhouse Project, New York, USA

Audio: Recording of the premier of Gesang an das noch namenlose Land by the ensemble recherche, Église Sainte-Foy, Sélestat, France

Aufnahme Gesang an das noch namenlose Land

Details

premiered by ensemble Reflexion K premiered November 2012, Neue Musik Eckernförde, Germany / Festival Bernaola, Victoria, Spain

éventer I + II was originally written for flute, alto saxophone, violin, and violoncello as part of the video-opera "X - suite filante" (2007)

commissioned by KONTRA TRIO premiered March 20, 2011, "akku" Emmen, Lucerne, Switzerland

„C’est pourquoi les moments violents du récit, les moments dramatiques sont ceux où la personne suivie fait demi-tour, prise d`une inspiration soudaine, faisant volte-face comme une bête pour vendre chèrement sa vie. Le système se renverse immédiatement, et le suiveur est suivi...
suivre pour être suivi, se masquer pour être démasqué, apparaître pour disparaître, deviner pour être deviné ... „

La Chasse is a re-orchestration of the vocal duet “Voc_1b” initially written for the video opera X – suite filante by Katharina Rosenberger and Ivan Talijancic (WaxFactory), premiered August 18, 2007, Zürcher Theaterspektakel, Rote Fabrik, Aktionshalle, Zurich, Switzerland.

Scene: Day 5 “ ... prendre sa revanche ... ”

Text: Iva Sanject / Ivan Talijancic after “Suite Venitienne” (Please Follow me) by Sophie Calle and written responses by Jean Beaudrillard

Recorded by the Landman/Stadler Saxophone Duo, February 2018, 940 St. Nicholas Ave, NYC

the picture shows the Landman/Stadler Saxophone Duo

Audio

premiered July 27, 2010, Millers Theatre, New York, USA by Wet Ink Ensemble under the direction of Carl Christian Bettendorf

Recorded on hat [now] ART 186

WET INK ENSEMBLE & guests
Ariana Lamon-Anderson (clarinets), Eliot Gattegno (saxophones), Ian Carroll (trombone), Andrew McIntosh (viola), Eric Moore (cello), Scott Worthington (contrabass)

Carl Christian Bettendorf - conductor

Recording parcours III with Wet Ink Ensemble and guests

Details

commissioned by ensemble für neue musik zürich, version 2009 premiered Nov 19, 2009, Forum Siegfried, Zofingen, CH

comissioned by Simone Keller, premiered April 24, 2009, Kunstraum Walcheturm, Zürich, CH

Audio

performed by Erin Lesser, Eliot Gattegno WET INK ENSEMBLE

on hat [now] ART 186

miroir exists also for
flute and alto saxophone
bassflute and bassoon

Audio

premiered May 5, 2006 by Ensemble Polychronie, Galerie District, Marseille
under the direction of Laurent Melin

premiered March 26, 2006 by the Columbia Composers Ensemble at Merkin Hall, New York under the direction of Carl Christian Bettendorf

fünf Bilder für Oktett - Bild 3A (excerpt)

premiered by Massimo Mazzoni, April 14, 2004, Merkin Hall, New York, USA

premiered January 9, 2005 as part of the "Portrait Concert" Katharina Rosenberger and Kaspar Ewald, Forum für Neue Musik, Lucerne, Switzerland

Bewegungsstudie III (study on movements III)
commissioned by Cristin Wildbolz as part of the "K9+one" tour, premiered May 3, 2004, Electronic Music Foundation @ Chelsea Art Museum, New York, USA

Bewegungsstudie I (study on movements I)
premiered by Ensemble Sonata Concert, May 2002, Paris, France

performed by the great Hsing-ay Hsu at the Pendulum New Music Festival, Boulder, CO, USA
February 22, 2017

And also a wonderful interpretation by Los Angeles based pianist Richard Valitutto

ahom Richard Valitutto

premiered by So Percussions, January 2002, Casa Italiana, New York, USA

commissioned and written for
Johanna Vargas, soprano
Marcus Weiss, alto saxophone
Uli Fussenegger, contrabass

Premiered November 1, 2022, Wiener Konzerthaus, Mozart Saal, Vienna, Austria

Katharina Rosenberger, composition, text
Patrick Klingenschmitt, dramaturgy, text
Rozalie Hirs, poetry

Inspiration for content from Hannah Arendt, Octavia E. Butler, Franz Kafka, Ursula K. Le Guin, Haruki Murakami, and DJ Noumenon/Scratch DJ Academy.

with the friendly support of Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council

A piece for vocal ensemble and three instruments, based on the diaries of Mohammed al-Hamiri, who was held in Guantánamo for 13 years without trial – and on Mahler’s «Lied des Verfolgten im Turm».

Aufzeichnungen eines Stimmlosen
(no voice other than this pen...)
Aus den Tagebuchaufzeichnungen von Mohammed al-Hamiri

Die Komposition bezieht sich auf Gustav Mahlers Des Knaben Wunderhorns, „Lied des Verfolgtem im Turm“ (1898), dessen Ursprung wiederum auf dem Lied „Die Gedanken sind frei“ eines/einer unbekannten Verfasser*in des 18. Jahrhunderts gründet. Aufzeichnungen eines Stimmlosen wurde am 30. Juli 2021 an den Gustav Mahler Musikwochen in Toblach, Südtirol, durch das Vokalensemble Cantando Admont sowie Marco Sala (Bassklarinette), Mirko Jevtovic (Akkordeon) und Johannes Haase (Violine) uraufgeführt.

In die Aktualität umgesetzt, thematisiert Aufzeichnungen eines Stimmlosen die unzulässigen Umstände von Verfolgungen und Freiheitsentzug von Menschen ohne richterliche Haftprüfung. Besonders in den USA sind Gefängnisse und kontroverse Inhaftierungen ein großes Thema und ein florierendes Geschäft. Mit den 9/11-Anschlägen in 2001 und sukzessiver politisch motivierter Propaganda zu Terroristenverfolgung und Angstmachung der Bevölkerung erlaubte sich die USA die rechtswidrige Internierung von hunderten von Menschen, welche teils bis heute in dem 2002 errichteten außerordentlichen Gefängnis Guantánamo festsitzen. Hier, unter unmenschlichen Bedingungen festgehalten, verloren die Gefangenen nicht nur ihre Freiheit, sondern auch ihre Stimme.

Das Libretto besteht aus bearbeiteten Satzfragmenten von unterschiedlichen Berichten aus der Frankfurter Allgemeinen, Süddeutsche Zeitung, New York Times sowie von den Nachrichtensendern Al Jazeera und The Intercept. Letzterer veröffentlichte Ausschnitte aus den Tagebuchaufzeichnungen des jungen Jemeniten und Guantánamo Bay-Insasse Mohammed al-Hamiri*. In diesen Schriften und besonders in den Briefen an seine Mutter wird deutlich, dass den eingesperrten Terrorverdächtigen jegliche Rechte entzogen und viele ohne offizielle Anklage festgehalten wurden. Trotzdem lässt al-Hamiri seine Hoffnung nicht erdrücken. Seine Ausführungen sprechen von einer beispiellosen Stärke und Glauben auf ein Leben in Frieden und Glück. Al-Hamiri wurde 2015 nach 13 Jahren Gefangenschaft freigesprochen.

*Hussain, Murtaza (2016), „Prisoner’s Letters Document Tragedy, Hope Inside Guantánamo“, The Intercept,18.04.2016, zuletzt aufgerufen 7. August 2020, https://theintercept.com/2016/04/18/trapped-guantanamo-letters-mohammed-al-hamiri/. Aus dem Englischen von Katharina Rosenberger.

Aufzeichnungen eines Stimmlosen entstand im Auftrag des Vocalensembles Cantando Admont, dank der großzügigen Unterstützung von der Schweizer Kulturstiftung Pro Helvetia

Video & Audio

Cantando Admont performs Aufzeichnungen eines Stimmlosen

With Cantando Admont, Johannes Haase (violin), Marco Sala (bass clarinet), Maria Mogas Gensana (accordion)

More videos: Music Theatre & Vocal Works on Vimeo →

Details

Instrumentation: vocal ensemble, violin, bass clarinet, accordion
Premiere: 30 July 2021, Gustav Mahler Musikwochen, Toblach (South Tyrol) – originally planned for September 2020, postponed due to Covid – Cantando Admont, Marco Sala (bass clarinet), Mirko Jevtovic (accordion), Johannes Haase (violin)

Commissioned by the vocal ensemble Cantando Admont, with the generous support of the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.

based on E.E.Cummings "n(o)w"

from the series "E.E. Cummings Miniatures"

premiered by Tiffany DuMouchelle and Stephen Solook, August 2012, Conrad Prebys Music Center, University of California San Diego

from the series "E.E. Cummings Miniatures"

premiered by Tiffany DuMouchelle and Stephen Solook, August 2012, Conrad Prebys Music Center, University of California San Diego

premiered by Wet Ink Ensemble, January 12, 2011, Conrad Prebys Concert Hall, UCSD, San Diego, US

Recorded on hat [now] ART 186

WET INK ENSEMBLE & guests
Ariana Lamon-Anderson (clarinets), Eliot Gattegno (saxophones), Ian Carroll (trombone), Andrew McIntosh (viola), Eric Moore (cello), Scott Worthington (contrabass)

Carl Christian Bettendorf - conductor

Rozalie Hirs - poetry
Michael Sundue - taxonomy

Audio

commissioned by Welti/Bachmann, premiered April 1, 2009, Imprimerie Basel, CH

premiered April 18, 2009, Weimarer Frühlingstage, Weimar, Germany

premiered by Ensemble Accroche Note, July 24, 2002, Centre Acanthes, Chartreuse Villeneuve lez Avignon, France

improvised speaking voice, bass clarinet, piano, violoncello (version 2001) 14’

Kapitel 19 - Die Unbekannte

after “Weymouth Sands” by John Cowper Powys
premiered February 26, 2000, TransArt Festival, Musikforum Zug, Spinnihalle, Baar, Switzerland

Installation view drifters with contrabass clarinet performer Theo Nabicht

Installation view of "Drifters" with Contrabass Clarinetist Theo Nabicht

Drifters
A Tentacular Performance

In 'Drifters,' contrabass clarinetist Theo Nabicht takes center stage amidst the audience. His performance is meticulously captured by two microphones, channeling through an intricate network of subaquatic-inspired structures. Their shapes and ornaments evoke an underwater atmosphere, reminding us of the graceful and fragile but mighty marine life that depends on our protection and preservation.

Each of these 18 distinct objects contains a transducer that serves not only as a resonator for Nabicht's clarinet, but also for finely crafted electroacoustic sounds based on the sounds of the contrabass clarinet and water. The result is a buzzing and bubbling immersive sound environment that engulfs the audience, where sound ebbs and flows through resonator objects scattered throughout the installation.

The 20- to 30-minute performance is accompanied by a lighting design that responds to the music. Rosenberger's composition mirrors Nabicht's virtuosity, deftly directing the sounds of the double bass clarinet to the scattered transducers within the pulsating Drifters objects. This transformative experience transcends spatial boundaries and invites the audience on a tangible, multi-sensory journey.

Drifters installation view. Set design by Ana Bermudez

Video & Audio

Drifters – A Tentacular Performance, documentation of the general rehearsal
Pascal Lund – video, montage

More videos: Installations & Performance on Vimeo →

Here is an earful of the electroacoustic sounds that are distributed through the subaquatic resonator objects:

cue_5_drifters_merges_subtly_with_clarinet_sound.mp3

cue_1_drifters_diffused_in_the_front_row_of_installation.mp3

cue_7_drifters_theos_multiphonic_sweeps_through_installation.mp3

Details

Instrumentation: contrabass clarinet, live electronics and 18 resonator objects
Premiere: 29 August 2023, Konzertsaal, ZHdK – Zurich University of the Arts

Katharina Rosenberger – composition, live electronics, concept
Theo Nabicht – contrabass clarinet
Manolo Müller – live electronics, tech lead
Ana Bermudez – set design
Eric Larrieux – object engineering

This piece was made possible by a generous grant from the Fromm Music Foundation.

Susanne Elgeti (video live performance Villa Elisabeth 03/05/21, video montage)

All videos of Urban Morphologies on Vimeo →

URBAN MORPHOLOGIES Issue #21/03 - audio-visual work
by Katharina Rosenberger (composition) and Betina Kuntzsch (video)
performed by and in close collaboration with ensemble mosaik

URBAN MORPHOLOGIES Issue #21/03 is dedicated to a portray of the city of Berlin solely. A city in transformation, the audio-visual work is about disappearance, longings and becoming, utopia, resistance and resilience. Architecture for money, divided neighborhoods and rapid change, but also the need for dialogues and exchanges through all social structures are the consequences.

Issue #21/03 is part of a larger concert installation URBAN MORPHOLOGIES Issue #21/09 (60') with a triptych portraying the cities Berlin – Los Angeles – Basel. More about URBAN MORPHOLOGIES Issue #21/09 →

Details

Live performance: 3 May 2021, Villa Elisabeth, Berlin

Katharina Rosenberger – composition
Betina Kuntzsch – video

ensemble mosaik
Simon Strasser – oboe
Ernst Surberg – piano, turntables
Chatchatur Kanajan – violin
Karen Lorenz – viola
Mathis Mayr – cello
Arne Vierck – sound direction
Eckehard Güther – video technology

Susanne Elgeti – video documentation and montage

KATHARINA ROSENBERGER / LUDGER ENGELS

THE JOURNEY
Sound- and Video Installation

The Journey – sound and video installation, trailer

More videos: Installations & Performance on Vimeo →

The Journey is a sound and video installation by Katharina Rosenberger and Ludger Engels with Neue Vocalsolisten, based on their staged performance «tempi agitati». Three screens and multichannel sound bring the audience as close to the singers as in a live performance – inspired by Petrarch’s ascent of Mont Ventoux and the Renaissance «cori spezzati».

THE JOURNEY basiert auf der szenischen Aufführung „tempi agitati“. Die Installation versteht sich nicht als Dokumentation, sondern spiegelt das Potenzial einer Live-Performance und damit von einem Geschehen mit autonomer Ausdruckskraft, die sich im Medium Video wiederfindet.

Auf drei Leinwänden und mit einem mehrkanaligen Raumklang wird die Unmittelbarkeit der Live-Performance und die Nähe von Publikum und Neuen Vocalsolisten neu ausgelotet sowie die Wahrnehmung von Raum und Zeit.
Die Installation nimmt Bezug auf die historische Relevanz der „cori spezzati“ und ihre großen Meister aus der Renaissance: Adrian Willaert und Cipriano de Rore. Zentrales literarisches Bild ist dabei Francesco Petrarcas beschwerliche Bergbesteigung des Mont Ventoux. Die Suche nach Zugehörigkeit, Einklang und Sinn seiner Existenz gewinnt durch die speziell für die Installation entwickelte Choreographie sowie Nah- und Detailaufnehmen an Intensität und Eindringlichkeit.

THE JOURNEY zieht das Publikum in einen immersiven und sinnlichen Sog, inmitten der kraftvollen Stimmen der Neuen Vocalsolisten.

Details

with the NEUE VOCALSOLISTEN
Johanna Zimmer – high soprano
Susanne Leitz-Lorey – lyric soprano
Truike van der Poel – mezzo soprano
Martin Nagy – tenor
Guillermo Anzorena – baritone
Andreas Fischer – bass

Momo Lischker – video editing
Andrew Munsey – audio engineering and mastering

Up Close is written for flute, clarinet, cello, piano and percussion, utilizing close-up microphones and live interaction with lights.

By intensely amplifying very quiet sounds and minute details of the act of playing an instrument, the listeners are enabled to zoom into the intimate relationship between instrumental sounds and their physical articulation. The audience receives a unique insight into the virtuosic act of contemporary music making, and the amplification will offer Rosenberger a rich palette of otherwise unheard sounds that she will incorporate into her composition.

Having a microphone attached so closely to the source of sound production will reveal every instance of a sound’s evolution and highlight spectral properties or other acoustic phenomena impossible to perceive otherwise.

Rebecca the percussionist with clip on microphone

Madison the clarinetist with me rehearsing

the [Switch~ Ensemble] performing Up Close @SinusTon Festival, Magdeburg, Germany, 2021

Details

the [Switch~ Ensemble] is:
Zach Sheets, flute
Madison Greenstone, clarinets
Megan Arns, percussion
Wei-Han Wu, piano
Tyler J. Borden, cello

Jason Thorpe Buchanan, sound diffusion

Up Close has received support from the New Music USA (2018), the Guggenheim Fellowship (2019), and Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung

All photos taken by Jason Buchanan
The photos show guest musician Michael Matsuno, flute and Rebecca Lloyd-Jones, percussion

Electric Fields, an immersive audio-visual installation, is the result of my work as the Composer-in-Residence at the Qualcomm Institute, the UC San Diego division of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2). Electric Fields has been developed in collaboration with neuroscientist Alexander Khalil and media artist John Burnett. The work draws its materials and inspiration from experiments with neuronal feedback and sonification, novel methods of sound diffusion and projection mapping.

Alexander Khalil and I have been exploring a number of different methods of converting brainwaves to sound, a process referred to as “sonification”. Brainwaves already feature many of the characteristics of soundwaves and, once recorded and stored digitally, can readily be rendered as sound. Many of the most easily recorded brain activity, however—and most of the brainwaves that are studied scientifically—are of frequencies below the range of human hearing. Through a process of speeding up and then stretching these oscillations, we have been able to make them audible, revealing a rich and nuanced sonic world.

In its final presentation, Electric Fields transforms the gallery into an abstracted multidimensional neuronal network. The audience encounters a mesh of suspended interlaced fabrics, masking the room’s actual dimension and immersing the viewer in the work. The video material consists of neural imagery, filigree and organically shaped drawings, and pointillist textures designed by John Burnett. The sound diffusion consists of a multichannel audio system combining both near and far field sonification. The sound texture generated from the study is projected through far field spatialization; the beam forming technology however, picks up specifically on the auditory stream segregation. In the correct listening position, the audience perceives sound objects swirling closely around their head that are directly pulled from the general sound texture that is heard simultaneously.

Video & Audio

Details

First showing: June 12-21, 2019 at calit2@gallery, UCSD, La Jolla, USA

3D projection: Achim Stromberger / Photo: Wen Liu

In Jorge Luis Borges’ “The Circular Ruins” a stranger, maybe a magician withdrew himself into the thickness of a forest, into a circular temple that had been devoured by ancient fires. There at the food of a stone tiger or a horse, his sole task was to sleep and dream. He wanted to dream a human; he wanted to dream a human in every detail to eventually expose them to reality.

"In the dream I dreamed, you awoke" has been commissioned by M.A.R.S. Music & Arts ReSound and saw its first performance at the Los Angeles M.A.R.S. Festival, October 5, 2018, The Vortex, featuring Laurel Irene (Soprano), the MARS Collective under the direction of David Harris, and Achim Stromberger of ThisPlay, who designed the 3D hologram projections.

"He understood that modeling the incoherent and vertiginous matter of which dreams are composed of was the most difficult task that a man could undertake..." (Borges)

photograph of the projections of "In the dream..."

3D projection: Achim Stromberger / Photo: Katharina Rosenberger

"... Schulterblätter bewegen sich, Sehnen treten hervor, auch kräftige Muskeln, trainiert durch jahrezehntelanges Üben....
Sicht- und Hörbares befruchten sich sinnvoll... " – Torsten Möller, «Ein grosser Wurf», Schweizer Musikzeitung, 3 May 2018

we see the back of the percussionist brian archinal

quartet, videostill, Brian Archinal, percussion

quartet – bodies in performance is a video installation that explores the interlocking connections between sound production and performance gestures and binds the act of composition to physical articulation. The audience does not see the performers actually playing the instruments; rather, its attention is directed at the anatomy of the performers’ backs, which are carefully illuminated against an infinite black backdrop. The back muscles, which are animated by the performance gestures, almost seem to dance to the sounds produced. Thus, the music is visualized in the moving body, emphasizing the rhythm, crescendi, and accelerandi and drawing listeners into the essence of the physical strain of years of intense practice on the muscles.

IMPRESSIONS KUNSTRAUM WALCHETURM ZUERICH
June, 8.-23., 2018

installation view walcheturm perc and piano

installation view walcheturm speaker window

Photos: Lorenzo Pusterla

Video & Audio

During the exhibition, these videos all play independently with different looping times (21', 20', 18', 15'). Four speakers on pedestals, each featuring one of the instrumentalists, are distributed freely within the exhibition space. The audience is invited to promenade among the sculpturesque speaker set-up to create their own individual audio-visual mix.

To best experience this documentation, open all four videos at once and start them at different times.

All four videos of quartet on Vimeo →

Listen to quartet being featured at the Swiss Radio SRF 2, Kultur 2, in a wonderful interview by Cécile Olshausen with me on my work on June 15, 2018 during the exhibition of quartet at the Kunstraum Walcheturm, Zürich. The interview is in German.

Excerpts:
10:15 I talk about my installation work in general
14:35 quartet is being introduced

https://www.srf.ch/sendungen/musik-unserer-zeit/shift-eine-begegnung-mit-der-komponistin-katharina-rosenberger

Details

Premiere: 2018, Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik, Witten, Germany
Commissioned by WDR and the City of Witten

Featured in the video: Brian Archinal – percussion
Simone Keller – piano
Moritz Müllenbach – violoncello
Krassimir Sterev – accordion

Carlotta Holy – camera
Markus Brunn – lights
Alice Fischer – audio recording
Damien Inderbitzin – video postproduction

This installation is dedicated to the New York artist Ernesto Klar and dancer Mariangela Lopez, whose collaboration has inspired this work.

Faust’s level of frustration is peaking. His monumental invention, the electric light, does not cause him any satisfaction anymore. Even though, this deal had cost him his soul. But to stand up against Mephisto, he knows, is a futile act.

But then, he meets a woman of iridescent appearance and a multiplicity of names: Ms Marguerite Ida and Helena Annabel. It is this enigmatic female figure who beguiles the audience. Based on fragments of Getrude Stein’s “Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights” Ms Marguerite Ida and Helena Annabel reflects on herself and the world. In her company a dog who says “thank you”. Less pleasing is the arrival of a viper that shakes up Ms Marguerite Ida and Helena Annabel’s world.

The musicians too, are pretty freaked out by the reptile’s appearance. More than just interpreters of a fixed score, the performers are entangled in the unfolding of the story. The score calls for improvisatory and temporarily freely interpreted passages.
Also, through their voices we hear Getrude Stein’s vivid characters. And not only Faust, the trio too, loves to play with the lights. They do so quite successfully. Yet, the 18 live activated light bulbs are stubborn and like to play their own game.

The audience is witnessing a performance that responds to the spur of the moment, to Ms Marguerite Ida and Helena Annabel’s mood swings, to the appearance of all sorts of treacherous wild creatures and shadowy figures and ultimately, to the tussle of who now gains control over the technology and the lights.

Details

World premiere: June 24, 2016, Kunstraum Walcheturm Zurich

Retro Disco
Samuel Stoll, horn
Reto Staub, korg MS20 mini (for Simone Keller)
Moritz Müllenbach, cello

Ljubo Majstorovic, programming, design and building of the live light interaction

Video: Franz Bannwart

commissioned by ICST Zürich, premiered by Matthias Müller, April 3, 2014, Kunstraum Walcheturm, Zürich, Switzerland

www.icst.net

"I'm wild... there are not many like me" – Shelley Hirsch

The pictures show the vocalists Juliana Snapper, Shelley Hirsch, Pamela Z

Viva Voce celebrates vocal performance art in an interactive and experimental context and through this lens explores voice, body relationships, and the self. In the process, the work investigates the root of oral tradition and its impact on shared information in the virtual versus physical social space. In real-time visitors play and re-compose performance and documentary sequences of three vocal artists—Juliana Snapper (Los Angeles), Shelley Hirsch (New York), and Pamela Z (San Francisco)—by interacting with a 3D sonic sculpture on an iPad. Sung and spoken passages appear synchronized to the visual portrayal of the protagonists on floating screens in the gallery space. By improvising with the iPad interface and triggering text and vocal passages, visitors become not only intimately introduced to the vocalists; they turn into performers themselves.

Team
Katharina Rosenberger, Composition, Artistic Direction • Heiko Kalmbach, Video, Co-Artistic Direction • Michael Schmitz, iPad Design, App Programming • Jason Ponce, Multimedia Programming • Vance Galloway, Set Design, Technical Direction• Joe Kucera, Audio Engineering • Nick Drashner, Audio Mastering

Video & Audio

Interview log Shelley Hirsch
June 10, 2011, Manhattan Ave, Brooklyn, Shelley's backyard

Videos: Heiko Kalmbach

All Viva Voce clips on Vimeo – Juliana Snapper, Shelley Hirsch, Pamela Z →

Details

First shown: January 2013, Gallery Human Resources, Los Angeles, USA

In collaboration with video artist Heiko Kalmbach
Juliana Snapper, Shelley Hirsch, Pamela Z – voice

A project of the Mediaprojects Award / sitemapping of the Swiss Federal Office of Culture

Project website: www.vivavoce.ch

Visitor interacts with frequency modulation

Room V is an interactive sound installation. Visitors are invited to control and manipulate the unfolding of a music composition with their body movements. A software interface created with Max/MSP and SoftVNS uses motion capture to perform real-time sound synthesis and re-spatialization of previously recorded acoustic music.

One person at a time, wearing wireless headphones, enters the space to find a complete concert set up for eight instruments in a dimly lit setting. Chairs, music stands with little lamps attached are there, only the musicians are missing. The mood of the space is silent and still. However, once the person enters, a sonorous world opens and the ensemble music can be heard over the headphones.

As the visitors make their way through the room, the motion tracking software lets them increasingly gain access to the inner structures of the music. Sound becomes concrete and malleable, giving the listeners the impression of a physical reality that can be touched and felt.

Video & Audio

Room V – interactive sound installation

More videos: Installations & Performance on Vimeo →

Details

Premiere: 5–22 May 2007, Festival Les Musiques, Galerie District, Marseille, France
Also shown: Festival Archipel, Geneva, 20–29 March 2009

Katharina Rosenberger – composition, audio programming, concept
Charles Bascou – programming, technical direction

The development and realisation of Room V was made possible by an artist residency at GMEM – Centre National de Création Musicale, Marseille.

More videos: Installations & Performance on Vimeo →

The Line (2007) denotes metaphorically the enigmatic path we walk down every day... at times known... at times bewildering; a given, marked by an ever-mutating configuration of events and encounters, parading against the steady backdrop of passing time.

Details

Filmed, edited and produced in spring 2007 in Brooklyn/Greenpoint
Katharina Rosenberger – video and sound

Commissioned by Jean-Marc Montera, Montevideo, Marseille, France. Included in the art publication "Le son d'amour", DOC(K) 4th edition, with DVD, Akenaton, Campbell, France, spring 2008.

Prologue to Malachit

Malachit

Prologue to Malachit / Malachit (2005)

My ongoing interests in sound and its materiality and the fusion of music and the visual arts have brought me to collaborate with New York painter and sculptor Peter Mallo. I have started to record him while he is working on his art in his studio. The two pieces Prologue to Malachit and Malachit are a document of Peter smashing and grinding Malachit stones to make paint out of it. Every present sound is derived from working on the stones. Whereas the Prologue to Malachit features more processed sounds, alluding to its visual character with its beautiful fine lines and color gradations, Malachit in contrast, represents tactile rawness, the stone’s sharp edges and fractured surface when untreated.

Maria Mayer - concept, video
Matthias Lehmann - concept, programming
Katharina Rosenberger - surround sound
premiered May 10+11, 2005, ITP Final Show 2005, Tisch School of Arts, New York, USA

Katharina Rosenberger - idea / soundscape
Alfred Preisig - texts
Luke DuBois - programming
commissioned for the Tonkünstlerfest 2004 - Montey, Switzerland
on view 09.04-10.15.2004, Médiathèque du Valais, Martigny, Switzerland

premiered October 21, 2004 as part of “spinet – an Experiment on Gesamtkunstwerk”, “Totalartwork” curated by Birgit Ramsauer, The Great Hall at The Cooper Union, New York, USA

Elyssa Dole - choreography
Nina Hein - direction / light design
Katharina Rosenberger - sound
premiered April 6, 2003, WilliamsburgArtneXus, Brooklyn, USA

... one of my inofficial favourites

untitled (excerpt)

in collaboration with Pedro Barboza
February 1, 2003 @ SCRIME 2003, Zoobizarre, Bordeaux, France

Stage

Orchestral

Chamber music

Vocal

Mutlimedia