Lecturers Academy for contemporary Music

Asia Ahmetjanova, performance, piano, accompaniment
For Asia Ahmetjanova the individuality of each person and their personal approach to music is very important. She rejects any form of generalisation of people and their activities, this way of thinking is also reflected in her compositions. 

The experimental way of dealing with the musical material and the human body, her own personal spirituality in her compositions as well as works of classical piano literature are in balance in her artistic as well as compositional life. 

Asia works as a composer and pianist, is a member of the Ensemble ö! (Switzerland) and accompanist at the Lucerne School of Music and the Bern University of the Arts. Ahmetjanova also gives lectures on her compositions and art performance.
ahmetjanova.com

David Alberman, Violin
Born in London, David Alberman received his LRAM diploma from the Royal Academy of Music at the age of sixteen. He studied the violin privately with Igor Ozim in Cologne, and then studied Classical Languages and Philosophy at Oxford University for four years. After playing with the Academy of St. Martin’s, and playing as guest concertmaster of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, a long-standing interest in contemporary music led him to join the internationally renowned Arditti Quartet, who specialise in new music. During his time with the Quartet, he played the world premieres of more than 200 works, and made a number of prize-winning recordings. Having left the quartet, he joined the London Symphony Orchestra as Principal Second Violin and later Chair of the Board where he remained until 2023. He has also been in demand as a teacher and coach (e.g. at the New World Symphony Academy in Miami Beach, the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, the Chamber Music Academy of the Aix-en-Provence festival, and in 2025 will coach among other places, at Domaine Forget in Quebec and at the Lucerne Festival). In 2025 he will also (with great pleasure!) be playing chamber music recitals in Littlehampton, Galatina (Puglia), Quebec, Perth (Scotland) and Sussex, England.

Marco Blaauw, trumpet
Why the trumpet? «I’ve always had in mind the image of a troubadour, spreading the news through music. I wanted to do that too - with my trumpet. An important focus of my work has been to further develop the instrument and its playing technique, and to initiate new repertoire.»
Marco Blaauw has an international career as a soloist, and is a member of Ensemble Musikfabrik in Cologne, Germany. Blaauw works in close collaboration with both the established and younger composers of our time. Many works have been especially written for Blaauw, including compositions by Peter Eötvös, Georg Friedrich Haas, Wolfgang Rihm, Rebecca Saunders and John Zorn. Blaauw worked intensely with Karlheinz Stockhausen. Flying over the orchestra in a gimbaled cage, he played the leading role in Stockhausen’s MICHAELs REISE. He presented the premier of HARMONIES for trumpet for the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall and has premiered many solo roles from the opera cycle LICHT.
In 2015, he started working with La Monte Young and the Theatre of Eternal Music Brass Ensemble on the melodic version of «The Second Dream of the High Tension Line Stepdown Transformer.» In the coming years, he will produce many concerts throughout Europe to continue performing the version for 8 trumpets. Marco Blaauw's work is widely documented through radio, television and CD recordings. He started a series of solo CD’s in 2005, the sixth of which, Angels, was awarded the «Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik 2014.»
Blaauw has been intensely active as a teacher, starting with the Stockhausen Courses, International Darmstadt Summer Courses and Brass Academy, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Center for Advanced Musical Studies at Chosen Vale, international master classes and most recently the Stockhausen master’s program at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.
As a composer, Blaauw was awarded the 2016 Karl Sczuka Prize (support grant) for his first radio play, «deathangel.»

Garth Knox, viola
Garth Knox was born in Ireland and spent his childhood in Scotland. He studied with Frederic Riddle at the Royal College of Music in London where he won several prizes for viola and for chamber music. Thereafter he played with most of the leading groups in London in a mixture of all repertoires, from baroque to contemporary music. 
In 1983 he was invited by Pierre Boulez to become a member of the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris, which involved regular solo playing, including concertos directed by Pierre Boulez, and chamber music, touring widely and playing in international festivals.
In 1990 Garth Knox joined the Arditti String Quartet, which led him to play in all the major concert halls of the world, working closely with and giving first performances of pieces by most of today's leading composers including Ligeti, Kurtag, Berio, Xenakis, Lachenmann, Cage, Feldman and Stockhausen (the famous «Helicopter Quartet»).
In 1998, Garth Knox left the quartet to concentrate on his solo career. As a soloist, he has given premieres by Henze (the Viola Sonata is dedicated to him), Ligeti, Schnittke, Ferneyhough, James Dillon, George Benjamin and many others. He also collaborates regularly in theatre and dance projects, and has written and performed a one-man show for children.
He has recently become a pioneer of the viola d’amore, exploring its possibilities in new music, with and without electronics, and is in the process of creating a new repertoire for this instrument.
Garth Knox now lives in Paris, where he enjoys a full time solo career, giving recitals, concertos and chamber music concerts all over Europe, the USA and Japan. He is also an active composer, and his «Viola Spaces », the first phase of an on-going series of concert studies for strings (published in 2010 by Schott) combines ground-breaking innovation in string technique with joyous pleasure in the act of music making. The pieces have been adopted and performed by young string players all over the world.
Garth Knox is International Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Talvi Hunt, piano, accompaniment

Talvi Hunt is an Estonian pianist active in the field of contemporary music. She performs regularly with international ensembles and orchestras, which has brought her to collaborate
with Ensemble Ascolta, Ensemble Ö!, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra.
Her festival and concert appearances have included Lucerne Festival, Festival ECLAT, reMusik, Warsaw Autumn, ArsMusica Brussels, PianoEspoo, Ruhrtriennale- Festival der Künste, Beethovenfest Bonn, ISCM World New Music Days, Baltic Music Days.

Talvi is currently a member of Broken Frames Syndicate (DE), Ensemble for New Music Tallinn (EE) and Ensemble of Nomads (CH). Active in the field of education, she is involved in several projects for young audiences under the Estonian National Opera. She has led contemporary music workshops at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, the Sarajevo Music Academy, and is part of the faculty at the Hochschule Luzern – Musik.

Talvi earned her Bachelor's degree at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre and completed a Master’s in Contemporary Music Interpretation at Hochschule Luzern- Musik under Prof. Florian Hoelscher. She has participated in numerous masterclasses and contemporary music courses, including the 48th Darmstadt International Summer Course for New Music, IMPULS Academy, Lucerne Festival Academy, and Donaueschinger Musiktage.
talvihunt.com

Clara Iannotta, composition
Clara Iannotta is an Italian composer and curator based between Berlin and Paris.
Her music is commissioned and performed by renowned international ensembles, soloists, and orchestras.
Iannotta has been a fellow of the Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD in 2013, Villa Médicis (Académie de France à Rome) in 2018–2019, and the recipient of several prizes including the Ernst von Siemens Composers’ Prize 2018, Hindemith-Preis 2018, Una Vita nella Musica Giovani 2019, Premio Abbiati 2021. Her three portrait albums A Failed Entertainment (Edition RZ), Earthing (Wergo), and Moult (Kairos) were all awarded a place on the Bestenliste der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (German Record Critics’ Award). She is a member of the Academy of Arts in Berlin and Munich.
From 2014 to 2024, Iannotta served as Artistic Director of the Bludenzer Tage zeitgemässer Musik. She is currently the artistic director for music programming of the Festival d’Automne à Paris and a member of the Kuratorium of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. She will be Professor of Composition at the Conservatoire de Paris (CNSMDP) starting in September 2025

Elaine Mitchener, Vocal
Elaine Mitchener is a British Afro-Caribbean vocalist, movement artist and composer working §an Associate Artist with the Wigmore Hall, Dutch new music group ENSEMBLE KLANG and with the international performance group NEEDCompany. Elaine was a DAAD Artist-in-Berlin Fellow (2022) and an exhibiting artist in the British Art Show 9 (2021–2022).

In February 2022 Mitchener was awarded an MBE for Services to Music. Her debut album SOLO THROAT was released in May 2024 under Café Oto’s OTORUKO label. In 2024, Elaine guest curated Politics of the Voice (Courtisane Festival, Ghent) and Basquiat&Cage 8424 for Fruitmarket Gallery’s Deep Time Festival. She is a Professor of Music at Guildhall School of Music and Drama and has been guest lecturer at Oxford University, Mozarteum (Salzburg), UdK (Berlin), Goldsmiths College University of London, Royal Academy of Music (London), INM / HMT Köln and Columbia University (New York). Elaine has held vocal studios at Darmstadt and Royaumont summer schools.

Composers and artists she has worked and collaborated with include: George E Lewis, Jennifer Walshe, Tansy Davies, Rolf Hind, Laure M Hiendl, Matana Roberts; visual artists Sonia Boyce, Christian Marclay and The Otolith Group; chamber ensembles Apartment House, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble MAM, Ensemble Klang, Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble and Klangforum Wien; choreographer Dam van Huynh and experimental musicians such as Moor Mother, Joelle Leandre, Saul Williams, Pat Thomas and David Toop. Elaine is founder of the collective electroacoustic unit The Rolling Calf.

elainemitchener.com

Alex Paxton, Posaune, Improvisation
Alex Paxton (1990), «highly innovative...of exceptional creative imagination and musical energy, packed with life force unlike anything else» (BBC Magazine/Ivor Novello British Composer Awards) is an award-winning composer and jazz-trombonist. His scores are published by Ricordi (Berlin).
He has been described as «A Magician of Sound...hyperkinetic rainbow-hued...joy and freedom» (Financial Times), «the most joyous sound I’ve heard in ages!» (New York Times), «A riotous overabundance of love and rage...an extraordinary experience» (The Wire), «a system-crasher of genre...unmistakable style...highly complex, sophisticated and extremely entertaining, virtuoso ad absurdum» (Neue Zeitschrift für Musik), and World Builder Creature was «mood boosting...intense burst of vivid orchestral colours and effervescent noisiness ...glittering musical box...intricate textures were almost miraculously lucid... moreish rhythmic grooves...bright and delightfully bonkers» (Guardian).
Alex has released three critically acclaimed albums MUSIC for BOSCH PEOPLE (Birmingham Record Company/ NMC label), iLOLLI-POP (non-classical) and HAPPY MUSIC for ORCHESTRA (Delphian), DELICIOUS (new Amsterdam) as well as many smaller releases. Each has been widely reviewed and featured in UK, USA and Europe in broad sheets and Music magazines. He is a commissioned contributor to John Zorn’s Arcana X 2021. Releases in 2026 include Candyfolk Space Drum.

Susanne Peters, flute
Susanne Peters (born 1988, Saarbrücken, Germany) is a flutist who specialises primarily in playing contemporary music. She was already active in this field during her studies in the Netherlands at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague with Kersten McCall. She graduated from the Ligeti Academy during 2011/12 , with an ensemble for new music in cooperation with the ASKO/Schönberg Ensemble under the direction of Reinbert de Leeuw, and played among others as a substitute in the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam in their AAA series for contemporary music and in the ASKO/Schönberg Ensemble as part of the Holland Festival. With the ensemble oerknal, which she co-founded, she plays regularly in the Netherlands and co-organises the DAMcademy and Balkan Composers Competition in Prishtina, which oerknal founded. In July 2014 she completed her Master's degree in Interpretation in Contemporary Music at the Lucerne School of Music with Pirmin Grehl. Since moving to Switzerland, she has played in numerous ensembles and at numerous festivals in Switzerland and abroad, she has worked with renowned international composers, can be heard on various CD recordings and regularly plays as a guest with the leading ensembles of contemporary music, including Ensemble Musikfabrik. Susanne is a member of the Ensemble Contrechamps, Geneva, the Collegium Novum Zurich and le NEC in la Chaux-de-Fonds. She has given master classes in flute and chamber music at various academies and festivals, including Voix Nouvelles in Royaumont and in Boswil. Susanne plays in various chamber music formations and is also active in the field of music education. In addition to workshops, which she often gives for the music van of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, she is very interested in interdisciplinary formats and initiates participatory mediation approaches in particular (for the Collegium Novum Zurich, among others) and was able to train further in this during a CAS as a "teaching artist" at the Bern University of the Arts. 

Heather Roche, clarinet
Born in Canada, clarinetist Heather Roche lives in London. Referred to as «The Queen of Extended Techniques« on BBC Radio 3, she appears regularly as a soloist and chamber musician. She currently plays with Apartment House, who are Ensemble in Residence at the Wigmore Hall as well as «House Band» for the Sheffield-based another timbre label, for whom they have recorded 40+ CDs. She also has had a duo with accordionist Eva Zöllner since 2017, with whom she has toured Mexico, Sweden, Colombia, Brazil and Turkey. They have also performed together at festivals including Gaudeamus (Utrecht), Flow (Helsinki), HCMF (UK), Mixtur (Barcelona), etc. and commissioned dozens of works for their unique duo. She has performed as a soloist with the BBCSSO in the premiere of a new Clarinet Concerto by Scott McLaughlin and performed as a guest with various ensembles and orchestras including the London Sinfonietta, the LSO, Musikfabrik, the WDR Symphony Orchestra, Red Note, Riot Ensemble, manufaktur für aktuelle musik, Mimitabu, etc. She holds a PhD from the University of Huddersfield, with her thesis on «Dialogue and Collaboration in the Creation of New Works for Clarinet». Her blog on writing for the clarinet attracts 70,000 views each year. She is also Reviews Editor of TEMPO, published by Cambridge University Press. Her debut solo CD, Ptelea, is out on HCR/NMC, and her CD featuring the clarinet works of Christopher Fox, Headlong, appears on Métier. Her recording of Martin Iddon’s clarinet works, Sapindales, appears on the another timbre label. She also appears regularly with rock bands including Dog Unit and Modern Nature, and records for film, including on the Emmy-winning score for The Reason I Jump, by composer Nainita Desai. She has been Head of Clarinet at tonebase since spring 2024. She lives in south-east London with her partner and their cat, Vera.

heatherroche.net