Lecturers Academy for contemporary Music

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.

Chaya Czernowin, composition
Chaya Czernowin was born and brought up in Israel. After her studies in Israel, at the age of 25, she continued studying in Germany (DAAD grant), the US, and then lived in Tokyo, Japan (Asahi Shimbun Fellowship and American NEA grant), and in Germany (a fellowship at the Akademie Schloss Solitude). Her music has been performed throughout the world, by the best orchestras and performers of new music, and she has held a professorship at UCSD and was the first woman to be appointed as a composition professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria (2006–2009), and at Harvard University, USA (2009 -to the present) where she has been the Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music. Together with Steven Kazuo Takasugi and Jean-Baptiste Jolly, the director of Akademie Schloss Solitude near Stuttgart, she has founded the summer Academy at Schloss Solitude, a biannual course for composers, 2003- 2019. Takasugi and Czernowin also taught at Tzlil Meudcan, an international course based in Israel founded by Yaron Deutsch of Ensemble Nikel. 

Czernowin’s output includes chamber and orchestral music, with and without electronics. Her works were played in most of the significant new music festivals. She composed 4 large scale works for the stage: Pnima...ins Innere (2000, Munich Biennale) chosen to be the best premiere of the year by Opernwelt yearly critic survey, and received the prestigious Bayerischer Theaterpreis; Adama (2004/5) with Mozart's Zaide (Salzburg Festival 2006)  Adama has a second version written with Ludger Engles, with an added choir which was presented in Freiburg Stadttheater (2017). The opera Infinite Now was written in 2017, a commission of Vlaamse Opera Belgium, IRCAM Paris, and Mannheim Stadtheater. The piece combines/ superimposes materials of the first world war (Luk Perceval's theater piece "FRONT") with the short story Homecoming by Can Xue. This opera was chosen as the premier of the year in the international critics’ survey of Opernwelt. In 2018/2019 Czernowin Wrote the text and music to Heart Chamber which was premiered and commissioned by the Deutsche Oper Berlin, in the direction of Claus Guth to a strong critical and public acclaim. Czernowin was appointed Artist in residence at the Salzburg Festival in 2005/6, Helsinki Nova Festival and at the Lucern Festival, Switzerland in 2013, at Huddersfield Festival 2021 Tallinn Effekt Festival in 2022, and at the MusikVerein Vienna, Austria, and Witten Festival and Weit Festival in Germany 2026. 

Characteristic of her work are working with metaphor as a means of reaching and analyzing a sound world that is unfamiliar; the use of noise and physical parameters as weight, textural surface (as in smoothness or roughness, brightness or darkness); an inquiry of the handling of time; and shifting of scale. and perspective. These ways of working/thinking fuse her work with multi-sensory content and work to reach a sonic expression which includes the subconscious and goes beyond style, conventions, or rationality.

In addition to numerous other prizes, Czernowin represented Israel at Uncesco composer's Rostrum 1980; was awarded the DAAD scholarship ('83–85); Stipendiumpreis ('88) and Kranichsteiner Musikpreis ('92), at Darmstadt Fereinkurse; IRCAM (Paris) reading panel commission ('98); scholarships of SWR experimental Studio Freiburg ('98, '00, '01 and more); The composer’s prize of Siemens Foundation ('03); the Rockefeller Foundation, ('04); a nomination as a fellow to the Wissenschaftkolleg Berlin ('08); Fromm Foundation Award ('09); and Guggenheim Foundation fellowship ('11); Heidelberger Kunstlerinen Preis ('16); The WERGO portrait CD The Quiet (5 orchestral pieces) has been awarded the Quarterly German Record Critics’ Award ('16 ). She was chosen as a member of the Akademie der Kuenste in Berlin in 2017, and as a member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, Munich in 2021. In 2022 She was awarded the Gema Authors prize in the Musiktheater (new opera) category. 

Czernowin's work is published by Schott. Her music is recorded on Mode records NY, Wergo, Col Legno, Deutsche Gramophone, Kairos, Neos, Ethos, Telos Naxos, and Einstein Records. She lives near Boston with composer Steven Kazuo Takasugi. Czernowin is an Israeli/ American Citizen.  

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

Eric Lamb, flute
Belonging to a new generation of international classical musicians who defy easy categorization, flutist Eric Lamb has forged a dynamic and multifaceted career as a concerto soloist, chamber musician, guest principal, recording artist, and educator. 

Formerly a core member of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Eric now performs regularly with many of the world’s leading orchestras and new music ensembles. His guest appearances include the Boulez Ensemble, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, der gelbe klang (Munich), Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Geneva Camerata, the Cleveland Orchestra, Camerata Bern, PHACE, ASKO|Schönberg Ensemble, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Omega Ensemble (Sydney), Radio Frankfurt, and more. He has appeared at major festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, Darmstadt Summer Courses, Lockenhaus, Acht Brücken (Cologne), Mostly Mozart (New York), Heidelberg Spring Festival, Beijing Modern Music Festival, and the Bucharest New Music Festival.

Committed advocate for contemporary music, Eric has premiered over 200 new works, collaborating closely with composers including Enno Poppe, Sir George Benjamin, Kaija Saariaho, George Lewis, Michael Jarrell, John Adams, Julia Purgina, Ivan Buffa, HK Gruber, Matthias Pintscher, and Nico Muhly. He has worked with conductors such as Sakari Oramo, François-Xavier Roth, Franz Welser-Möst, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Susanna Mälkki, Pablo Heras-Casado, and Steve Schick. 

Eric's discography, spanning more than 15 commercially released albums, reflects a repertoire that ranges from Bach, Telemann, and Schubert to Xenakis, Jason Eckhardt, and even the indie band Passion Pit. He records for labels including Kairos, paladino, SONY, Hyperion, NMC, mode, New Amsterdam, NAXOS, Bridge, Starkland, and Nonesuch.

Eric Lamb is currently Associate Professor of Music and Head of Winds at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore.

Richard Elliot Haynes, clarinet
Richard Elliot Haynes views the clarinet, its playing style and its repertoire as a unified whole, without making any deliberate distinction between historical periods. This is evident, amongst other things, in his consistent mastery of all the instruments in the modern clarinet family. His artistic career reflects this approach impressively: for over two decades, he has been performing with a wide variety of ensembles – from string quartets and wind quintets, through mixed ensembles, to chamber and symphony orchestras.

Haynes grew up in Australia, in an environment where it was taken for granted that one should play in as many different ensembles as possible: orchestras, wind orchestras, marching bands, big bands, clarinet ensembles… During his studies at the Queensland Conservatorium, he discovered the many facets of the fringes of classical music: he delved deeply into early music, contemporary works and improvisation, alongside a rich core repertoire. His curiosity subsequently led him to Switzerland, where he completed his soloist diploma with distinction.

Haynes is a permanent member of the Basel Sinfonietta, Ensemble Proton and the Blattwerk Quintet, and has played on a fixed-term contract as a clarinettist with the Zurich Opera Orchestra for the past two seasons. Through his involvement with these ensembles, he explores an exceptionally broad stylistic spectrum whilst also engaging with pioneering artistic questions. In addition, he has performed extensively in recent years with renowned ensembles and orchestras such as the Elision Ensemble, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Orchestre des Jardins Musicaux, Ensemble Resonanz and the Basel Symphony Orchestra.

As a soloist, Haynes has performed works by Aaron Copland, Giacinto Scelsi, Benjamin Schweitzer, Peter Rankine and Nigel Westlake with various orchestras. Particular attention was also drawn to his first complete performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto on the instrument originally intended for it – the basset horn in G.

His commitment to diversity within the clarinet family and to expanding its repertoire is tireless. To date, this has led to hundreds of world premieres of original works and arrangements on various clarinets and in diverse musical contexts.

Adam Woodward, violin
Winner of the Berlin Prize for Young Artists in 2023, violinist Adam Woodward performs regularly as a member of Ensemble Recherche and was a founding member of the Fabrik Quartet. Among his solo, chamber and orchestral appearances he has performed as a guest with ensembles such as the Mivos Quartet, Ensemble Modern and Sinfonietta Riga. His recent festival appearances include ECLAT, Musica Nova, Acht Brücken, and the Big Ears Festival.

During his tenure with the Fabrik Quartet, the quartet took first prize at the Festmus re_cre@ Contemporary Music Competition, second and special prizes at the John Cage Award 2024 and recorded its debut CD with support from the Kamar Percy and Ingeborg John Foundation Award, featuring works by Luciano Berio, Wolfgang Rihm, Rebecca Saunders and José Luis Escrivà Córdoba. The quartet was Ensemble in Residence at Barcelona Modern and performed at festivals such as the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, Ensems Festival and Mostra Sonora Festival. In 2023, the Fabrik Quartet was selected for the InSzene Program through the Deutscher Musikrat Podium Gegenwart.

His musical education began with his upbringing in Minnesota, where he attended the concerts of his teachers in the Minnesota Orchestra. This led to intensive musical training at summer festivals such as Madeline Island Chamber Music and the Lucerne Festival Academy. A graduate of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University and Brigham Young University, Adam Woodward studied violin with Paul Kantor and Monte Belknap before specializing in contemporary music at the International Ensemble Modern Academy and in string quartet and chamber music with Lucas Fels and Tim Vogler at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt, Germany.

adam-woodward.com

Lucas Niggli, Drums, Percussion, Composition
"...a sonic seismologist who shifts musical textures like tectonic plates..."
— NYC Jazz Record
Lucas Niggli (born 1968) is a drummer, percussionist, and composer working at the intersection of improvised and composed music.
His ensembles include STEAMBOAT SWITZERLAND, Biondini–Godard–Niggli, KALO YELE (with Aly Keïta), Beat Bag Bohemia, the duo with vocalist Andreas Schaerer, and A Novel of Anomaly.
His concert tours have taken him around the world, performing at many renowned international festivals.His musical collaborators, past and present, include Marino Pliakas, Dominik Blum, Nils Wogram, Barry Guy, Maya Homburger, Fred Frith, John Cale, Pierre Favre, Elliott Sharp, Michael Wertmüller, Erika Stucky, Wu Wei, Flea, Xu Fengxia, Tim Berne, Felix Profos, Paul Plimley, Melvin Gibbs, Fritz Hauser, Peter Conradin Zumthor, Aly Keïta, and many others.
His discography comprises around 60 recordings, including 20 albums as a bandleader and composer.
In addition to his performing career, he is active as a concert and festival organizer and serves as a lecturer at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK).

Jessie Marino, composer, performer, and media artist
Jessie Marino's recent work focuses on sound, light and fibre. Jessie has recently been commissioned for new works by the Rümlingen Festival, BBC Radio 3, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Ensemble Proton Bern, and Lucerne Festival. In 2023/2024 she was an Artist-in-Residence at The Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) in New York, in 2020 she received a Fromm Composition Commission from Harvard University, and in 2018-2019 Jessie was a Music Composition Fellow at the American Academy of Rome.  Marinoalso performs an idiosyncratic bevy of stringed instruments and electronics in collaborations with her bands Wrong Norma, and CAOUTCHOUC, as well as in her solo performances with strings and electronics.