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Isabelle Raphaelis
Flute

Born in Flensburg, Isabelle finished her first studies with Bettina Wild at the University of Arts in Bremen. She attended masterclasses and chamber music workshops with Aurèle Nicolet, Prof. Angela Firkins, Robert Dick, Prof. Wally Hase and Prof. Michael Martin Kofler. In february 2015 she played the Flute Concerto of Jacques Ibert as the prize winner of Hanze Symphony Orchestra. She has the opportunity to play as a freelancer in orchestras such as The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and reflektor ensemble.

 

To open up to a bigger spectrum she started her second studies of „historical flutes“ with Prof. Marten Root in 2016. Also she is taking time to search for experimental, interdisciplinary and performative forms of art. For example she visited classes of Edit Kaldor and Jennifer Walshe and is improvising and searching for new sounds in her project  „The Current“ with guitarist Max Meyer.
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Hannah Craib
Viola

The Scottish born viola player Hannah completed her studies at the Royal College of Music, London under the tutelage of Simon Rowland-Jones and Susie Meszaros. Hannah is currently the violist of Echo Chamber Ensemble, Glas Duo and Radial Quartett. She has performed with Scottish Opera, Opera North, Red Note Ensemble, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Niewue Philharmonie Utrecht and Scottish Ballet. Hannah was the viola player of the Alba String Quartet performing regularly in Scotland and also touring in the UK, Italy and Switzerland.  Since 2014 Hannah has been the viola player of Ensemble New Babylon.

Andreas Paparousos
Composer

Andreas was born in Athens in 1975. He has studied Philosophy at the University of Athens and at the same time Composition, Harmony, Counterpoint and Fuge with Ioannis Terzakis. He also had piano lessons with Anastasia Parissi, Claudia Birkholz and church organ lessons with Christos Paraskevopoulos. In 2002 he received his Diploma in Philosophy and in 2005 his Master in Systematic Philosophy. From 2005 he continued his studies in Composition with Younghi Pagh-Paan at the music University in Bremen.

 

He is a member of the „Enargia“ group in Athens and co founder of the Ensemble New Babylon in Bremen. His works has been performed among others by „Ensemble Recherche“ and from interpreters such as Zsigmond Szathmary and Margit Kern, and in countries such as Greece, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Bulgary, England and Canada. The root of his musical thoughts goes back to the ancient Greek art theory of "ethos", where the key feature of music, as well as of art in general, is a self-reflexive question about the kind of effect that a work of art produces on people. Today he lives and works as a composer in Bremen.
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Andreas Paparousos
Hsin Lee
Percussion

Hsin is a taiwanese percussionist. Her music experience started with piano at the age of six. As she was ten, she went to the elementary school of music and later on received her bachelor degree in the major of percussion from National Taiwan Normal University. She came to Germany to further her music education with a focus on new music and cross-disciplinary works under the instruction of Professor Olaf Tzschoppe at the University of the Arts Bremen.

 

As a soloist and a chamber music partner, she was invited to play with different Ensembles in various festival of new music (such as Festival Musica, Strasbourg, France; Warsaw Autumn, Warsaw, Poland; PGNM Festival, Bremen; Acht Brücken, Cologne, Germany). She participates in recordings in cooperation with SWR and Radio Bremen. She is currently a member of Ensemble New Babylon and Bremer Schlagzeugensemble as well as a dedicated percussion teacher at the music school of the city of Oldenburg.
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Johannes von Buttlar
Percussion

Johannes is a versatile, broadly oriented percussionist, playing an active part in and between the areas of new music, experimental music and improvisation. He was a scholarship holder of the State Association of Music Schools at the seminar of musical studies in Kiel under Paul-Gerfried Zulauf, studied classical percussion in Bremen with Stefan Rapp and Prof. Olaf Tzschoppe and free improvisation in Basel with Fred Frith and Alfred Zimmerlin. Moreover, he was instructed by Gregor Hilbe and participated in the workshops of Julio Barreto, Malcom Braff, Jim Black and Glen Velez. Concert tours brought him to Brasil, Mongolia and Japan, among others.  

Johannes von Buttlar
Mireia Vendrell del Álamo
Piano

Mireia is a Spanish pianist based in Bremen, Germany. She takes part of Ensemble New Babylon since its foundation. She studied in Barcelona, Valencia and Stuttgart, where she obtained a Master of Arts of contemporary music performance. She received her most remarkable musical influences from Luca Chiantore, Nicolas Hodges, Albada Olaya, Josep Maria Colom, Jordi Camell, Albert Mora, the Casals string quartet and many more. In 2007 she recorded her solo CD “Hier ist Friede” including works by Klein, Webern and Prokofiev. Other recordings include the CD "Tutto Demestres I" with pieces of Alberto García Demestres (2007) and a portrait CD of Spanish composer Benet Casablancas for Naxos (2019).

She dedicates her artistic life to contemporary music and has already premiered dozens of pieces for solo piano and chamber music. She played many years with CrossingLines Ensemble Barcelona and with EthosDuo. She has performed concerts at international festivals and venues around numerous European countries, Indonesia, South Korea and Argentina. Her concerts have been broadcasted by BBC (UK), Radio Bremen, Hessischer Rundfunk, Deutschlandfunk Kultur (Germany), COMRadio and Catalunya Musica (Spain).
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Mireia Vendrell
Alexander F. Müller
Composer

Alexander was born 1987 in Munich. He studied from 2008-2014 with Younghi Pagh-Paan, Jörg Birkenkötter, Kilian Schwoon (electronic music) and Andreas Dohmen (orchestration) at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen, where he co-founded in 2012 the Ensemble New Babylon together with the composers Andreas Paparousos, Christian Pedro Vásquez Miranda and the oboist Benjamin Fischer. At the Center for Research in New Music (CeReNeM) at the University of Huddersfield in England he accomplished 2016 his Master by Research with distinction under the supervision of Aaron Cassidy and Liza Lim. Since 2016 he is living as a freelance composer and sound designer in Munich.

 

He is Alumnus of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes. His works have been performed worldwide by extraordinary performers, instrumentalists, ensembles and orchestras of the contemporary music scene and range from instrumental to electronic music, which have yielded projects and collaborations of various artistic backgrounds.
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Alexander F. Müller
Daria-Karmina Iossifova
Piano

From the moment Daria-Karmina was born in Sofia, music was a part of her life. Every day her grandmother sang to her, and at 4 years of age, she received her first piano lesson from her mother. Two years later after passing the entrance exam, Daria was admitted to the music school in Sofia. By the time she graduated in 1998 she had performed in many concerts as a soloist as well as in chamber ensembles. In 1995 she was awarded 2nd prize at the national "Liszt-Bartók" piano competition. While studying she met the pianist Angela Tosheva, who was to become a pivotal influence on her musical development. Tosheva first ignited her interest in contemporary music. In 2000 she was awarded 1st prize at the international piano duo competition (with Sona Feschian), "Music and the Earth" in Sofia.

In 2003, Daria began studies with Prof. Ralf Nattkemper at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. In addition to the classical repertoire, she also focused on 20th/21st-century classical music. During her study she was supported by the Brahms, Otto Stöterau and the Oscar and Vera Ritter foundations. Concert invitations and collaborations with contemporary composers such as Moritz Eggert, Juan Trigos and Alex Jimenez Ruanova lead her to a.o. Festival Internacional Cervantino (Mexico), Autumn Sound-Chengdu Music Festival (China), Elbphilharmonie Concerts, Klub Katarakt Festival (Hamburg), Accidental Music Festival (USA). Daria’s musical development has been particularly inspired by encounters with Bulgarian cellist Dimitar Kozev, and with the pianists Jean-Pierre Collot and Nicolas Hodges, among others.
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Beltane Ruiz Molina
Double Bass

Beltane, born in 1983 (Soria, Spain), began to play the double bass aged 10. Bass and composition studies in London, Berlin and a Master in early music in Basel. Besides she got impulses on contemporary performance from Uli Fussenegger. During her studies she got scholarships from Humboldt-Wardwell-Stiftung, Spanish Culture Ministery, 'Asociación de Artistas de Espania' as well as 'Juventudes Musicales'. She won the 'Música Saludable' competition in Soria 1997, 'Hanns-Eisler-Preis' for contemporary music 2007 as well as finalist at DAAD-Preis 2007. She appeared as soloist with 'Orquesta de Cámara Andrés Segovia' and with Baden-Badener Philharmonie.

She has worked with the most prominent modern orchestras and conductors in England, Germany and the Netherlands. She often plays with contemporary music groups like KNM Ensemble, Ensemble Adapter, LUX:NM Ensemble, Ensemble Mosaik or Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop in Berlin as well as CrossingLines in Barcelona, OENM in Salzburg, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Resonanz in Hamburg and E-MEX-Ensemble or musikFabrik  in Köln. Since 2010 she is member of Zafraan Ensemble Berlin. On period instruments practice she plays regularly with Chambre Philharmonique in Paris, Ensemble Cordia in Italy, Elbipolis Barockorchester Hamburg, Combattimento Amsterdam, Anima Eterna Brugge and kammerorchesterbasel among others. Currently she performed as a soloist “Body Opera”, an opera installation by Wojtek Blecharz staged at festivals like Huddersfield or Rainy Days Luxembourg. Under her most outstanding recordings are Schubert's Trout Quintett by Alpha with Jos van Immerseel and Midori Seiler (on period instruments), Gubaidulina's 'Transformation' by Genuin with sonic.art Saxophonquartett and Christian Lindberg as well as 'Klangrede' by bastille musique and 'Alif' portrating Samir Odeh-Tamimi, both with her group Zafraan Ensemble Berlin.
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Riccardo Castagnola
sound direction/composer

Riccardo (Bologna, IT, 1988) is a composer, performer and multimedia artist. He studied Electronic Music and Composition at Conservatorio G.B. Martini (Bologna, IT) and at Hochschule für Künste Bremen (GER). 2015-16 he was Meisterschüler in “Temporal Media” at the HfK Bremen (Prof. Jean-Fraçois Guiton), with focus on interactivity between sound, image and gesture. He improved himself through workshops with international composers, performer and sound artists such as D. Smalley, B. Parmegiani, S. Sciarrino, A. Mayr, F. Bayle, P. Billone, M. Belli, A. Soto, B. Fort, F. Maheu, L. Sonami, J. O’Callaghan, R. Normandeau. Since 2018 he teaches Sound Design and Multimedia Installation at the Hochschule Bremerhaven (Digital Media Department), Multimedia Performance at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen (Elementary Music Education), and gives workshops about electroacoustic techniques for live sound in cooperation with Theater SCHLACHTHOF.

His soundtrack for the silent movie "die Leuchte Asiens" (1925, F. Osten) was screened at Berlinale Retrospektive 2018. 2018 he started the project ElekTrAktions, a multimedia electroacoustic performative series in Bremen, in cooperation with Theater SCHLACHTHOF and the support of Senator für Kultur Bremen. 2017 he was finalist at the FRANZ LISZT - Scholarship (Akusmatische Komposition) in Weimar. His works and activities spread among electroacoustic and instrumental composition, live music for performance, dance and theatre, free improvisation, sound direction, sound design for film and multimedia interactive installation, analysis of electroacoustic music. All shown in international festivals (GER, UK, FR, BR, IT, GR, NL, CA). He regularly cooperates with different institutions in the field of free improvisation and multimedia performance, such as Ensemble New Babylon (Bremen, GER) Theater Bremen (GER), Weserburg Museum (Bremen, GER) and Tempo Reale (Florence, IT). 2010 - 2013 he was copy editor of MusicaElettronica.it, an Italian blog about experimental music and art.
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Riccardo Castagnola
Benjamin Fischer
Oboe

Benjamin studied oboe in Switzerland under the guidance of Prof. Hans Elhorst and in Germany under the guidance of Prof. Christian Hommel. He has also participated in masterclasses under Ingo Goritzki, Stefan Schilli, Christian Wetzel, Jochen Müller-Brincken and Maurice Bourgue. He performed concerts in whole Europe, Turkey, Singapore, South Korea, Indonesia and South America and played together with orchestras and ensembles like Swiss Chamber Orchestra, Theatre of Bremen, Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, Tempus Konnex Ensemble and Ecce ensemble New York. As substitute he has played regularly with Ensemble Modern Frankfurt and oh ton-ensemble Oldenburg.

Since 2012 he is oboist of Ensemble New Babylon. Benjamin dedicates himself exceptionally to contemporary music, working together with composers and played numerous world premieres and German premieres from composers like Benedict Mason, Michael Quell, Younghi Pagh-Paan, Louis Andriessen, Pedro Alvarez, Julia Werntz, Elnaz Seyedi, Christian Pedro Vásquez Miranda, Alexander F. Müller, Andreas Paparousos, Ali Gorji, Anton Wassiljew and others. Radio and CD recordings were made in cooperation with German radio stations like WDR, HR, Radio Bremen, Deutschlandradio Kultur and others.
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Benjamin Fischer
Martin Abendroth
Clarinet

Martin was born in 1982. In the year 2002 he graduated at the Musikgymnasium Schloss Belvedere Weimar. From 2002 to 2008 he studied the clarinet at the Hochschule für Künste with Prof. Marco Thomas which he graduated in June 2008 with a diplom. Until 2010 Martin Abendroth studied chamber music at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold with Prof. Thomas Lindhorst. During this time he was a member of the orchestra of the german federal police (2009- 2012). 

In the time as a freelancer he played in orchestras of the Theatre Lüneburg, Bremerhaven and Lübeck. Martin is a founder member of the Ensemble New Babylon in which he played many CD and radio productions. Since 2014 he is a full member of the orchestra of the german federal police and plays the E flat clarinet.
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Tobias Hamann
Percussion

Tobias has a master's degree in classical percussion. He is a very keen baroque timpani player and improvisator. Tobias currently plays with “Elbipolis- Hamburger Barock Orchester”. He plays free music with the „Duo Extremnich“. From 2015-2017 he was a lecturer for improvisation with soundscapes at the university for music in Freiburg.

 

Nayoung Cheong
Clarinet

Nayoung was born in South Korea. She studied her instrument, clarinet at the University of Jeonju with Prof. In- Soo Park (Bachelor) and Prof. Kwang- Ho Oh (Master) . She was a member in the Jeungeup City Orchestra and many other chamber music formations and played as soloist with many orchestras of her home country. When Nayoung took part in masterclasses and private lessons of known german proffessors like Prof. G. Starke (Munich), Prof. G. Zeretzke (Berlin) and Andreas Lehnert (Gewandhaus Leipzig) she decided to study in Germany.

 

From 2006- 2010 she studied at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen with Prof. Marco Thomas. During this time the children project „The advetures of Clarinetto“ was founded, which is performed in whole Germany and also available on CD.Nayoung Cheong is very intersted in performing contemporary music. On this way she played at Donaueschinger Musiktage, took part in CD prductions for the Atelier of contemporary music and played on radio recordings for radio Bremen. She is a foundation member of the Ensemble New Babylon, the Bremer Ensemle of contemporary music, in which she played many projects like a CD production for Naxos Since 2010 the clarinetist is a foundation member of the Ensemble Kokopelli (Tio d`anches oboe, clarinet and bassoon) which goes regulary by invitation to the „Ala Kanpany Kulturfest“ in Tottori, Japan and is playing on festivals like „Champ- de- Lunière“ in Gaas/ France. Nayoung Cheong is a well known clarinetteacher in Bremen, around Bremen and the ostfriesisch Area. Her students are getting prices at „Jugend musiziert“ in all categories.
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Steffen Ahrens
Guitar

Steffen lives as a guitarist in Frankfurt am Main. He studied in Hannover, Hamburg and Frankfurt. His main interest - besides the classical repertoire and Rock/Pop music - is the interpretation of contemporary music. He is member of the oh ton-ensemble in Oldenburg, and founding member of the duo leise dröhnung (cello / guitar) together with Niklas Seidl. He played as a guest with Ensemble Modern, ensemble musikFabrik, SWR Symphony, Bamberger Symphony at the opera Frankfurt. He teaches at the HfMDK Frankfurt am Main.

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