That’s horn, cello, synthesizer. A versatile hybrid between electronic and acoustic sounds. Ranging from absurd performances to introverted sound installations. Cello and horn offer a friction surface to microtonal sine waves, synthetic sounds of the eighties, or provide samples, that are being fragmented by keystroke. “It’s Dynamite, it’s Retro Disco…” (Robert Ashley)
Simone Keller, a classical pianist by training but with a transversal and interdisciplinary outlook, was born in Weinfelden, in the canton of Thurgau, in 1980. As an artist and performer, she feels at home in contemporary music, musical theatre, improvisation, and in experimental and participatory formats. She has also recorded various works, including Ustwolskaja’s Piano Sonatas for the Böhlau-Verlag Wien and collaborated with institutions like the SWR Experimental Studio. In 2018, Keller’s recording of Julius Eastman’s piano music, released by Intakt Records with Kukuruz Quartet, received critical acclaim and appeared on several best-of lists, including being recognized as one of the “Best classical albums” by the Boston Globe and “Album of the year 2018” by The New York City Jazz Records. She was also nominated for the international innovation award by Classical:NEXT in 2019. Since 2014, Simone Keller has co-directed the production company ox&öl with the director Philip Bartels. The company conducts participatory projects at the Zurich Tonhalle and develops interdisciplinary music theater productions, including collaborations with individuals with cognitive impairments. ox&öl received recognition from the Department of Culture of the Canton of Zurich in 2017 for its cultural inclusion work and was nominated for the “Junge Ohren Preis” in Frankfurt in the same year. Simone Keller is the recipient of the Conrad Ferdinand Meyer Prize in 2021. In 2022, she was honored with both the Swiss Music Prize and the Thurgauer Culture Prize.
Samuel Stoll studied french horn and natural horn at the Musikhochschule Lucerne and the Hochschule der Künste Bern in the classes of Jakob Hefti and Thomas Müller. Since finishing his studies in experimental music theatre in the class of Georges Aperghis at the Hochschule der Künste Bern, Samuel Stoll has worked as a freelance musician and performer. Since the outburst of the Corona Virus, he is studying the natural horn on privat lessons with his teacher Anneke Scott. He is a member of jetpack bellerive, ensemble apparat, Ensemblekollektive Berlin, retro disco, Ensemble Tzara. He plays a quatertone double bell french horn, that was built by Marc Schmiedhäuser in Wiesbaden. From 2015 till his retirement in 2045 he will commission every year a at least one new horn solo piece. So far he commissioned Evan Johnson, Michael Baldwin, Max Murray, Ann Cleare, Timothy McCormack, Nicolas Tzortis, Ray Evanoff, Clara Ianotta, Turgut Ercetin, Cassandra Miller, Aaron Einbond, Rebecca Saunders Steve Takasugi and Jannik Giger.
Moritz Müllenbach was born in Zurich, where he later studied the cello with Martina Schucan and Roel Dieltiens, as well as composition with Isabel Mundry. Having received his concert diploma, he attended postgraduate studies in Paris with Christophe Roy to extend his contemporary repertoire. His fascination with contemporary music, however, has always been accompanied by a profound love for the baroque cello. Being member of ecco, Ensemble Phoenix Basel and ensemble Nomos, founding member of Ensemble Tzara and fathom string trio, and guest musician with Sinfonietta Basel or Collegium Novum Zürich, he worked with renowned composers, such as Mauricio Kagel, Nicolaus A. Huber, Mischa Käser, Helmuth Oehring, and Alfred Knüsel. Various pieces Moritz Müllenbach premiered have been documented by broadcasting stations as various as DRS2, Deutschlandradio, WDR, Espace2, Radio LoRa, and macedonian and ucrainian television, followed by his debut at the Berlin Philharmonie in 2009 with ecco and a portrait concert of fathom string trio at the Internationale Ferienkurse Darmstadt 2010.
In addition to his occupations as a practicing musician and composer, Moritz Müllenbach develops and arranges various artistic events (ignm Zürich and artistic director of Tage für Neue Musik Zürich in 2013) and teaches the cello at Kantonsschule Wiedikon, putting an emphasis on contemporary music.