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Online Performance | ZEN
“ZEN is about the balance of controlling things and letting go. About seeking the perfect moment and dealing with missing it. About everyday live and its many ups and downs. It should be listened to very intensely and not be taken too seriously.” (Daniel Riegler, composer)
With this collaboration, strings&noise continues to tear down misperceptions that string instruments – especially when played by women – are made only for sweet-sounding melodies.
The online performance, filmed at a construction site on the side of a major highway in Vienna, is available to watch on the ACFNY YouTube channel linked below.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
The duo strings&noise – Maiken Beer (cello) and Sophia Goidinger-Koch (violin) – was founded in 2015 and is the logical consequence of a friendship and long-running collaboration. These Vienna-based musicians are both members of the ensemble STUDIO DAN, play together in formations such as the Ensemble Platypus and the blackpageorchestra and have been part of many projects of the JazzWerkstatt Vienna.
These two performers share the common belief that new music should be exciting and inspiring – not only for the initiated, but also for the untrained ear. In this collaboration, they search intently for the endless possibilities of sound and noise, unafraid to explore the limits of their instruments and their own playing. With relish and glee they tear down misperceptions that string instruments – especially when played by women – are made only for sweet-sounding melodies.
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Daniel Riegler works as a freelance trombonist and and dramaturg of 20th and 21st century music, and as a composer. He is the founder of Studio Dan, a multi-sylistic instrumental ensemble located in Vienna, Austria. He has worked with George Lewis, Vinko Globokar, Elliott Sharp, Michel Doneda, the Klangforum Wien, the Ensemble die reihe, the NDR Bigband, as well as with a.o. Elektro Guzzi, koenigleopold and Dorian Concept.
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Melanie Hollaus was born in 1980 in Austria. After acting school graduate she worked on performance art, experimental videos for exhibitions and short video portraits (Fernando Birri, Jeanine Meerapfel, Ninetto Davoli, Daniel Diaz Torres and Želimir Žilnik are among them). Since 2008 she works as a freelance filmmaker. She is a writer, director, cinematographer and editor.
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Image Credit: Melanie Hollaus/Christoph Lammerhuber