​DARA String Festival 2024

October, 12, 19:00, doors open at 18:30
KulturRaum Zwingli-Kirche, Rudolfstraße 14,10245 Berlin
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October 13, 19:00, doors open at 18:30
Michelberger Hotel, Raum Underlook, Warschauer Str. 39, 10243

Save your tickets
single concert 8/10EUR, day pass 15/20EUR
October 12: here
October 13: here
Also available at the door from 18:30 / Am Abendkasse ab 18:30

October 12, 15:00, additional family concert presented by LoudSoft
Schrumpf! Fantasien
KulturRaum Zwingli-Kirche, Rudolfstraße 14,10245 Berlin
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Artists / Künstler*innen

Clara Levy violin
Manja Ristić violin, electronics
Biliana Voutchkova violin, voice
Atsuko Hatano viola
Judith Hamann cello
Vinicius Cajado double bass
Youmna Saba oud, voice, electronics

Dara String Festival opens its doors for the sixth time in Berlin for all music lovers who are in the mood for something new! Seven international interdisciplinary artists come together to present a wide range of genre-bending innovative music! The unconventional exchange of experience and culture between the musicians creates fruitful synergies and surprising listening experiences. Solo and various ensembles play music ranging from early contemporary to experimental and freely improvised, including new own compositions, world premieres by Sarah Hennies, Zeynep Toraman and Voutchkova/Levy, pieces by Kaija Saariaho and Erika Vega, closing with a special Drone for Phill celebrating the legacy and birthday of Phill Niblock.

Das Dara String Festival öffnet zum sechsten Mal in Berlin seine Türen für alle Musikliebhaber*innen, die Lust auf etwas Neues haben!
Sieben internationale, interdisziplinäre Künstler*innen kommen zusammen, um ein breites Spektrum an genreübergreifender, innovativer Musik zu präsentieren!
Der unkonventionelle Erfahrungs-und Kulturaustausch zwischen den Musiker*innen schafft fruchtbare Synergien und überraschende Hörerlebnisse. Solist*innen
und verschiedene Ensembles spielen frühe zeitgenössische Musik bis hin zu experimenteller und frei improvisierter Musik, darunter neue Eigenkompositionen, Uraufführungen von Sarah Hennies, Zeynep Toraman und Voutchkova/Levy, sowie Kompositionen von Kaija Saariaho und Erika Vega. Den Abschluss bildet ein spezielles Drone for Phill, mit dem das Vermächtnis und der Geburtstag von Phill Niblock gefeiert werden.

Supported by Hauptstadtkulturfonds, with thanks

Festival program

October 12 @ KulturRaum Zwingli-Kirche

19:00
Voutchkova/ Levy New Phantasies (UA/WP)
The new work for two violins is based on and inspired by Georg Philipp Telemann's "Phantasies" for solo violin. It contains partly composed, partly improvised music that develops from a selection of slow movements from the original phantasies. The process of creating the piece went through a research phase of mutual and personal observation, understanding and defining the violinists common classical music background. It traced their early classical music training, the changes and developments over the years that have led to their current artistic identities. The New phantasies showcase their personal intimacy with Telemann's phantrasies, which each has been playing for over 20 years. Watch and listen as the two violinists explore the boundaries of the familiar and find the will, necessity and courage to break away from the original version.
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Atsuko Hatano Solo

20:00
The music of Sarah Hennies
Biliana Voutchkova (UA/WP) and Judith Hamann play commissioned solo works

Scaffold for violin and voice, written for Biliana Voutchkova
A piece with slow-moving melodic lines and extended harmonies that convey a sense of stasis rather than transition. Between the violin and the voice, extraneous sounds and musical elements, the balance between foreground melody and background harmony is altered. The piece explores a kind of minimalist textural phenomena, focussing on slow moving sounds and extended tones that allow the listener to explore the qualitative aspects of musical harmonies.

Loss for humming cellist and electronics, written for Judith Hamann
"I don’t know why that is exactly, but because of the humming, I had the idea that the player in this piece has a hidden speaker playing back a track of sine waves. So the piece is a sort of trio between voice, cello, and sine wave. The idea of you humming made me think of having this third voice, and the piece was really easy to write after that. It happened really intuitively"
Sarah Hennies

21:00
Manja Ristić Solo
Manja Ristić, Atsuko Hatano, Youmna Saba & Vinicius Cajado Improvisation


October 13 @ Michelberger Hotel

19:00
Clara Levy plays
Kaija Saariaho Nocturn
.

Youmna Saba Solo

20:00
Vinicius Cajado Solo
The music of Zeynep Toraman (UA/WP)
played by Clara Levy, Biliana Voutchkova & Judith Hamann
With this new piece Zeynep Tormana continues her exploration of the ways in which texts (in the broadest sense of this word) interact with one another within the larger framework of musical compositions, this time with focus on the timbral qualities of string instruments and their resemblance to the human voice.
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21:00
Drone for Phill 90 (UA/WP)
All Performers
A slightly guided improvisation initiated by Biliana Voutchkova, commemorating the legendary composer Phill Niblock who passed away earlier this year.


Biographies

Clara Levy
Clara Levy is a french violinist and improviser whose career is mainly focused on what is commonly referred to as New Music. For several years she has been developing solo projects in which she questions the conditions of listening and the dramaturgy of the concert (Outre- Nuit) or the sometimes blurred boundaries between interpretation and composition (13 Visions). She works regularly with European ensembles such as HanatsuMiroir, Ictus, Contemporary Insights, Ensemble Nemo, Ensemble 21 and with composers such as Erika Vega, Eva-Maria Houben, Clara de Asis and Jurg Frey. She has also performed at the Bayreuth Festival, the Strasbourg Opera and the Lille Opera.
https://clara-levy.com/

Manja Ristić
Manja Ristić, born 1979 in Belgrade, is a violinist, sound artist, published poet, curator and researcher. She graduated from the Belgrade Academy of Music and went on to gain the PGDip Solo/Ensemble Recitalist at the Royal College of Music, London. Manja has performed throughout Europe and the USA as a classical solo and chamber musician as well as a composer and improviser. A winner of several major awards for classical solo and chamber music, she received an honourable mention at the Phonurgia Nova Awards and a Golden Award for Extended Media from the Association of Visual Artists of Serbia. She is a founding member of CENSE - Central European Network for Sonic Ecologies. In the last ten years she has published sound art both independently and for labels and publishers such as mappa, Verdure Engraved or Cona Zavod. She lives and works on the island of Korčula, Croatia.
https://manjaristic.blogspot.com/

Biliana Voutchkova (see bio page)

Atsuko Hatano
Atsuko Hatano is an experimental string player from Japan and a prolific composer, music arranger and improvising live musician. She plays five-string viola, violin and cello and constructs innovative compositions with multi-layered electronic elements using pedals and Max/MSP. Without being bound to stereotypes, she explores new possibilities of string music in her albums and live performances. She has worked with renowned musicians such as Giovanni Di Domenico, Jim O'Rourke, Eiko Ishibashi and others. Recently, she contributed the music for the installation art exhibition ‘Fantastic Voyage’ in Tokyo for Sebastian Masuda, the legendary producer of Japanese idol Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. To date, she has released five solo albums. On her European concert tour in 2018/2019, she presented her original setlists at music festivals and concert halls in Belgium, Germany and Italy, among others.
https://hatanoatsuko.com/

​Judith Hamann
Judith Hamann is an Australian-born composer and performer who lives and works in Berlin. Her work encompasses performance, electroacoustic composition, site-specific generative work and microtonal systems in a process-based creative practice. Judith has performed at numerous festivals including Tectonics (Glasgow, Athens), UnSound (NYC), Sonic Acts (Amsterdam), Maerzmusik (Berlin), CTM (Berlin), The LA Philharmonic Fluxus Festival (LA), Venice Biennale Musica (Venice) and many more. Judith holds a PhD in Musicology from UC San Diego and her works are released on labels such as Blank Forms, Black Truffle, Another Timbre and Longform Editions.
https://judith-hamann.com/

Vinicius Cajado
Vinicius Cajado is a musician from São Paulo, Brazil . His music makes use of silence at the same volume and pace that makes the use of harsh noise, blends storytelling, minimalism, maximalism, spectral music, avant-garde and contemporary Brazilian music concepts into a super fast reactive playing. Using improvisation and deep listening also as a form of empathy, exchanging views, ideas, and reinventing himself from the first till the last note played on stage. Vinicius has received different accolades across the globe, such as “Debut record of the year” by the New York City Jazz Record for his first solo “Monu”. He has also been prized with additional honors for most unique and creative playing at the international society of bassists in Europe, and has performed at renowned events and music venues such as the Kitchen (NYC), Porgy and Bess (VIE), Berliner Festspiele/Jazzfest Berlin (DE), Saalfelden Jazz Festival (Vienna’s art and theater week), Budapest House of Music, Seven Rounds with Warhol/Basquiat exhibition etc.
https://www.viniciuscajado.com/

Youmna Saba
Youmna Saba is a musician and musicologist whose current research focuses on the musical dimensions of the Arabic language as a tool to develop new methods of working with electronics. To date, she has released 4 albums and collaborated with musicians from different backgrounds, including Kamilya Jubran (PL) and Mike Cooper (GB). She has participated in international programmes and residencies and is a three-time winner of the Cité Internationale des Arts music residency programme in Paris (2020-2021). Youmna was commissioned to develop and show her installation LA RÉSERVE DES NON-DITS at the Musee du Quai Branly / Paris. She holds a Master's degree in Musicology, mainly focussing on the parallels between classical Arabic music and Arabic visual arts.
https://youmnasaba.com/

DARA Strings in Chicago and New York
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​20.9, 8pm, Instigation Festival Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago, IL / With Katinka Kleijn, Isidora Edwards, Gabby Fluke-Mogul, Biliana Voutchkova, and special guest Michael Zerang 
25.9, 8pm, Roulette Brooklyn, NY / With Biliana Voutchkova, Joanna Mattrey, Miya Masaoka, Katinka Kleijn and Isidora Edwards