Stockholm – October 2019

Benjamin Lang, born in 1976, studied composition (with Adriana Hölszky, Johannes Schöllhorn and Michael Edwards), music theory and conducting in Rostock, Salzburg, Hannover, Lugano, Bremen and Edinburgh. He taught composition and music theory at the Universities of Music in Hannover, Bremen, Rostock, Osnabrück, Lüneburg, Zurich and Berlin. Since 2018, he is a professor at the University of Music and Drama Rostock.

Benjamin Lang draws a lot of inspiration for his music from the experience of archaeological excavations and sights as well as of natural phenomenon in general, which are all reflected within musical and formal structures of his compositions. In reviews his music has been described as archaic and unorthodox.

Lang’s music has been premiered and performed in concerts and festivals in Germany, Austria, the U.S., Bolivia, Italy, Switzerland and Belgium.

His compositions are published at the Verlag Neue Musik Berlin.

Nina Šenk graduated in composition from the Ljubljana Academy of Music under Prof. Pavel Mihelčič, then continued her postgraduate studies in composition in Dresden under the mentorship of Prof. Lothar Voigtländer and obtained her master’s degree in the class of Prof. Matthias Pintscher at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich, in 2008.

She is a recipient of many awards, including the European Award for the Best Composition at the Young Euro Classic Festival for her Violin Concerto in 2004, the Academy of Music Prešeren Award and the first prize at the Weimar Spring Festival of Contemporary Music for her composition Movimento fluido in 2008. In the 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 seasons, Nina Šenk was a Composer in Residence of the Staatstheater Cottbus Orchestra in Germany. In 2010, the Rector of the University of Ljubljana awarded her a special recognition for artistic work in the area of musical composition and performance as well as architecture. In 2017, she was awarded the Prešeren Fund Prize for her creative work in the previous two years.

Nina Šenk’s works have been performed at numerous important international festivals (BBC Proms, New York Philharmonic Biennial, Salzburger Festspiele, Young Euro Classic Berlin, Kasseler Musiktage, Musica Viva Munich, Frankfurter Positionen, Weimarer Frühjahrstage, Heidelberger Frühling, Takefu Festival (Japan), Ljubljana Summer Festival, Slowind Festival, Slovenian Music Days, World Music Days, World Saxophone Congress, etc.) and in many other concerts around the world with various orchestras and ensembles (New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Staatstheater Cottbus Orchestra, Young Euro Classic Festival Orchestra, Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble InterContemporain, Ensemble Modern, Scharoun Ensemble, Ensemble Mosaik, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble United Berlin, Slowind Wind Quintet, Ensemble Aleph, Altera Veritas, MD7, DC8, Ensemble Concorde, Kammersymphonie Berlin and others).

Nils Henrik Asheim, born in 1960, enjoys a combined career as composer and performer. He started out as a composition pupil of Olav Anton Thommessen and made his début at the UNM Nordic Festival for young composers in Helsinki at the early age of fifteen. In 1978, he was awarded the EBU Rostrum prize for his work Ensemblemusikk for 5. He subsequently went on to study organ and composing at the Norwegian Academy of Music and the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam.

As an organist, Asheim has performed in Scandinavia, Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Serbia, Slovakia, France and the United States. Asheim has been the resident organist of the new concert hall in Stavanger since its opening in 2012. There, he has displayed an innovative way of creating activities around the organ, and managed to get a large audience for the instrument.

Nils Henrik Asheim has written several chamber music pieces, works for symphony orchestra, organ and choirs, as well as projects in public space and also using theatrical elements. He has been awarded the Nordic Council Music Prize, the Arne Nordheim prize, the Edvard prize and the Lindeman prize and twice the Spellemannsprisen. His children’s opera The Tempest, commissioned and premiered by the Norwegian Opera and Ballet, won the RESEO opera for Young Audience award.

Since 1991, Asheim has been living in Stavanger, where he is active as a composer, musician and organizer. He was the principal initiator of the founding of Tou Scene, an alternative centre for contemporary arts in an abandoned factory building.

Tatjana Kozlova-Johannes is an Estonian composer of Russian origin. She grew up in the border towns Narva and Ivangorod, situated at the border between Estonia and Russia. In 1995, she decided to dedicate herself to music studies in Estonia, at Georg Ots Tallinn Music School. In 1999, she continued to study composition at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, at first with Jaan Rääts and since her second year with Helena Tulve, obtaining later also a Master’s degree under her guidance.

Tatjana Kozlova-Johannes has supplemented herself in various Master classes, including Bartók Festival (Szombathely, Hungary), Workshop for Young Composers (Dundaga, Latvia), International Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt, Germany. Between 2003-2004, she studied composition with Fabio Nieder at the Conservatory G. Tartini of Trieste, Italy.

Currently, she teaches composition at Georg Ots Tallinn Music School. In cooperation with Helena Tulve, Kozlova-Johannes carries on Master classes of “sound objects” that aim to develop and recover the listening skills.

Her works have been performed by several renown collectives in Estonia and abroad, including Ensemble U:, Resonabilis, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, ICTUS, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Phoenix Basel and Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart.

In 2004, Kozlova-Johannes was awarded a third place in the youth category at the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris for the work Made of Hot Glass. In 2006, Kozlova-Johannes was awarded the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis – the main award of the International Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt, and in 2008 the Heino Eller Music Prize. Tatjana Kozlova-Johannes’s works have been voted among the best 10 works in the general category at the International Rostum of Composers: Disintegration Chain in 2011 in Vienna and Lighting the Fire in 2018 in Budapest. In 2015, she was awarded the Annual Prize of the Endowment for Music of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Tomasz Skweres, born in 1984, is a Polish-Austrian composer and cellist, who lives and works in Vienna in Austria and Regensburg in Germany. He studied composition with Chaya Czernowin and Detlev Müller-Siemens and cello with Valentin Erben and Stefan Kropfitsch at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. He composed pieces commissioned by Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, by Konzerthaus in Vienna, Festival Wien Modern, Festival Musica Polonica Nova in Wroclaw, Philharmonic Orchestra Niederbayerische Philharmonie, Philharmonic Orchestra Regensburg, Theater Regensburg, Leopoldinum Orchestra in Poland, Apollon Musagète Quartet, Ensemble Zeitfluss in Graz, Ensemble Wiener Collage and by many others. His pieces were broadcasted in different countries – Austria, Germany, Italy, Poland, Australia, Mexico- and recorded by professional labels as Genuine, Col legno, Orlando Records.

Works by Tomasz Skweres are regularly performed at renowned festivals all over the world, such as Wien Modern, Biennial Bern, ISCM World Music Days 2016 in Korea/Tongyeong International Music Festival, Festival Musica 2015 in Strasbourg, Musica Polonica Nova, Festival Klangspuren in Tirol, Festival Goslar-Harz and many others.

Tomasz Skweres won many prizes and competitions such as composition competition for the obligatory piece for the International Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition in Vienna 2007 in the category string, the composition competition of the Ernst Krenek Institut in Austria 2014, Prize for Music (Composition) of Vienna 2015, TONALi 2017 composition competition, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk International Composition Competition 2019 and many others.

Since 2012 Tomasz Skweres has been Principal Cellist in the Philharmonic Orchestra Regensburg in Germany. Between 2016-2017, he lectured cello classes at the Music University in Detmold. He is also an active interpreter in the field of contemporary music.

Paulina Sundin’s music has been performed in concerts, radio broadcasts and multimedia events all over the world. Her music is defined by harmony; a harmony beyond the traditional tempered scale, harmony based on the individual acoustic properties of everyday objects. Paulina explores the relationships between different sound spectra and scales both in her electronic and instrumental work, whilst maintaining a distinct musical voice throughout. Sundin is also a researcher, receiving the Huddersfield University Vice-Chancellor’s Award for an Outstanding Doctoral Thesis for her PhD entitled Re-inventing Harmony in Electroacoustic Music (2010). In addition to her research and composing, Paulina has worked as a teacher of electroacoustic composition and as Deputy Head of Department in the School of Composition and Conducting at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm.  As of 2011 Paulina works full-time as a freelance composer.

Monty Adkins is a composer, performer, and lecturer of experimental electronic music. He has created installations, concert and audio-visual works, and a number of collaborations with contemporary artists. Having read music at Pembroke College, Cambridge, Adkins then studied electronic music with Jonty Harrison at the University of Birmingham where he performed across Europe with the Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre (BEAST), and Simon Waters at the University of East Anglia. He is currently Professor of Experimental Electronic Music at the University of Huddersfield. Adkins has edited three books, two on the music of Roberto Gerhard, and contributed chapters and articles to various publications on the aesthetics of digital music.