Festival Forum Wallis: Voutchkova/Strahl/Mengis/Pfammatter

Contributors
Voutchkova/Strahl/Mengis/Pfammatter

PROGRAM
Improvisation concert with four of the hottest musicians on the Swiss and international free jazz scene: sensitive, electrifying, gripping - simply touching!
CONTRIBUTORS
Biliana Voutchkova (vln)
Silke Strahl (sax)
Manuel Mengis (trp/el)
Hans-Peter Pfammatter (keys/el)
Biliana Voutchkova is a Bulgarian violinist of contemporary classical music, improvisation and experimental interdisciplinary projects, in particular music and dance. She lives in Berlin. Born into a musical family, she first studied classical violin in Bulgaria and then in the USA, where she came into contact with improvised music. In Berlin she developed the musical balance of her multi-layered influences. She is a member of numerous ensembles and is recognized and appreciated as a soloist. Her musical work reflects an unusually broad spectrum of influences and influences.Voutchkova belonged to Grapeshade(Ingo Reulecke, Katharina Meves, Biliana Voutchkova, Klaus Janek), the Splitter Orchestra and the Trickster Orchestra. She has worked with Chiyoko Szlavnics, Ernstalbrecht Stiebler, Louise Wagner, the soloist ensemble Kaleidoskop, Ensemble Modern, Das Neue Ensemble Hannover and as an improvising musician with Michael Thieke, Frances-Marie Uitti, Matthias Bauer and Audrey Chen, among others. In 2019, she formed the improvisation trio Jane in Ether together with pianist Magda Mayas and recorder player Miako Klein; to mark its fifth anniversary, they were given a one-week residency at Echoraum Wien and temporarily expanded into a quintet with Christine Abdelnour and Emilie Škrijelj for the occasion. https://de. wikipedia.org/wiki/Biliana_Voutchkova
Born in Bad Saulgau, Silke Strahl had her first music lessons at the age of 9. She began studying elementary music education at the Stuttgart University of Music and Performing Arts in 2008, and from 2010 she also studied classical saxophone with Nikola Lutz. An Erasmus stay took her to Lucerne, where she completed her instrumental bachelor's degree and a master's degree in "Interpretation of contemporary music" with Sascha Armbruster and Beat Hofstetter. Silke is active in various ensembles with which she premieres contemporary works and realizes interdisciplinary projects. Another focus of her work is free improvisation. Here she performs on stage with Urban Mäder, Hans-Peter Pfammatter, Linda Vogel and her permanent ensemble "Nachhall". She can also be heard as a substitute in various orchestras and ensembles, such as the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Kammerphilharmonie Graubünden, the Collegium Novum, the Hessian Radio Orchestra and the Exorbitant Cabinet. In 2016, she won the Edwin Fischer Recognition Prize and the Soundzz.z.zzz...z competition at the Lucerne Festival. She is also actively involved in Lucerne's cultural scene, is part of the Kulturbrauerei collective and the Forum neue Musik and is on the advisory board of Other Music Luzern.https://www.silkestrahl.com



Manuel Mengis is aSwissjazz trumpeter, composer, painter and mountain guide. Mengis received his training at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and has won several prizes and awards, including the ZKB Jazz Prize 2006 and the Pro Helvetia Jazz Priority Grant 2008-2011. He is mainly active in the field of improvised music, but is also involved in serious music and theater projects. He started painting in 2015. In 2019 he completed a Master's degree in Contemporary Arts Practice at the HKB in Bern. As a musician, he has toured Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. Manuel Mengis has worked with musicians such as Hans-Peter Pfammatter, Roberto Domeniconi, Christoph Coburger, Flo Stoffner, Flo Götte, Martin Schütz, Samuel Rohrer, Lucas Niggli, Gerry Hemingway, Philipp Schaufelberger, Marcel Papaux, Hans Koch, Bruno Spoerri, Saadet Türköz, Arthur Blythe, Harald Haerter, Barry Guy, Rudi Mahall, Javier Hagen, Lionel Friedli, Christian Weber and Julian Sartorius. As a founding member of the IGNM-VS, he has been on the board of the IGNM-VS and the international festival for new music Forum Wallis since 2011. https://de. wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Mengis



Hans-Peter Pfammatter is a Swiss jazz pianist and composer. Pfammatter first played the trumpet as a child before switching to the piano at the age of thirteen. He played in various rock, pop and jazz bands and studied at the Lucerne Jazz School from 1995 to 1999. He then played in recordings by Bänz Oester, Gilbert Paeffgen and Werner Hasler and performed in concerts with Corin Curschellas, Ray Anderson,Christy Doran, Fredy Studer, Tony Overwater, Fee Claasen, Brad Dutz, Alexander Sipiagin and Tommy Meier's Root down.In 2001, he became a member of Christy Doran's group New Bag, which he belonged to until 2012 and with which he released five albums. Together with clarinettist Lucien Dubuis, bassist Urban Lienert and drummer Lionel Friedli, he founded the group Scope, with which he released the album Nu Gara in 2007. He also plays synthesizer in the electro-jazz group Le Pot with trumpeter Manuel Mengis, Lionel Friedli and guitarist Manuel Troller. Pfammatter has also composed music for plays (including Tag des Jammers with Peter Schärli), short films and radio plays as well as several string quartets. He has been a lecturer in jazz piano at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts since 2000. https://de. wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans-Peter_Pfammatter

From June 4 to 7, the Festival for New Music Forum Wallis is coming to Münster in Goms with 6 concerts. The Festival Forum Wallis has been promoting contemporary music in Valais for 20 years and has given hundreds of world premieres and presented works by over 500 composers from all over the world. It is run by the Valais chapter of the International Society for New Music IGNM-VS, whose board includes Manuel Mengis and Hans-Peter Pfammatter as well as the two musicians and composers Javier Hagen (festival director) and Ulrike Mayer-Spohn, who have been based at the MEbU in Münster since 2022.