O/Modernt: ”Brahms, Bartók and the Roaming Spirits“ (Residency I)

Dr. Anna Prinz was the German Ambassador in Sweden until July 2021, where she organized international artist residencies at her Embassy. There she got to know the Swedish music scene, including some of the artists performing this year in Berlin, and the Royal Music Academy in Stockholm, very well.

Since the founding of Young Euro Classic more than 20 years ago, she has attended the festival many times and has found a piece of homeland at these summer concerts in Berlin, amidst her international world. When posted to Australia and Slovenia, she began organizing artist residencies, founding the association “Art Circle Residence” in Australia and continuing this initiative in Germany (www.acr-europe.net).

Before her posting to Sweden, she was Ambassador in Australia and Slovenia and was the Commissioner for International Relations and Scientific Exchange at the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin. Before this she was the second-in-command at the German Embassy in Tokyo and of the Commission on EU Expansion as well as the head of public relations for the Foreign Office – after postings in Indonesia, Romania and Sri Lanka, among others. She has lived longer abroad than in Germany, and to her, it is music which unites, inspires and motivates us – beyond borders and ideologies.

© Kaupo Kikkas

The musical world of the Swedish violinist Hugo Ticciati is characterized by infinite curiosity. The 42-year-old, brother of the chief conductor of Berlin’s DSO, Robin Ticciati, includes literature, philosophy, spirituality and meditation in his programmes, just like dance and kinetic painting. He performs the classical violin concertos, but also delves into contemporary music with verve. Ticciati has works by Takemitsu, Shchedrin, Glass and Lera Auerbach in his repertoire and has also given works by Albert Schnelzer, Sergey Yevtushenko, Erkki-Sven Tüür and Judith Weir their world premieres recently. He is a passionate chamber musician, working with the percussionist Evelyn Glennie, pianists Angela Hewitt and Olli Mustonen and the trombonist Nils Landgren, for example. In addition, Hugo Ticciati is the artistic director of the O/Modernt Kammarorkester and the O/Modernt Festival. Recently he has turned increasingly to conducting as well and has been invited to work with the Swedish and Australian Chamber Orchestras as well as Stuttgarter Kammerorchester.

www.hugoticciati.com

© Memento

The 44-year-old Finn Christoffer Sundqvist has been principal clarinettist of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra since 2005. He also pursues a broad palette of other activities: as a soloist, he has performed not only with nearly all the Finnish orchestras, but has also been invited by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Basel Symphony Orchestra and the NDR Philharmonic Hanover. He has given world premieres of clarinet concerti by Erkki-Sven Tüür, Aulis Sallinen, Jukka Linkola, Lars Karlsson and Sebastian Fagerlund. As a chamber musician, Sundqvist is a member of the Arktinen Hysteria Wind Quintet and the Plus Ensemble; he also performs regularly with Hugo Ticciati’s ensemble O/Modernt. He is a regular partner of Sebastian Fagerlund, with whom he directs the RUSK Chamber Music Festival in Jakobstad on the Gulf of Bothnia. In addition to Fagerlund’s clarinet concerto, Sundqvist also gave world premieres of his Trio (2010) and Sonata (2011). Sundqvist teaches clarinet at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and gives regular master courses.

www.christoffersundqvist.fi

© Attila Kleb

The Hungarian musician Miklós Lukács is one of the best and most versatile cimbalom players in the world. Contemporary music, jazz and folk music of various cultures combine here in a perfect symbiosis. A multitude of new works was composed for him, for example the cimbalom concerto Sounds of Generations Y-Part II by Máté Bella, concerti by Kornél Fekete-Kovács, Béla Szakcsi Lakatos, Kálmán Oláh and György Vukán and the composition Da Capo by Peter Eötvös. Lukács has performed with numerous jazz luminaries such as Charles Lloyd, Archie Shepp, Steve Colman, Bill Frisell, Christ Potter and Uri Caine. He has also recorded more than 50 albums, a third of them as bandleader. Lukács has been invited to perform as a soloist with renowned ensembles such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the RAI Torino Symphony Orchestra, the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, the Remix Ensemble, the Israel Contemporary Players, the Ensemble Musikfabrik and the Ligeti Ensemble. Lukács’ own compositions are featured on the 2014 album of the Lukács Miklós Trio entitled Cimbiózis.

www.mikloslukacs.com

For the cellist Julian Arp, participating in the O/Modernt concert in Berlin is almost a home game. He studied at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin with Boris Pergamenschikow. He continued his studies with David Geringas and Eberhard Feltz, graduating in 2008. Since his soloist debut as a 16-year-old at the Schwetzingen Festival in 1997, Arp has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician at festivals including the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, Beethovenfest Bonn, Beauvais, Montreux, SoNoRo Bucharest, Stellenbosch, Stift Festival, the Oxford Chamber Music Festival and IMS Prussia Cove. The Duo Arp/Frantz has released three CDs. Contemporary composers, including Samir Odeh-Tamimi, Sven-Ingo Koch, Sarah Nemtsov and Violeta Dinescu have written pieces for him. He is a co-founder of the festival Zeitkunst which is dedicated to chamber music and contemporary literature and has been a guest at the Centre Pompidou, Radialsystem Berlin, Israel, England and Rio de Janeiro.