Neue Gesänge aus Europa

Duo Christine Simolka, soprano, and René Wohlhauser, piano and baritone
The Simolka-Wohlhauser Duo is specialised in the interpretation of current contemporary vocal music, and tours Switzerland and major cities in Europe (e.g. Basel, Bern, Zurich, Stuttgart, Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, London, Paris, Vienna, Salzburg) yearly. Their fundamental objective is to promote performance of current vocal music in the contemporary genre, creating new impulses for further developments in this area.

The programs include diverse vocal works of various styles from the current contemporary literature: from music-theatrical comedy to more contemplative or more sophisticated works, from onomatopoetic experiments through settings of poems to wordplay, offering a panoply of possible musical and linguistic styles. Staged performances, as well as improvisations, theatrics and electronics are also among the favorite highlights. A good portion of the program consists of world premieres of works written especially for the duo, emanating from intense collaboration with composers from various European countries (e.g. from Romania, Albania, Azerbaijan, Poland, Germany, France, England and Switzerland), and putting up a fascinating inventory of different tendencies in contemporary composition for discussion. With their enthusiastic performances of the program, the artists shine a novel light on modern musical creative work.

This year the following composers are taking part: Susanne Stelzenbach from Berlin, Christian FP Kram from Leipzig, Thomas Leppuhr from Leipzig, Thorsten Gubatz from Münster, Yann Windeshausen from Munich, Ghenadie Ciobau from Chisinau, Vlad Razvan Baciu from Iasi, Roman Vlad from Bucharest, Jean-Claude Wolff from Paris and René Wohlhauser from Basel.