Chefa Alonso, (Spain, 1955)
Soprano sax. Percussion.
email: chefaalonso at yahoo dot es
Chefa Alonso studied Saxophone at the Conservatory San Lorenzo del Escorial, in Madrid, and Percussion in Madrid and Colombia. She has been practising and teaching improvised music since 1995, as well as composing and perfoming music for theatre and dance. She gives improvisation workshops to musicians, dancers, actors, poets ... in Spain (univesities, conservatories and music schools) and other countries (Belgium – Brussels, Brasil – Sao Paulo, Niteroi) and conduct the Omega (Spontaneous Music Orchestra from Galicia).
Alonso leads three Spanish based ensembles: Uz, winds jazz trio, Akafree, a free jazz group that performs her compositions, and Sin Red, a quartet that performs both poetry and improvised music. Alonso has played with numerous internationally acclaimed musicians in the improvised music circuit including Tony Marsh, John Russel, Roger Turner, Vanessa Mackness, Philipp Wachsmann, John Edwards, Steve Noble (U.K.), Ute Voelker, Gunter Heinz (Germany), Christine Wodraschka, Le quan Ninh (France), Lou Grassi (U.S.A.), Barbara Wagner, Co Streiff (Switzerland), Augusti Fernandez, Pelayo Arrizabálaga (Spain).
She has also played her own music and improvised music in the following festivals: Jazz and More (Sibiu, Rumanian), R-De-Choc (Paris), Poesie Dans Les Chais (Jurançon, France), Semana de Poesia Salvaje (Ferrol, Galicia, Spain), Improvisation Festival (Bucarest, Rumanian), Freedom of the city (London) Improvisation Festival in Dresden (Germany), WIM, improvisation festival from Zug and Zurich (Switzerland), Gaudi Festival of Improvised Music (León/ Spain), Music and daily sonority (Albi/France), Periferias (Huesca/Spain), Real Time Creation festival (Madrid/Spain) Madrid en danza (Madrid/Spain), Situaciones (Cuenca/Spain), Improvisa (Barcelona/Spain), El Grec (Barcelona/Spain), A Journey to Polynesia (Barcelona/Spain), La Filibuste (Toulouse/France), Escucha (Madrid/Spain), Experimental Music in Metronom (Barcelona/Spain), Iba (Barcelona/Spain).
As a member of the colective “Musicalibre”, she has co-organized and produced the annual International Festival of Improvised Music Hurta Cordel, and in 2003 and 2004 she served as the festival’s head coordinator. She lived in London from 2004 to 2007, where she completed a Phd at Brunel University on free improvisation and composition. She currently belongs to the London improvisers orchestra.
She conducts Omega, Spontaneus Music Orchestra from Galicia, Entenguerengue, Improvisers Orchestras from Andalucía and belongs to the FOCO, Improvisers Orchestra of Musicalibre, Madrid and LIO (London Improvisers Orchestra). Her publications include the book: Improvisación libre. La composición en movimiento, in Dos Acordes, Spain.
MUSICAL COMPOSITIONS
Compositons for theatre and dance: 1996 “La Lavandera” 1998 “Roseta, Estate Quieta” 1999 “Feirantes” 2000 “A Celestina” 2000 “O pais Acuático” 2001 “A cacatúa Verde” 2001 “Alta Comedia” 2002 “As Damas de Ferrol” 2004 “Ensayo”. 2009 “69”
Composition for video Shores, by Barbara Meyer. London 2007 Ruido Blanco by Barbara Meyer and Raquel Sánchez. 2008
Compositions for improvisers “Five colours in seven minutes”. For six or more improvisers (2004 “Western Calypso” for quartet of sax and three percussionists (2004) “Music is not necessary”. For three voices and one cello (or double bass) (2004) “Three games for seven improvisers” (2005) “Collage”. For orchestra or a big group (2005) “Their faces were blue” (2005) “A beginning, a middle and an ending” (2005) “Two in three. For percussion and wind (2006) “Amazonas” (with Barbara Meyer). For soprano sax, cello, percussion, voice and electronics (2009).
CD-Productions: *John Russel, dúo. Emanem. Londres. 2007 * Freedom of the city 2006. Emanem. Londres * Sin Red (Víctor M. Diez, Cova Villegas and Ildefonso Rodríguez) 2005. Sound Deluxe Producciones. * Freedom of the city 2005, con la LIO (London Improvisers Orchestra). Emanem. * La visita de la salamandra. Akafree. 2003. Xingra Producciones. * No pais dos ananos Baldo Martinez Quintet. 1997
Qualifications • PHD on Composition and Improvisation at Brunel University (London). 2007. • Saxofonist and saxophone instructor (Conservatorio “Padre Antonio Soler” de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, 1991). • General Medicine and Surgery (Santiago de Compostela, Medicine University, 1980) • Postgraduate Course: “Music Schools: models of action”, organiced by el Aula de Música de la Universidad de Alcalá de Henares. • Pedagogical Aptitude Course (CAP). Madrid.
Albert Kaul (1963, Trier, Germany)
piano, clavichord
email: albertkaul at gmx dot de
Albert Kaul studied piano (Karin Germer) and composition (Karl-Josef Müller) at Johannes-Gutenberg-Universiy in Mayence and currenty resides in Marburg, Germany where he teaches piano, composition, improvisation and musicology.
His musical career began in the mid 1980’s and since that time he has continued to refine his focus on contemporary and experimental music, composed or improvised, often in connection with other arts including theatre, film, and video. Kaul is the founder and a member of the „Grisette-Orchester“ (ensemble for experimental music) since 1995.
He received his PhD in 2008 with a doctoral thesis that discussed theories for teaching musical improvisation, His present research is a project analysing and developing working structures for children improvising in various group formations.
Albert Kaul’s main musical interest is to cross boundary lines. This includes not only the lines between different musical styles, improvisation and composition, music and other genres but it reaches further to aspects of communication such as teaching and learning and performing and audience experiences.
Musical compositions (selection) 1988 “Hinter dem Ofen” (chamber opera for 3 actors/singers and 8 instrumentalists) 1989 “Tschimborasso raus” (trio for fl, git and db after a poem of Oskar Pastior) 1989 piece for treble recorder and trash can 1996 98 small pieces for violin solo 2002 Todesfuge (for chorus and three military drums, after a poem of Paul Celan) 2003 piece for saxophon (or other solo instrument) and applauding audience 2005 ...leaving the cage (guided improvisation for 13 instrumentalists) 2007 Triumph! Adler! Triumph! (trio for 3 amplified mecanical typewriters) 2008 Aton Hymnus (for female voice, flute and piano, after Akhenaten’s Great Hymn to the Aten)
Publications (selection) 2001 “Nach Hause, Bartolomeo!” (musical theatre piece for children, publicated together with Lorenz Hippe), Deutscher Theater-Verlag Weinheim 2003 Kreativität – ein Bildungsziel? (Creativity – an Intention of Education?), Ringgespräche Berlin 2006 Hören? Fühlen? Spüren? Ahnen? Was ästhetische Theorie mit der Praxis der Improvisation zu tun hat (Hearing? Feeling? Sensing? Believing? About the Connection between Aesthetic Theory and Practise of Improvisation), Ringgespräche Berlin 2008 „Musikalische Bildung der Differenz“ (theory and teaching methods of musical improvisation) , Dohr Verlag Köln 2008 Musik direkt. Ein Improvisationsprojekt für große Gruppen (about organizing improvisation projects with large groups), Shaker Verlag Aachen