Pics by Oliver Röckle & Xurxo Gómez-Chao
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ENSEMBLES
LAB51
LAB51 is an interdisciplinary duo founded in 2015 by Johanna Vargas and Magdalena Cerezo, aiming to expand the contemporary repertoire for coloratura soprano and piano and to develop a new concept of Liedduo. Both artists work together to intertwine vocal, multimedia, and performance art with classical singing and piano playing in their projects and performances.
The collaboration between Johanna and Magdalena began during their contemporary music studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart under Prof. Angelika Luz and Prof. Nicolas Hodges, respectively. Since then, LAB51 has worked with composers such as Bernhard Lang, Johannes Kreidler, Wolfgang Rihm, Hans-Joachim Hespos, Gerhard Stäbler, Gregor Mayrhofer, Benjamin Scheuer, Hans Thomalla, Manuel Hidalgo Navas, and Óscar Escudero/Belenish Moreno-Gil. They have also received musical guidance from world-class artists such as Sarah Maria Sun, Donatienne Michel-Dansac, Georg Nigl, Julia Mihály, Anika Rutkofsky (Stuttgart Opera House), Christian Dierstein, and Hartmut Höll.
Recent engagements include concerts in Vienna at the SUENA Festival and in Linz at Sonic Lab, featuring world premieres by Natalia Laguens and Jorge Gómez Elizondo alongside Helmut Lachenmann’s iconic Got Lost. Further appearances include the Ensems Festival at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, where LAB51 presented works by Bernhard Lang and Helmut Lachenmann. Additionally, The Day Fanny Mendelssohn Died was performed at the ZeitGenuss Festival 2025 in Karlsruhe.
During the 2023/24 season, the duo performed internationally at festivals such as ZeitGenuss (Karlsruhe), Musica in Prossimità (Pinerolo, Italy), Meta World Contemporary Art Festival (Belgrade), Vocations – Reimagining the Lied (Berlin), and ECLAT (world premiere of The Day Fanny Mendelssohn Died by Belenish Moreno-Gil & Óscar Escudero). They also appeared at RESIS (Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid), Literaturhaus Stuttgart (invited by the Staatsoper Stuttgart), NDR (Kleiner Sendesaal, Hannover), the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome, Schauspiel Frankfurt, and Festival de Royaumont.
In 2022, LAB51 obtained an artistic residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris and performed at various events organized by Radio France and the Royaumont Foundation. During the 2020-21 season, LAB51 was a featured ensemble of the Munich Society of New Music, performing at the portrait concert of composer and conductor Gregor Mayrhofer. They also premiered and recorded Benjamin Scheuer's Sprechblasen for soprano, guitar, percussion, and piano with objects and samplers at the Akademie der Wissenschaften in Mainz alongside Vanessa Porter and Thilo Ruck.
Highlights from the 2018-19 season included engagements at NUNC!3 (Northwestern University Chicago), the New Music Series of Goethe-Institut Schwäbisch Hall, and ZeitGenuss Festival Karlsruhe, curated by Johannes Kreidler and featuring artists such as Ensemble Mosaik and Enno Poppe. During the same period, the duo participated in the Darmstädter Ferienkurse für Neue Musik and won first prize at the John Cage Competition in Halberstadt, Germany.
LAB51's performances have been broadcast internationally on platforms such as Deutschlandfunk, NDR, Radio France, RTVE, and Radio Nacional Clásica Argentina, among others. In 2021, a CD recording of Wolfgang Rihm's Ophelia Lieder was released by Naxos-Capriccio.
Since 2018, LAB51 has been coaching a program in contemporary voice training and performance while curating the concert and project series Out of the Box at the University of Music Karlsruhe.
Upcoming engagements include concerts at the Musiques Démesurées Festival in Clermont-Ferrand, curated by composer Mikel Urquiza, as well as at SONify! Festival in Graz. These performances will feature world premieres by Hanan Hadžajlić and Beltrán González, alongside works by leading female composers including Sara Glojnarić, Carola Bauckholt, Jennifer Walshe, and Meredith Monk.
Further engagements will bring LAB51 to the Pharos Arts Foundation in Cyprus, where the ensemble will present works by composers such as György Ligeti, Bernhard Lang, Manuela Kerer, François Sarhan, Aribert Reimann, Georges Aperghis, Olivier Messiaen, and Wolfgang Rihm, among others.
Among the highlights of this year’s projects is the recording of Duo LAB51 debut CD marking an important milestone in the duo’s artistic journey.
György Ligeti-Mysteries of the Macabre
Annika Rutkofsky & LAB51, dramaturgy
Isabella Koeters, costume design
Julian Siffert, sound & Korinna Herzig, video
Belenish Moreno-Gil & Óscar Escudero
The Day Fanny Mendelssohn Died
Live recording of the world premiere, ECLAT 2024
Bernhard Lang-The Cold Trip 2: XX. Deviant
LAB51, performance & dramaturgy
Matthias Schneider, sound & Korinna Herzig, video
Chris Beckett, stage & lighting
The Cold Trip 2: XVIII. Stormy Monday
The Cold Trip 2: XV. The Crow
Georges Aperghis - Retrouvailles
LAB51, dramaturgy / Igor Stepanov, sound / Korinna Herzig, video
f:t
a new music trio, of three pianists
Bringing together three established soloists, f:t features both new and pre-existing repertoire for three pianos, six hands, alternative keyboard instruments, and ad-hoc instrumentations. f:t aims to subvert the competitive and soloistic ideals of traditional piano culture while also challenging the instrument’s inherent Eurocentrism.
As an extensively collaborative unit, f:t carefully integrates both individual and collective artistic visions while prioritizing influences and partnerships with extra-musical fields. Their programming and performances reflect discussion, argument, growth, theatricality, and artistic expression.
f:t’s newest release, m-her two severed hands for piano six-hands by NYC-based composer George Katehis, was filmed at Musikbrauerei in Berlin and selected by the prestigious channel Score Follower for its winter season. Upcoming projects the video release of works for three pianos by Stefan Wolpe, Peter Ablinger, and Jennifer Walshe, filmed with the generous support of Ensemble Funding from Musikfonds e.V.
In recent seasons, f:t performed the program Abstraktion und Alltag at Sankt Peter Köln, featuring the world premiere of ja nein vielleicht: music with radio play for three pianos, celesta, keyboard, bells, fixed media, and treadmill by composer Nicolas Kuhn, as well as a live rendition of Peter Ablinger’s rare and monumental piece Grisailles. They have also appeared at Klangkunst Trier, presenting Gerhard Stäbler’s Magische Spiele for four pianos (with guest Miharu Ogura), and at Alte Feuerwache Köln with the program triarchic, which featured world premieres by Sophie Youjung-Lee and George Katehis.
In the 2021–22 season, f:t was a guest artist at The Present Art Festival at Kulturzentrum Immanuelskirche in Wuppertal, Germany. They also presented their performance concept deconstructing at GEDOK Stuttgart (supported by Musikfonds e.V. and Neustart Kultur), participated in a Goethe-Institut “Virtual Partner Residency,” and performed Ex_Piano_Revisited as part of the Südseite nachts series at Theaterhaus Stuttgart, presented by Musik der Jahrhunderte.
ARXIS ENSEMBLE
Arxis Ensemble is a group devoted to the exploration, dissemination, and performance of contemporary repertoire from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. With the aim of actively enriching today’s musical landscape, the ensemble focuses its work on the dialogue between the foundational works of the past century and new currents in contemporary sound creation.
Formed by performers from diverse geographical and artistic backgrounds, Arxis Ensemble shares a common drive: a specialization in contemporary music developed at some of the most influential European institutions on today’s musical scene. This cosmopolitan background informs an artistic practice rooted in collaboration with international composers and engagement with a wide range of aesthetics—from interdisciplinary and performative approaches to advanced instrumental research—bridging the legacy of the late twentieth century with emerging twenty-first-century voices. Their work combines technical excellence with innovative approaches to sound experimentation, revisiting recent repertoire from a sustainable perspective while offering new interpretations that foster the vitality of today’s music.
During its first season in 2022, Arxis Ensemble was conducted by Beat Furrer, with whom it presented the Spanish premiere of his work Akusmata, in collaboration with the Austrian vocal ensemble Cantando Admont. The group also worked with guest conductor Aitor Vázquez Torres and resident composer Igor C. Silva, carrying out several activities and concerts around the centenary of the birth of Iannis Xenakis, culminating in a performance of the percussion sextet Pléïades as part of the 5th RESIS Contemporary Music Festival.
From 2023 to the present, Arxis has taken part in some of Spain’s most prestigious contemporary music festivals, including ENSEMS, the Canary Islands International Music Festival (Contemporary Series), and RESIS, where it has appeared annually as ensemble in residence since its foundation. Internationally, its performances include concerts at the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome, the Biermans-Lapôtre Foundation in Paris, the Rathenower Tage für Neue Musik festival (Germany), and the Nuova Consonanza Festival (Italy).
In this context, Arxis Ensemble has presented numerous Spanish and Galician premieres of works by some of today’s most significant composers, such as Rebecca Saunders, Beat Furrer, Alberto Posadas, Sara Glojnarić, Helmut Lachenmann, Wolfgang Rihm, Rolf Riehm, Jacobo Gaspar, and José Manuel López López, as well as world premieres by Hugo Gómez-Chao, Igor C. Silva, and Claudia Cañamero, among others.
Since its foundation, Arxis has worked with conductors such as Bas Wiegers, Beat Furrer, Armando Merino, Nacho de Paz, Aitor Sánchez Torres, and Daniel Huertas, performing in venues such as Palau de Les Arts (Valencia), Espacio CajaCanarias (Santa Cruz de Tenerife), Teatro Guiniguada (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), Kulturzentrum Rathenow (Brandenburg, Germany), Casa de las Máquinas and Cidade da Cultura (Santiago de Compostela), and, in A Coruña, Teatro Rosalía de Castro, Castillo de San Antón, Igrexa de Santiago, Palexco Exhibition Hall, Teatro Colón, Domus Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, and the Rectorate Auditorium of the University of A Coruña.