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.
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 in Vienna (SUENA Festival) and Linz (Sonic Lab), presenting world premieres by Natalia Laguens and Jorge Gómez Elizondo, alongside Helmut Lachenmann’s iconic Got Lost. Additionally, The Day Fanny Mendelssohn Died will be performed again at the ZeitGenuss Festival 2025 in Karlsruhe.
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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
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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 engagements include performances in Stuttgart, supported by S-K-A-M e.V.; Bernard Parmegiani’s Stries with IDKF; and the video release of works for three pianos by Stefan Wolpe, Peter Ablinger, and Jennifer Walshe, filmed in April 2023 with the generous support of Ensemble Funding from Musikfonds e.V.
In recent seasons, f:t has performed at Klangkunst Trier, presenting Gerhard Stäbler’s Magische Spiele for four pianos (with guest Miharu Ogura), and at Alte Feuerwache Köln for 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 in Ex_Piano_Revisited as part of the Südseite nachts series at Theaterhaus Stuttgart, presented by Musik der Jahrhunderte.
ARXIS ENSEMBLE
ARXIS Ensemble is a contemporary music ensemble founded with the goal of creating a meeting point for performers, composers, and audiences in the field of today's music. Its work focuses on close collaboration with contemporary composers, as well as national and international exchanges, aiming to position Galicia as a hub for avant-garde art. By programming repertoire from the past fifty years, ARXIS Ensemble seeks to open dialogues on recent musical creation through concerts, lectures, and workshops, connecting music with other artistic disciplines.
The ensemble’s members are dedicated to performance, research, and the promotion of avant-garde music. They participate in multidisciplinary projects, music theater, opera, performance art, improvisation, and electronic music, continuously redefining the role of the musician today, their relationship with listening, and the pursuit of innovation in sound art.
Since its first season in 2022, ARXIS has been presented as an ensemble-in-residence by RESIS Festival, performing under the baton of conductors such as Beat Furrer, Bas Wiegers, and Nacho de Paz. The ensemble has appeared at some of Spain's most prestigious festivals, including ENSEMS and the Festival Internacional de Música de Canarias (Festival Contemporáneo), presenting the Spanish premieres of numerous chamber and ensemble works by composers such as Rebecca Saunders, Beat Furrer, Alberto Posadas, Rolf Riehm, and José Manuel López López. Further highlights include a world premiere by composer Hugo Gómez-Chao at the Royal Spanish Academy in Rome. ARXIS has also launched its own concert series, held every fall in A Coruña under the ensemble's name. In April 2025, ARXIS will perform works by Helmut Lachenmann, Wolfgang Rihm, and Lucas Macías under the baton of Daniel Huertas at RESIS25, Teatro Rosalía de Castro.