Ryoko Imai
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Sarah Jeffery
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Anna voor de Wind
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Eva Gemeinhardt
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Konradin Herzog
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Pepe Jose Garcia
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Francesca Thompson
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Yu Oda
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Members of Amsterdam Collage Ensemble
Sarah Jeffery
Recorder
Sarah Jeffery (born 1985, Liverpool) is a recorder player currently based in Amsterdam. She has toured and performed throughout England, Wales, Holland, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Belgium and Luxembourg as both a soloist and chamber musician. Her performance CV presents such prestigious venues as the Gaudeamus Music Week, Hudderfield Contemporary Music Festival and the Muziekgebouw aan 't Ij, Amsterdam. In her chamber ensembles, she has appeared on BBC radio, Swiss radio and Dutch television, and has recorded on three studio CDs.
In 2007 Sarah gained a first class honours degree in music at the Birmingham Conservatoire in England, under the tuition of Ross Winters and Annabel Knight. She then went on to study at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in the Netherlands, with Jorge Isaac and Paul Leenhouts. Here she experimented with live electronics, new compositions, collaborations with artists and composers, and contemporary improvisation. She graduated from the Bachelor programme in 2010.
As well as her classical studies, Sarah also has deep roots in British folk music and dance. Having toured extensively with Joe Broughton's Folk Ensemble, she watched the group grow from twelve members to eighty. She was also a founder member of The Old Dance School, one of the brightest new acts on the UK's folk scene.
She has received a number of prizes, including the Derbyshire Arts Recorder Prize, the Birmingham Conservatoire recorder competition, and bursaries from the Countess of Munster Musical Trust and Walter Bergmann Foundation. She was also a finalist in the Doris Newton Music Club Prize, the ERTA Consort Competition, the Park Lane group, and the Julius Isserlis Scholarship Competition.
The past year has seen the completion of an extensive tour of the Netherlands with Jeugdtheater Sonnevanck; performing a leading role in the production Woestijnwind. Following it's success, the company are already booked to perform a second tour in 2013. Sarah has also been performing with the PRIME Recorder Ensemble in Switzerland under the direction of Antonio Politano, and the Ligeti Academy contemporary ensemble, under coaching from AskoSchönberg. Sarah is now beginning her Master's degree in Amsterdam, exploring the combination of percussive clog dance, live electronics, karnatic improvisation and theatrical aspects with contemporary recorder playing.
Eva Gemeinhardt
Recorder
During her earlier musical education, Eva learnt the piano, recorder and violin at various local music schools in Germany and Austria. She participated in several masterclasses with, amongst others, the Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet, Flanders Recorder Quartet, Claron McFadden and Paolo Pandolfo.
In May 2010 Eva finished her Bachelor studies with "cum laude" at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, where she studied under the tuition of Paul Leenhouts and Jorge Isaac. Eva is currently following the master's course at La Haute École de Musique de Lausanne with Antonio Politano.
Eva has received scholarships and been awarded several cultural as well as first prizes at national and international competitions, both as soloist as well as an ensemble player. Eva recorded several CDs and premiered many new works. Besides early music, her interest lies in contemporary solo and chamber music, which she is exploring in different settings with harp, accordion or prepared piano.
Eva is an active ensemble performer with The Royal Wind Music, a double sextet of Renaissance recorders; the recorder quintet Seldom Sene; the recorder ensemble PRIME and as a temporary member of the recorder collective Quartet New Generation. With these ensembles, she has performed in venues such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Muziekgebouw aan het IJ (Amsterdam), De Doelen and Konzerthaus Berlin, and gave concerts at prestigious music festivals such as the Utrecht Early Music Festival, Holland Festival, Gaudeamus Muziek Week, DE LINK, Berliner Tage der alten Musik, Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival, Europäische Wochen Passau, Greenwich Early Music Festival, Encontros de Música Antiga de Loulé, Fabbrica Europa and the Women and power retreat 2011 at the Women's Leadership Center of the Omega Institute Rhinebeck/NY.
Francesca Thompson
Recorder
Fiery performances and an insatiable curiosity for all that is new have contributed to Francesca Thompson's growing reputation as a bright spark in the contemporary and early music firmaments. Recent performances have included the BBC Proms, Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ (NL), Cheltenham Festival, Gower Festival, Sounds New Festival, Urbino Early Music Festival, Telemann Festtage, Music in Ancient Krakow Festival, Davos Festival, Gaudeamus Muziekweek and Amherst Early Music Festival (U.S.A.). As concerto soloist, she has appeared with the festival orchestra of the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart (DE), with members of Capella Cracoviensis (PL), the Al-Kamandjati Camerata (IL) and with many orchestras throughout the UK. Following selection by the Park Lane Group, she made her London debut recital in the Purcell Room in January 2011, to great acclaim.
Francesca studied with Walter van Hauwe at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in the Netherlands, generously supported by the Leverhulme Trust, the Countess of Munster Musical Trust and the Musicians' Benevolent Fund. Prior to this, she studied at Cambridge University and as a scholar at the Royal College of Music (RCM) in London. Francesca is a laureate of the Gaudeamus Interpreters' Competition, Internationale Telemannwettbewerb, Krakow Contemporary Music Competition and Zinetti Competition, and has won numerous awards, including those from the Leverhulme Trust, Countess of Munster Musical Trust, Hattori Foundation, Musicians' Benevolent Fund and Darmstadt Ferienkurse für Neue Musik.
Anna voor de Wind
Clarinet
Anna voor de Wind was born in Groningen, the Netherlands, in 1986. She studied at the Conservatory of Amsterdam clarinet with Hans Colbers and bass clarinet with Erik van Deuren, graduating cum laude from her Master studies in 2010. In 2011 she completed the International Ensemble Modern Academy and received a Master in Modern music at the Hochschüle of Frankfurt.
Anna has a very wide range of work experience, working as a freelancer with many professional orchestras and contemporary music ensembles as well as music-theatre companies. Examples include the Asko Schoenberg Ensemble, Nieuw Ensemble, Ives Ensemble, Veenfabriek and Ensemble Modern. Anna has taken part in many national and international competitions, academies and master classes. In the summer of 2010 she was invited as Young Artist in Residence with the National Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands, and spent time there working closely with the composer Mark-Anthony Turnage, who wrote her a solo piece. It was here that she made her debut as a soloist, with the clarinet concerto by Nielsen.
Anna is active in two newly founded ensembles; Looptail and the Amsterdam Collage Ensemble. With these ensembles she presents an innovative and challenging sound for both creators, performers and the audience alike.
Ryoko Imai
Percussion
Japanese percussionist Ryoko Imai was born in Kawasaki in 1983. She began her musical education on the piano at the age of three, and went on to playing percussion in junior high school as a member of the wind and brass ensembles. At age 16, she began specialized percussion studies under Atsushi Sugahara and Kyoko Kato; going on to enroll in the Tokyo College of Music in 2001.
After graduating from college, she continued her research at the Graduate School of the Tokyo College of Music until the spring of 2007. Ryoko received a scholarship between 2003 and 2007 due to her extensive talent, and won second prize at the competition sponsored by the college in 2003. She also represented the establishment by performing Stockhausens Zyklus Nr. 9 at Suntory Hall in Tokyo. In Japan, Ryoko has studied classical percussion with Atsushi Sugahara, Mariko Okada, Takafumi Fujimoto, Makoto Aruga and Shoichi Kubo.
Her masters thesis was entitled Minimal Music; a history of repetitive music and collaboration with visual arts. During this study, Ryoko was motivated to explore and collaborate with all disciplines of the Arts, including dance, fashion, and video performance. Her territory includes not only the classical genre, as she studied jazz theory under Rick Overton and Bruce Stark for three years.
Ryoko has performed in master classes by, amongst others, Gustavo Gimeno, Peter Sadlo, Roland Altmann, and Isao Nakamura.
In 2008, Ryoko moved to the Netherlands to commence studies with Victor Oskam,Nick Woud, Gustavo Gimeno, Peter Prommel and Arnold Marinissen at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.
In 2009, she won second prize in the Pendim International Percussion Competition in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, where she also received two special prizes for the brightest stage presence and best drum performance.
In May 2010, Ryoko completed her Bachelors studies in Amsterdam, with a grade of cum laude. She was invited to pursue Masters studies at the Conservatorium, and will be continuing on at the institution for the next two years.
Pepe Jose Garcia
Percussion
Pepe (1980) is a versatile Mexican percussionist living in the Netherlands.
He completed bachelors and master's degree at Koninklijk Conservatorium (The Netherlands) with top honors and the special distinction for "contribution to the development of percussion repertoire". His final solo concert examination featured several new works written for him and the combination of percussion with live electronics.
Admired for his outstanding musicianship, extraordinary sensitivity, virtuosity and musical integrity, Pepe combines different music styles and techniques creating a very refined, warm and unique way of playing.
Besides his professional training in classical percussion, Pepe has a broad knowledge in Latin, African and Carnatic Indian music.
As an International percussionist, Pepe has performed in concert halls ofBelgium, Malta, USA, Taiwan, Luxembourg, Spain, Slovenia, Croatia, Mexico, Serbia, Poland, Sweden, Germany, Finland, France, England, Austria, Italy Egypt, Korea, Hong Kong and all around The Netherlands.
One of the major interests in his career has been the collaboration with composers and artists in general, developing alternative methods of approaching new music through the aid of unconventional methods of musical notation, designing new instruments, fusing technical resources from non western cultures and extending the possibilities of traditional percussion instruments through electronic processes.
Pepe started working with children since 2000, developing new ways of approaching music since early age. In Mexico he started a new music developing program in coordination with the government in order to put new young generations of children in contact with music taking traditional elements as starting point.
He was awarded with the Ear Massage percussion quartet in the IPCL (International Percussion Convention Luxembourg) and the prestigious Gaudeamus International Interpreters Competition for contemporary music in Amsterdam. Ear Massage's CD got 5 stars in the Volkskrant.
Konradin Herzog
Conductor
Born in Winterthur (Switzerland), Konradin Herzog obtained his professional education as a cellist at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (Lehrdiplom in 2007, Konzertdiplom in 2009). A prize-winner of the Charles Hennen International Chamber Music Competition in Heerlen (Netherland), he enriched his chamber music experience and repertoire with many masters, among them Ana Chumachenco, Konstantin Scherbakov, Rudolf Koelman and Wen-Sinn Yang. At the age of 17, he became assistant conductor of the Sinfonieorchester and the Kammerorchester of Konservatorium Winterthur.
Since 2009, Konradin has been studying Orchestral Conducting at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with Lucas Vis and Ed Spanjaard. In collaboration with the symphony orchestra of the conservatory, he has studied many of the masterpieces of the classical and romantic orchestra repertoire and conducted numerous performances of solo-concertos, covering a stylistic range from late baroque until today's music. Moreover, he is initiator and conductor of the Opera Gala concerts at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam where he focuses on staged Italian and French opera repertoire.
Konradin Herzog regularly conducts premieres by (young) international composers. Music theatre, compositions for chamber orchestra and big symphony orchestra, as well as multidisciplinary pieces that combine music, theatre, dance and video art have all been part of his experience and flexibility as a freelancing conductor. He conducted inter alia at the Gaudeamus Muziekweek 2011, the Toonzetters 2012 and the Festival Musica Sacra Maastricht 2012.
Konradin Herzog has attended masterclasses with Otto Tausk, Ivan Meylemans and Thomas Klug. In 2012, he conducted the Nieuw Ensemble Amsterdam at the Huddersfield Composer's Workshop. Currently he is assistant conductor at the Dutch National Opera Academy (DNOA).
Yu Oda
Artistic Director
As a composer, Oda has worked with Asko/Shoenberg Ensemble, BL!NDMAN, Ensemble 10/10, Joint Venture Percussion Duo, Looptail, Amsterdam Collage Ensemble, koto player Makiko Goto, Cologne Gagaku Ensemble, as well as other musicians. His previous musical performances include international festivals, such as Gaudeamus Muziek Week, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, and Darmstadt International Summer Course, and he has been selected for European Composers' Professional Development Programme (2011), and Young Composers' Meeting (2012). His works have been nominated for Toonzetters (2012), Gaudeamus Prize (2011), as a finalist of Henriette Bosmansprijs and Tera de Marez Oyensprijs (2011), and awarded for the 2nd prize in Young Composers Meeting (2012) and honorable mention of the 32nd Irino Prize.
Currently, Oda is in a 2 years residency of Blindman (from 2012). He is also working with percussionist/marimbist, Rachel Xi Zhang, to release a CD of marimba music. Apart from his activities as a composer, Oda is co-founder and artistic director of 2 new music ensembles, Looptail and Amsterdam Collage Ensemble, both consisting of musicians from the same generation.
Oda was born in Japan and started his musical activity playing and composing in a rock band. He has earned a bachelor's degree from California State University, Northridge, studying with Liviu Marinescu, and a master's degree from Conservatorium van Amsterdam, studying with Wim Henderickx, Willem Jeths, and Rafael Reina. Other composers he has studied with include Allain Gaussin, Fabio Nieder, Misato Mochizuki, Brian Ferneyhough, Stefano Gervasoni, Tristan Murail, Klaas de Vries, Martijn Padding, and Richard Ayes.