Bernhard Gál

The composer and artist Bernhard Gál creates electro-acoustic music as well as compositions for acoustic instruments. In his intermedia art projects and sound installations, he combines sound, light, objects, video projections, and spatial concepts.

Born in Vienna , Austria in 1971, Gál began to nurture his interest in music and (sound) art around 1985. After studies in Vienna and a year-long residency in New York City , he has focused on his compositional and artistic activities. Since 1998, Gál has worked as a freelance composer and artist. He runs the record label Gromoga Records and is director of the Austrian art organization ‚sp ce'. When not abroad, he divides his time between Berlin and Vienna .

Gál's work has been presented in concerts, sound installations and exhibitions in Europe , Asia and the Americas and performed by ensembles such as the China Found Music Workshop Taiwan , the NewTon-Ensemble Vienna, the Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin , and the Ensemble Noamnesia Chicago. He has been invited to international music and art festivals (e.g. Wien Modern Festival; Donaufestival Austria ; MaerzMusik Berlin ; Inventionen Berlin ; MATA Festival New York; Soundfield Festival Chicago; Mutek Montreal; Musashino Public Art Festival Tokyo) and frequently gives lectures and workshops.

An important aspect of his work is the combination of music with other art forms, in solo projects as well as in collaborations, e.g. with Yumi Kori, P. Michael Schultes, G.S. Sedlak, Akemi Takeya, and Emre Tuncer. As a (laptop) musician, Gál performs in solo concerts and has worked together with musicians such as Tung Chao-Ming and Kai Fagaschinski.

For his music and art projects Gál has received various awards and grants, including an Annual Grant from SKE-Fonds Vienna 2002, a fellowship from the DAAD Artists in Berlin Programme 2003, and the Austrian State Scholarship for Composition 2004. Bernhard Gál's music has been published by record labels such as Charhizma, Durian, Gromoga, Intransitive, Klanggalerie and Plate Lunch.
www.bernhardgal.com

Chao-Ming Tung composer, zheng player

Chao-Ming Tung was born in 1969 in Taiwan. He began his composition studies in his home town of Taipei, then moved on to Germany where he studied with Johannes Fritsch and Mauricio Kagel at the Hochschule für Musik Köln from 1990-97. Most of his compositions from this period include electronic and scenic elements that refer to his teachers as well as to the musical traditions of his homeland. He completed his studies with distinction with Nicolaus A. Huber in Essen in 1999.

His works include chamber music for groups of various sizes. He works regularly with the painter Annegret Heinl, the dancer René Pieters, the calligrapher Chin-Fa Cheng and the sound artist Berhard Gál, as well as with renowned ensembles for contemporary music. Tung emphasizes the relationships between the auditory and visual arts in many of his performances. He performs as a sound artist and guzheng player in Europe, the USA, and Asia. He currently lives and works in Cologne.

Ming Wang composer, pipa player

Ming Wang was born in Taipei, Taiwan. From 1982 to 1986 she studied zheng and pipa at the Chinese Culture University Taipei. Since 1989, she has lived in Vienna, where she studied composition with Dieter Kaufmann and completed a course of study in electro-acoustics with Tamas Ungvary. Her instrumental and electronic works have been performed in countries including Austria, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, the USA, France, and Taiwan.   

Wei Wu multi-instrumentalist, main instrument: sheng

Wei Wu was born 1970 in the southern Chinese province of Jiangsu and received first instructions on the Chinese fiddle erhu in the age of five. At the age of 15 he began studying the Chinese mouth organ sheng at the academy for the arts in Nanjing, and continued at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. As a sheng player, he won several competitions and became soloist in the Shanghai Chinese Symphony Orchestra. Through tours to China, Japan, the USA, and Europe, Wu became familiar with non-Chinese music traditions. In 1995, he won a DAAD scholarship for Berlin, where his musical horizons were widened through the study of western jazz traditions and through collaboration with musicians of various backgrounds. In 1996, his Ensemble Omen won the first prize of the world-music competition Musica Vitale in Berlin.

Since 1993, Wu has performed as a sheng soloist and as a member of various ensembles at many concert halls and festivals in Germany and abroad. Radio and TV broadcasts have brought his music to a wider audience.