Magdalena Cerezo

Magdalena Cerezo is a pianist and performer specialised in contemporary music. A central component of her practice as an artist is the research and exploration of the piano's implementation in the 21st Century, with the aim of creating new ways of integrating the instrument with both performance and multimedia art. Within this framework, she commissions new compositions and curates diverse projects, which call into question the inherent eurocentristic vision of piano culture.

During her career, Magdalena has collaborated with composers such as Bernhard Lang, Wolfgang Rihm, Beat Furrer, Heinz Holliger, Helmut Lachenmann, Rebecca Saunders, Mark Andre, Rolf Riehm, Johannes Kreidler, Adriana Hölszky, and Brian Ferneyhough, and has premiered works by Peter Ablinger, Mauricio Sotelo, Fabián Panisello, Benjamin Scheuer, Eliav Kohl, and Sara Glojnarić, among others.

Furthemore, she is an honorific alumni member of Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, and has played with Ulysses Ensemble, Karlsruhe Opera Theater's Orchestra, Plural Ensemble (Madrid), Ensemble Courage Dresden, and New Music Forum Ensemble Ljubljana. Magdalena is a founding member of duo LAB51 and trio f:t, as well as the pianist of Arxis Ensemble.

Recently, she has performed at Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid), where she gave a lecture concert on Xenakis' piano music alongside musicologist Marina Hervás and visual artist Marta Verde, University of Music Karlsruhe, where she played Mantra by Stockhausen alongside Prof. Markus Stange, RESIS Festival (A Coruña), with both LAB51 and Arxis Ensemble under the baton of Beat Furrer, Auditorio Sony (Madrid), featuring world premieres of Fabián Panisello's composition studio alongside Donatienne Michel-Dansac, Royaumont Foundation, and Théâtre de l'Alliance Française (Paris), as part of the show Générations France Musique from Radio France (LAB51). Currently, Magdalena is an artist-in-residence at Cité Internationale des Arts Paris (together with soprano Johanna Vargas), and has recently been awarded a stipend  from Kunstiftung Baden-Württemberg.

During the season 2019-20, she received a support grant from Landeshaupstadt Stuttgart and Musik der Jahrhunderte for the first part of her long term project [Ex_Piano_Revisited_Library], including two video productions and a concert at Theaterhaus Stuttgart, within the series Südseite Nachts. Since 2018, she maintains a close artistic relationship with german composer Rolf Riehm, which translates into multiple presentations and performances of his piano works in Frankfurt, München, Darmstadt, Stuttgart, Dresden, and Ljubljana. In recent years, she has earned accolades such as the first prize of the John Cage Interpretation Award as a pianist of duo LAB51, the first prize of the Kulturfonds Baden Competition for the interpretation of Wolfgang Rihm's music, and a full scholarship from Ulysses Network to participate at the Call for Young Performers curated by Divertimento Ensemble Milano. In 2015, she was personally selected by Helmut Lachenmann to interpret his piano work Serynade at ZeitGenuss Festival in Karlsruhe.

Magdalena has performed in venues such as Auditorio Nacional de Madrid, Kölner Philharmonie, Berliner Philharmonie, Radialsystem V, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Galvin Hall, Theaterhaus Stuttgart, Slovenian Philharmonic Hall or Centre Pompidou Paris, and has taken part at festivals such as Darmstädter Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, Time of Music, Impuls, ManiFeste, Donaueschinger Musiktage, NUNC!3 (Northwestern University Chicago), Der Sommer in Stuttgart, RESIS, Südseite Nachts, and Mixtur Barcelona, among others.

Her performances have been broadcasted by RTVE, Deutschlandfunk, Radio Bremen, HR, SWR, Radio France, and Digital Concert Hall. During the 2018-19 season, she was correspondant in Germany for the contemporary music radio broadcast Música viva (Spanish National Radio). Recent CD recordings featuring works by Rebecca Saunders and Wolfgang Rihm were released by the label Naxos-Capriccio in April 2021.

After graduating with honors from the University of Music Salamanca, under the guidance of professors such as Sophia Hase, Eduardo Ponce and Alberto Rosado, Magdalena moved to Germany, where she is currently based. Between 2011-2015, she obtained two masters degrees in classical piano and chamber music at the University of Music Karlsruhe, under professors Kalle Randalu and Markus Stange. From 2016 onwards, she continued her studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart under Prof. Nicolas Hodges, where she finished a third master's degree in contemporary music in 2018, and a Concert Soloist Degree in 2021.

Since 2018, she works as an adjunct instructor for Contemporary Voice Training/Contemporary Lied and Performance at the University of Music in Karlsruhe.

Upcoming engagements include a solo recital at Academia de Bellas Artes de A Coruña, featuring works by Rebecca Saunders and Alberto Posadas, as well as several projects with trio f:t, such as concert performances at THE PRESENT Art Festival (Wuppertal) and Alte Feuerwache Köln, or the audiovisual production of “m-her two severed hands” for piano six hands by NYC-based composer George Katehis at the Musikbrauerei’s Säulenhalle in Berlin, made possible by Goethe Institut's Virtual Partner Residency program.

Mabel Yu-Ting Huang

Pianist Mabel Yu-ting Huang has performed in festivals such as Donaueschingen Musiktage, Lucerne Summer Festival, Lucerne Piano Festival, Paris Festival d’Automne, Festival de Royaumont, Wales Piano Festival, Migma Performancetage Lucerne, Darmstädter Ferienkurs and Transurban Residency 2021.

As soloist, member of ensemble and project director, she has collaborated with conductor, composer, artist, actor, director Peter Eötvös, Pierre-André Valade, Matthias Pintscher, Peter Siegwart, Lin Liao, Konstantia Gourzi, Matthias Kuhn, Betsy Jolas, Annesley Black, Philippe Hurel, Marco Stroppa, Kunsu Shim, Gerhard Stäbler, Peter Ablinger, Michel van der Aa, Alberto Posadas, Bettina Skrzypczak, Mauro Lanza, Lorenzo Pagliei, Alvin Curran, Ruben Seroussi, Trond Reinholdtsen, Alfred Zimmerlin, Sergej Newski, Jieun Jun, Lin-Ni Liao, Mei-Fang Lin, Tiange Zhou, Elena Rykova, Lanqin Ding, Igor Santos, Edo Frenkel, Piotr Peszat, Oscar Escudero, German Toro Perez, Stefan Nolte, Jessica Früh, Mona Petri, Joachim Aeschlimann, Ingo Ospelt, Jonas Rüegg, Lukas Waldvogel, André Willmund, ICST Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology Zurich, Vokalensemble Zurich, Ensemble KNM, Ensemble Sargo, Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra.

Yu-ting’s performances were recommended by international reports, including SRF 2 Kultur, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, LA STAMPA Italy, 24 Ovest Italy, Neue Luzerner Zeitung, Backnanger Zeitung, Murrhardter Zeitung, Pareviews Taiwan. She was awarded prizes, including the 1st Prize of Steinbach Music Competition 2003, 3rd Prize of Aisa Music Competition 2009, Special Prize Premio “NOVECENTO“ and Premio Speciale Smat “La musica e l‘Acqua“of LUIGI NONO Music Comeptition 2017 and 2018, 1st Prize of “Grand Prize Virtouso Music Competition Paris“ 2019 and 1st Prize of “Grand Prize Virtouso Music Competition London“ 2019. She comes originally from Taiwan, completed academic years at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart, at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and the Concert Exam (Konzertexamen) at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart.

Jana Luksts

Jana Luksts is a Canadian-Latvian pianist dedicated to the performance of experimental and contemporary classical music, based in Germany.

Jana’s work as a performer and project curator aims to provide new - surprising, thoughtful, engaging - listening and viewing experiences, by incorporating extra-musical thematic material refracting current social and historical topics, and inviting audiences to evade traditional concert-viewing formats. 

Her programming and curation seeks to elevate the work of composers and collaborators around her, with a special interest in speech/movement, unconventional notation (complexism, graphic notation) and prosthesis, as lent to the performer through unconventional notation and ensemble formations, in addition to electronic/robotic forms of prosthesis. 

From Beethoven to Ferneyhough, Jana has been heard in major concert halls throughout Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Czech Republic, Greece, Finland, United States, Canada, and major radio stations in Canada (Canadian Broadcasting Company) and Germany (hr2-kultur). 

Jana’s most recent release (July 2023) can be viewed here: an audio-visual production in collaboration with f:t and NYC-based composer George Katehis filmed at Musikbrauerei Berlin, with the support of the Goethe Institut.

Jana holds upcoming engagements (Fall 2023) with Reactive Ensemble, during their final instalment as ensemble-in-residence at Musikakademie Rheinsberg. Alongside flutist/curator Sara Constant, Jana will exhibit and perform “re:frame”, a commissioning project for 3-dimensional graphic scores, in Toronto and various German cities, with the generous support of the Canada Arts Council.

In her 2022-23 season, Jana held engagements at transmediale (Berlin) performing “MILLIONS OF EXPERIENCES - HUGE IF TRUE” alongside Jennifer Walshe & Wobbly, Alte Feuerwache Köln alongside f:t, Unerhörte Musik and Ölberg-Kirche Kreuzberg (Berlin) as a part of field notes’ Monat der Zeitgenössische Musik alongside soprano Kanae Mizobuchi (featuring a performance of Mark Andre’s “iv 17” with the composer in attendance), and THE PRESENT Art Festival (Wuppertal), among others. With f:t, a trio of three pianists of which she is a founding member (alongside Magdalena Cerezo and Mabel Yu-Ting Huang), she recorded the majority of existing works for three pianos at Fleischmarkthalle Karlsruhe, supported by Ensemble Funding from Musikfonds e.V., to be released later this year. Alongside Stuttgart-based Reactive Ensemble, she held an ensemble-in-residence for the 2022-23 season at Musikakademie Rheinsberg.

As a soloist, Jana has performed at Orf RadioKulturhaus (Vienna), Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (Bern), hr-Sendesaal (Frankfurt), Musik der Jahrhunderte (Stuttgart), Gedok e.V. (Stuttgart), Kavalierhaus Rheinsberg (Rheinsberg), Ölberg-Kirche (Berlin), Musikbrauerei (Berlin), Altefeuerwache Köln (Cologne), DiMenna Center for Classical Music (NYC), Spectrum (NYC), Music Gallery (Toronto), Bunker Lane Press (Toronto), Pallas (Thessaloniki), Grypario Cultural Center (Mykonos), and as a soloist alongside the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra premiering Ernst Schneider’s “Piano Concerto No. 2”. 

As a guest artist, Jana has performed at festivals and residencies including transmediale (Berlin), Musikakademie Rheinsberg (Rheinsberg), THE PRESENT Art Festival (Wuppertal), Internationale Digitalkunst Festival (Stuttgart), Sound Symposium XIX (Newfoundland), Delian Academy for New Music (Mykonos) where she also led the Experimental Collaboration Workshop, Brian & Brian Festival (NYC), and the Darmstädter Ferienkurse (Darmstadt) as part of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony (hr-Sinfonieorchester). As a participant, she has performed and taken part in courses at the Klangspuren Schwaz Festival für Neue Musik (Innsbruck, IEMA Ensemble), Darmstädter Ferienkurse (Darmstadt, Studio Nicolas Hodges), Musikiin Aika/Time of Music (Finland, Studio Nicolas Hodges/Trio Accanto), and the Summer institute for Contemporary Performance Practice (SICPP, Boston, Studio Stephen Drury). 

Jana has given lectures and workshops on complexism, graphic scores, multi-media integration, and extra-musical material in new compositions for piano at the University of Toronto (Canada), Manhattan School of Music (NYC), Delian Academy for New Music (Mykonos), and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece). 

As a curator, Jana is currently exhibiting “re:frame”, a commissioning and artistic research project of three-dimenstional graphic scores, to be performed in non-music spaces by flute, piano, synthesizer, and electronics. Supported by the Explore & Create component of the Canada Arts Council, “re:frame” is conducted alongside flutist-curator Sara Constant, with newly commissioned three-dimensional graphic scores by Symon Henry and Éloïse Plamandon-Pagé (Quebec), Esthir Lemi (Greece), and R.E. Smith (Australia), with scheduled performance in Germany and Canada in the 2023-24 season. In 2019, Jana was a guest curator for the “Muted Blast 2.0” series presented by Greek composer-curator collective meta.ksi. 

Jana’s artistic work has been kindly supported by Musikfonds e.V., GVL Neustart Kultur, Canada Council for the Arts, Women’s Art Association of Canada, BC Arts Council, and the 42nd Eckhardt-Grammaté National Music Competition, of which she was the 2nd prize winner. 

Jana’s involvement with contemporary classical music has allowed her to work in close proximity with composers such as Michael Finnissy, Helmut Lachenmann, Mark Andre, Marco Stroppa, Jennifer Walshe, and Philippe Leroux.

Jana completed her Master of New Music with Prof. Nicolas Hodges in July 2021 at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart. After finishing her formative studies with Elizabeth Wocks (Piano) and Ken Stromberg (Violin) in Kelowna (British Columbia, Canada) she completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto, supported in full by the Alice & Armen Matheson Scholarship, studying with Dr. Jamie Parker.