Verena Weinmann’s composition, entitled Hills of Torreón, takes us into a world of mysterious, shadowy sounds that contrast with a tightly woven structure of glittering overtones. Characterised by powerful inner tension, the turbulent mood is transformed into an increasingly dramatic stream of sound, which having reached its climax is abruptly interrupted and called into question. A courageous artistic statement, and touching, memorable music.

The composer and activist Verena Weinmann (*1994)is from Frauenfeld. She started dancing as small child. At the age of ten, she began taking private piano tuition, which she consolidated with preliminary studies at the Winterthur Academy of Music. Her first composition was written for her high school diploma thesis at the Im Lee Cantonal School in Winterthur. She has participated at the Young Composers Workshop in Boswil on several occasions. She is currently studying composition with Michel Roth at the Academy of Music in Basel. At the beginning of 2015, she became interested in politics and wrote several articles on the subject for the magazine Der Funke. Alongside her studies, Verena Weinmann plays keyboard in the Latin rock band Mondsucher, as well as giving private piano lessons and tuition in musical theory. Her compositions are characterised by the need to create a link to current world affairs and to offer the performers space for their own creativity. Weinmann also has a strong interest in conceptual music, improvisation and the integration of electronic and rock instruments in contemporary music.

Photo by Susanna Drescher

Musikkollegium Winterthur, Thomas Zehetmair (Direction)

My work refers to Anastasia Mityukova’s Find a Way or Make One photo series, in which the artist observes a distant place without ever having been there herself. Anastasia Mityukova’s photographs simultaneously show several realities. I attempted to convey this idea in the music, which ranges from being noisily amorphous to displaying the highest level of structural density. Recognising patterns is an active process. For the reception of a work of art, a certain mean level of entropy is expected in the area between an absence of pattern (in acoustic terms, this would be background noise) and periodicity. Otherwise, the work risks losing its purpose and appeal. Time, “perceptual speed,” plays an essential role in this. Recording a piece offers a unique opportunity to emphasise the distinction between live performance and recording – the work is played back at eight times the speed. By compressing the music using time-stretching techniques, not only are individual structures rendered unrecognisable, but new patterns also made accessible.

Swiss composer Fabian Künzli(*1984) grew up in the Canton of Thurgau. He has played the clarinet since the age of ten, performing in orchestras as well as several bands (rock, big band, dixie, klezmer). He has worked as a conductor with various wind orchestras, but also with smaller ensembles for film music and other recordings. Having obtained his Master of Arts in Music degree from Zurich University of the Arts in 2010, he completed his master's studies in musical theory in 2012. As a composer, Fabian Künzli has worked for several distinguished orchestras, such as the Musikkollegium Winterthur, the Camerata Zürich, the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt and various prestigious chamber ensembles. He has also won many prizes at composition competitions, and was awarded a working semester in London by the Landis & Gyr Foundation in 2012. Fabian Künzli was Composer in Residence at the 2013 Orpheum Festtage in Zurich, and holds a part-time teaching position in musical theory at Zurich University of the Arts.

Musikkollegium Winterthur, Pierre-Alain Monot (Direction)

Austrian composer and pianist Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin(*1968) is of Russian and Bulgarian origin, and now lives in Vienna and Telish (Bulgaria). She pursued her musical studies at the Mozarteum Salzburg, the State Academy of Music in Sofia and the Ippolitov-Ivanov Music College in Moscow. She first came to the public's attention in 2007 when her Mahagiony violin concerto was premièred at New York's Carnegie Hall. For the Mozart Year of 2006, the Government of Salzburg commissioned her to compose Annäherung. Other works by the composer have been performed at Vienna's Musikverein, the Megaron Centre in Athens, at the Villa Massimo in Rome, at the Chicago Cultural Center, as well as the Schnittke Institute in Moscow. She has been commissioned to compose works by the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation as well as WDR and ORF, among others. As a pianist, Karastoyanova-Hermentin has given solo and ensemble performances in the classical genre as well as premièring works of New Music.

Photo by Stefanie Luger

Musikkollegium Winterthur, Pierre-Alain Monot (Direction)

The Finnish composer and saxophonist Sampo Kasurinen(*1990) began his musical career as a jazz musician, but now works as a full-time composer and arranger. He studied in Berlin (University of the Arts) and Helsinki (Sibelius Academy), where he is currently completing his master's degree. The emphasis of Kasurinen's compositions lies on works for orchestra and other large-scale ensembles. Sampo Kasurinen first achieved wider recognition in 2012, when he was awarded First Prize at the Finnish Young Nordic Jazz Comets competition with the AR Quartet. Most recently, he won First Prize at the Markku Johanson competition for his composition Tango Sinfonico, and Second Prize at the Puolustusvoimat 100-vuotta competition with Alkusoitto for wind ensemble.

Musikkollegium Winterthur, Thomas Zehetmair (Direction)

Bileam Kümper(*1971) studied Music, Mathematics and German at the Technical University of Dortmund from 1992 to 1998. As an employee of the technology and administration department, his responsibilities have included the sound studio for some years. Previously, he gained extensive experience as a self-employed instrumental teacher, music publisher and lecturer in workshops and seminars (on topics such as electro-acoustic composition, soundscape composition and sound synthesis). His compositions span chamber music, frequently combined with electronics, electronic music and installations. He plays numerous instruments, including the violin, viola and tuba. He has held a post as lecturer at the Technical University of Dortmund since 2009.

Musikkollegium Winterthur, Thomas Zehetmair (Direction)

Hiroshi Nakamura(*1965) hails from Japan. He was taught composition and attended master classes with Klaus Huber, Brian Ferneyhough and Helmut Lachenmann, among others. He has won prizes at numerous competitions in both his Japanese homeland and Europe – such as the Concorso internazionale di composizione Settimane Musicali di Stresa(2007), the International Prokofiev Competition in St. Petersburg (2008), the New NoteInternational Composers' Competition in Croatia (2015) and the Aargau Composition Competition (2017). His works have been performed by renowned orchestras such as the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, the St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra and the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya.

Musikkollegium Winterthur, Thomas Zehetmair (Direction)

Simon James Phillips(*1973) comes from Australia and has lived in Berlin since 2008. He received his musical training at the Piteå Musikhögskolan in Sweden (piano  and improvisation), the Australian National University in Canberra (composition) and the Australian Young Conductors and Composers School in Brisbane. He was Composer in Residence at the Teatro Maria Matos, Lisbon, for the 2014/15 season. He has been a guest both as a composer and a pianist at several festivals, including the Bend/Break Festival (Berlin), the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the Jazzfest Berlin and the Sydney International Festival of the Arts. He has performed repeatedly in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Poland and Portugal, as well as in the United Kingdom and Switzerland. In his numerous compositions, he attaches special importance to the actual conditions of their performance, and has developed a kind of collaborative composition that encourages the creative participation of the musicians involved.

Musikkollegium Winterthur, Pierre-Alain Monot (Direction)

Adél Koleszár

Born 1986, Budapest/Hungary, lives and works in Mexico City, adelka.tumblr.com

In her series Wounds of Violence, Adél Koleszár investigates how experiencing violence moulds society and the self. Her photos offer assorted contrasts, such as between illegal mass graves that have been discovered in Mexico and the visible scars of abuse, especially among women.

Download the extended captions.

Elena Aya Bundurakis

Born 1988, Heraklion/Greece, lives and works in Athens and Antwerp, freethecelery.com

The series Eating Magma engages with nature, fauna, flora, muscle and eating. These pictures directly address our sensory perception, and immediately prompt different emotions on the part of the observer. Form, colour, flesh and corporeality play an important role in Bundurakis’s work, and are depicted in a manner that is both sober and at the same time ambivalent.

Anastasia Mityukova

Born 1992, Geneva /Switzerland, lives and works in Geneva, anastasiamityukova.ch

The works in the series find a way or make one challenge the stereotypical view that people have of the Arctic, and how different typologies of images shape the landscape. Using pictures made by webcams and surveillance cameras along with photographs that Mityukova has found at flea markets, she creates her own perspective on this distant place, without ever having been there herself

Download the entire image series incl. captions.