Ming Tsao: Plus or Minus

Biographies

Composer Ming Tsao creates music with a unique sensuality by focusing on the inherent qualities of sounds—in his own words, their “materiality.” With his highly precise compositional style, characterized by extreme formal rigor, he develops a new conception of lyricism in contemporary music: it encompasses breaks and diverse shifts in perspective that question our modern experience. Many of Ming Tsao’s works spring equally from his critical and profound analysis of Western classical traditions and his connection to traditional Chinese music. The format in which he brings these interests together is increasingly opera.

Ming Tsao was born in Berkeley, California, in 1966. He studied violin and viola before traveling to China to study the fretless Chinese fingerboard zither, the guqin, with the famous virtuoso Wu Zhao-ji in Suzhou. After studying composition at Berklee College of Music in Boston and ethnomusicology at Columbia University in New York, he went on to study logic, philosophy, and mathematics. He earned his Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy) in composition at the University of California, San Diego, as a student of Chaya Czernowin. He also completed private studies with Brian Ferneyhough.

From 2009 to 2017, Ming Tsao was Professor of Composition at the University of Gothenburg; he currently teaches as a visiting professor of composition at the University of Music, Drama and Media in Hanover. In 2021, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship for composition. In 2024, he was appointed Birge Cary Professor of Music at the University of Buffalo in New York.

www.mingtsao.net

GrauSchumacher Piano Duo
Andreas Grau · Götz Schumacher

Cleverly compiled programs are the trademark that has made Andreas Grau and Götz Schumacher one of the most internationally renowned piano duos. Like no other piano duo, they span the spectrum from Bach to new and contemporary music. Their collaboration at the piano makes them appear to be artistic soulmates. With their wide range of expressive possibilities, they are guests at various festivals and concert halls. The duo has worked with conductors such as Emanuel Krivine, Kent Nagano, Andrey Boreyko, Peter Eötvös, and Zubin Mehta. Their orchestral projects include concerts with the SWR Symphony Orchestra, the DSO Berlin, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the RSO Vienna, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Many composers write for the GrauSchumacher Piano Duo, most recently Peter Eötvös, Philippe Manoury, Stefan Heucke, Jan Müller-Wieland, Brigitta Muntendorf, Hanspeter Kyburz, and Luca Francesconi, to name but a few. The duo's penchant for sophisticated program concepts is also documented in their numerous CD recordings, which are released in their own series by NEOS, among others.

de.karstenwitt.com/grauschumacher-piano-duo

The SWR Experimentalstudio sees itself as an interface between compositional ideas and technical implementation. Every year, several composers are invited to take up a working scholarship, enabling them to realize their works in dialogue with the studio's staff. In addition to producing these works, it is also active as an ensemble in performances. With 50 years of presence in the international music scene, it has established itself as the leading ensemble for works with live electronics and performs continuously at almost all major festivals as well as in numerous renowned music theaters. The outstanding productions in the history of the Experimentalstudio include works by such important composers as Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Luigi Nono, the latter of whom created almost his entire late work in close collaboration with the studio. Nono's “audio tragedy” Prometeo has been performed more than 80 times by the Experimentalstudio since its premiere in 1984 and can be described as a milestone in 20th-century music history. Among the younger generation, Mark Andre, Chaya Czernowin, and Georg Friedrich Haas in particular have made a name for themselves as composers who have produced pioneering works at the Experimentalstudio. Among the performers associated with the studio are outstanding musical personalities such as Mauricio Pollini, Claudio Abbado, Peter Eötvös, Daniel Barenboim, Gidon Kremer, Carolin and Jörg Widmann, Irvine Arditti, and Roberto Fabbriciani. The Experimentalstudio has received several international awards for its exemplary work, including the German Record Critics' Annual Prize for its production of works by Luigi Nono. Following Hans Peter Haller, André Richard, and Detlef Heusinger, Joachim Haas has been the director of the Experimentalstudio since 2022.

www.swr.de/experimentalstudio

“Due Corde” and the new duo clavichord

Ulrika Davidsson and Joel Speerstra have been playing music for two keyboard instruments for almost three decades and perform in Europe and the United States.

Ulrika Davidsson is a versatile musician who plays the harpsichord, clavichord, piano, and fortepiano and gives concerts throughout Europe, the US, South Korea, and Japan. She teaches piano and historical keyboard instruments at the Academy of Music and Drama at the University of Gothenburg and is also a frequent guest at international academies and festivals. She was an assistant professor at the Eastman School of Music, music director at the Rochester City Ballet (USA), and taught at the University of the Arts Bremen and the Royal Danish Academy of Music. Ulrika Davidsson studied at the Eastman School of Music, where she earned a doctorate in piano and historical keyboard instruments and a master's degree in harpsichord performance. She completed further studies at the Academy of Music and Drama in her hometown of Gothenburg and at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. Her teachers included Barry Snyder, William Porter, Malcolm Bilson, Willem Brons, and Elisif Lundén. Her CD recordings include Haydn's piano sonatas and a complete recording of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier Book I. She has been awarded the Swedish State Artist Prize, the Adlerbert Scholarship, and the Culture Prize of the City of Mölndal, among others.

Joel Speerstra teaches and conducts research in the field of organ and historical keyboard instruments at the Academy of Music and Drama at the University of Gothenburg. Previously, he was an assistant professor at the Eastman School of Music. He is active in the fields of artistic research, instrument making, and performances at academies and international keyboard festivals. Joel Speerstra studied organ with William Porter and David Boe at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Several scholarships enabled him to continue his studies in Europe: organ and clavichord with Harald Vogel in Germany and instrument making with John Barnes in Edinburgh. His doctoral project led to a reconstruction of David Gerstenberg's pedal clavichord and the publication of the book Bach and the Pedal Clavichord: An Organist’s Guide (published by Rochester University Press). He was awarded a state prize for musicology by the Royal Swedish Academy of Music for his research on the pedal clavichord. His current research project focuses on forgotten puzzles in 17th-century keyboard music.