Shortbiographies
A Clear View of Heaven owes its artistic existence to international cooperation amongst the members of a group of artists, who for several years have been working in depth on the relationship between the Old and the New:
Joachim Schlömer, Director
The work of the German director is equally divided between being a dancer, choreographer, actor and opera director, among others as a director at the Salzburger Festspiele, Burgtheater Wien, Deutsche Oper Berlin. Since 2006 is the curator of the Dance Theatre Freiburg-Heidelberg, pvc. At the Lucerne Festival 2008 he will be an Artiste Etoile - Director in Residence. Extended Biography
Etienne Abelin, Musical Direction, Violins
The Swiss musician is a member of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and Principal Second Violin of the Orchestra Mozart Bologna, both founded and directed by Claudio Abbado. In the Matteis Project – Baroque ReImagined , he deals with the question of how music, in this case that written by Italian baroque composer Nicola Matteis, could be translated into various musical languages. Since 2007 design and production of various cultural projects, like Kandinskyplus in collaboration with the Kunstmuseum Basel and Rhythm'n'Foot 08. Extended Biography
Bill Morrison, Film&Video
An award-winning New York based filmmaker with eight works in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA). Films and retrospectives shown at festivals and museums around the world, a.o. at The Tate Modern, Lincoln Center, The Whitney Museum, London’s ICA, MassMOCA, The Wexner Center, BAM, The Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum. His films have been broadcast on PBS, The Sundance Channel, and Arté, and have been featured at international film festivals worldwide, such as Sundance, Rotterdam, San Francisco and Edinburgh.
He uses decaying images to inspire the audience to ponder over their own destinies, while those of the persons in the film are already sealed. Extended Biography
Marisa Martins, Baroque Singer
The Spanish-Argentinian mezzo
soprano was a Grammy Nomminee 2005 and is particularly interested in
the relationship between voice and movement. She has worked in
productions that combine music and modern dance at the theatre in
Basel, the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, The Fishhouse in San
Francisco a.o. As an opera singer, she performs in the Liceu theatre in
Barcelona, La Zarzuela in Madrid, Theâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro and the Salzburger Festspiele in 2006. Among her recordings are
productions for Harmonia Mundi with conductor René Jacobs. Extended Biography
Ane Brun, Pop Singer
The Norwegian songwriter, guitarist and vocalist lives in Stockholm, Sweden, where she started her own independent record label DetErMine Records in 2002 and released the albums Spending Time with Morgan in 2003, A Temporary Dive and Duets in 2005. A Temporary Dive sold gold in her home country Norway after only 3 weeks and was released in Japan in spring 2007. Ane Brun tours all over Europe extensively. She won numerous awards like the Norwegian Alarm Award for Best Pop Album 2005 and the Norwegian Spellemannsprisen (Grammys) for Best Female Artist 2005 and the Hit of the Year 2005. Extended Biography
Maria Kwiatkowsky, Actress
Born in 1985 in Berlin – since 2002 theatre projects with the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz and the Hebbel theatre in Berlin. 2004 she received the Silver Leopard for best main character at the International Film Festival Locarno for her role as Alice in the movie En Garde. She also played the main character Amelie in the TV-film Amelie (2005) and received a prize at the Münchner Filmfest – 2006 main role in Daniel Lang’s short film Three. Since 2006 member of the ensemble at the Theatre Freiburg.
Markus Merz, Actor, Restorer
Born in 1964 in Menziken, Switzerland. Educated at the Konservatorium für Musik und Theater Bern. Engagements at the Staatstheater Stuttgart, Schlosstheater Celle, Stadttheater Augsburg, Bühnen der Stadt Gera, Theater Basel, Ruhrtrienale Bochum, Salzburger Festspiele. He worked under directors (a.o.) Christof Loy, Michael Thalheimer, Nicolas Stemann, Stefan Bachmann, Lars-Ole Walburg, Katharina Thalbach, Tim Staffel, Raphael Sanchez, Ruedi Häusermann, Barbara Frey, Sebastian Nübling, Stephan Müller. He has also appeared in tv- and cinema-productions.
Giuliano Carmignola, Special Guest, Baroque Violin
One of the leading violinists of our age. He is an ideal representative of a lively, re-creating style of interpretation, allowing old music - especially italian Baroque music - to resound with renewed life informed by historical performance practice. He was recently signed as an exclusive artist with Deutsche Grammaphon. Recent CDs with Sony Classical include three recordings of Vivaldi with the Venice Baroque Orchestra, the first of which features three previously unrecorded concertos and The Four Seasons. It was awarded the Diapason D'Or in France and the Echo Award in Germany.
"An immensely novel sound. The searing notes emanating from his violin seemed to reach this listener's heart before his ears." The Los Angeles Times Extended Biography
Bettina Auer, Dramaturgy
Works since the beginning of 2007 at the Komische Oper Berlin, before Chief Operadramaturgist at the Theater Basel and at the City Theatre Darmstadt. As production dramaturgist, she was a guest at the Salzburger Festspiele ("Iphigénie en Touride", director: Claus Guth, and "Irrfahrten, eine Mozart-Trilogie", director: Joachim Schlömer), at the Opernhaus Zürich, the Wiener Burgtheater and the Wiener Staatsoper in "Entführung aus dem Serail" (Director: Karin Beier).
In May 2007 she worked as a guest with Joachim Schlömer at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in the opera "Der Traumgörge" by Alexander von Zemlinsky.
Michael Seberich, Sound Design
One of the preferred sound engineers of Claudio Abbado, works for major labels like Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI and Sony. Sound design for classical events like an opera production on the Piazza del Popolo in Rom and collaboration with singers like Milva. Also works for the Cleveland Orchestra, Opera Zurich, Victoria Mullova, Katia Labeque, Renaud and Gauthier Capuçon.
Andreas Grüter, Light Design
Born in Lucerne, Switzerland, Andreas Grüter studied light design at the Bayerische Theaterakademie Munich. His works include Hamlet (Lucerne Theatre), Elementarteilchen (Bayrisches Staatsschauspiel), Ladies in the Light and Company (Prinzregententheater Munich), Lucrezia Borgia (Opera Marseille), Eugene Onegin (Welsh National Opera), Verkaufte Braut (Volksoper Wien), Passagio/Tre Donne (Staatstheater Mannheim), Fledermaus (Theater Bonn), Idomeneo (Theater an der Wien), Moses und Aron (Wiener Staatsoper), Entführung aus dem Serail, (Nationale Reisopera Holland), Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Bayreuther Festspiele) and Le Vin herbé (RuhrTriennale). Currently works regularly for the Theater Freiburg.
Nadia Fistarol, Bühne und Kostüme
Born 1970 in Zurich - finished her architecture studies at the ETH Zurich in 1999 - designed the stage a.o. for Onomatopoet (Theater an der Winkelwiese and Kunsthaus Zürich), Factory, Easy Money (both Gessnerallee Zürich), Engel, Electronic City (both Deutsches Theater Göttingen) – since 2003/04 assistent at the Münchner Kammerspielen and until end of 2004/05 working there as a stage design assistent – 2005/06 stage for „Draußen tobt die Dunkelziffer“ (Münchner Kammerspiele). Since 2006/07 she is part of the dance team "pvc" at the Theater Freiburg, curated by Joachim Schlömer, with whom she also worked on the piece "Medea" in Freiburg.
Olivia Heiniger, Assistant Director
Born in Menziken, Switzerland. 2002/2003 studies of Anglistic in Dresden and contract as a singer at the Staatstheater Dresden. Since October 2003 studies of choir direction (Raphael Immoos) and school music at the Hochschule für Musik Basel. Tutor for choir direction at the HSM. Musical and organisational direction of various large projects and choirs, conductor of the Basel Vocal ensemble larynx and member of the vocal ensemble of the Bach-Foundation St. Gallen.
Markus Farncombe-Fischer, Lighting Operator
Markus Farncombe-Fischer works in German speaking countries as well as Great Britain, Russia and the Netherlands as a freelance Lighting Designer, Lighting Operator and Lighting Programmer. Among his works are major events like the „Ball des Sports“ and the „José Carrera Gala“ (Live-Television broadcast on ARD), furthermore projects for customers like Microsoft UK. Markus has been working for the Bayreuther Richard-Wagner-Festspiele since 1999; as a Lighting Designer he has worked in England, different theatres in Germany (a.o. Staatstheater Wiesbaden) and recently in Russia (State Opera of Tartastan). Furthermore, he works as a free consultant of one of the leading developpers and producers of light control systems.
Raphael Zehnder, Mulitmedia Production
Born 1963 and raised in Luzern and Nidwalden.As a young Stage Technician he collected experience as a tour manager at hundreds of stage performances in Europe with the TheaterFalle Basel and the Vorstadttheater Basel in collaboration with various directors. As a sound- technician with Schweizer Radio DRS he produced radio broadcasts, features and live-reports. He is responsible for the „Hörspielreise“ by Schweizer Radio DRS and other radio events.He worked for the Theatre Basel, for example for „Der Seidene Schuh“ by Paul Claudel under the direction of Stefan Bachmann and the Epos „Helden des 20. Jahrhunderts“ in Coproduction with TAT Frankfurt.After training as a multimediaproducer at the School of Audio Engineering in Zurich, div. interactive projects for museums (Museum for Communication Berne, Swiss Museum of Transport Luzern, Translitterale at the EXPO 02 in Murten) he was responsible for live-productions with Christian Zehnder of „Stimmhorn “and for „Jazz by Offbeat Festival Basel “with Fred Frith, using Surroundtechnik and slide-show projections in co-operation with Gaby Streiff.
Since 2003 he is the technical manager for the kult.kino ag Basel. Structure and new installation with digital sound- and projection technology in parallel operation with 35mm projections
Since 2006 he is the Co-producer for „Synfolie“, the first sinfonic synthesis of „mark&bein “ with large orchestra. The premiere took place at the Wildwuchs 07 – festival in Basel.
More information at: www.mediaton.ch
Laurie Olinder, Slides
Laurie Olinder is a painter and an award winning theatrical designer. She has been commissioned to create multimedia visuals for some of the great composers of our time such as, John Adams, Gavin Bryars, Michael Gordon, Henryk Gorecki, David Lang, Harry Partch, and Julia Wolfe. She is a founding member of Ridge Theater and has been recognized with two Obie awards, a Bessie award, and an Eliot Norton Award.
Klaus Affolter, Videotricktechnik
Roland Müllener, Production Management
1977-1984 administrative direction of the "Theatre for the Kanton Zurich". 1985 foundation of the "Tourneetheater Klappsitz" (a.o. translation and producer of Gilbert Léautiers "The Matriarch" with first German performance at the Schauspielhaus Zurich, Swiss first performance of Dario Fo's "Die offene Zweierbeziehung" and Harold Pinter's "Noch einen Letzten"). Since 1989 general manager of the Orchestre Philharmonique Suisse, previously Philharmonische Werkstatt Schweiz. Since 1994 director of OffTHEATER with projects combining different art forms. 2002, 2003 and 2004 responsible for the "Orchestre du Septembre Musical" in Montreux. Since 2006 responsible for the use of the culture- and eventspaces in the Toni-Areal Zurich.
For short biographies of the members of the Matteis Project Ensemble: see "matteis project - ensemble "