»It is the composition that actually provides the elementary lifesoil for this stream of thoughts, as it flows through primeval depths and naturalism along the crumbling edges of a society in a state of change. Stepha Schweiger permits the ensemble to breathe, sense and soar, to become consummate in space.« (Süd-West-Presse, 2018)
"...The Berliner with her distinctive voice is traversing dark untrodden paths between chamber pop, electronic noise, jazz and art music. Her new album is a bow to Katherine Mansfield, ... A deep, dramatic and enriching "piece of art"..." (Flight13, 2019)
»Music between upheaval and a retro effect, between evident delight in experimentation and a classic trim. ... Schweiger enhances the suspensive tension of sensually tender sound clusters to a melodiousness almost reminiscent of the free jazz experiments in the 1970s, one that lures us with its irresistible groove.« (Augsburger Allgemeine, 2018)
»Stepha Schweiger has composed a web of sounds more minimalistic in effect, one that emerges in a shimmer and with fine-spun tensions from her unique transformation of Virginia Woolf’s textual flow.« (nmz - neue musikzeitung, 2017)
Stepha Schweiger
Avantgarde composer, producer, director, singer/songwriter pianist.
In the 1980-s Stepha is active in the field of new wave, lateron in new music.
Her specific style advances in the fields of music theatre, experimental, industrial, free jazz, song, in the spectral technique of composition and in natural tuning.
Stepha Schweiger lives in Berlin
News:
The Maxi-Single Floryan nachdenklich (Jlin remix) was released end of march 2021.
The new album Stepha Schweiger - When I was a Bird appeared in spring 2020 on L’ST records / Broken Silence.
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On 4th und 5th Oktober 2019, 8 pm, the music theater The Mark on the Wall, based on the story of the same name by Virginia Woolf, was performed with reworked scene at Theater im Delphi Berlin.
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In July 2018 Stepha Schweiger releases her album - Now I’m a Plant - produced by Hanno Leichtmann with electronic sounds, basses and loops.
On October 10 2018 two remixes by Pyrolator and In the garden of beauty follow.
In June 2019 the CD Now I’m a Plant, including the remixes, is out.
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October 06 2018 "ver-blich" for double bass and electronics is premiered in a new version for IKO loudspeaker of the institute for electronic music of Kunstuni Graz at musikprotokoll im Steirischen Herbst, Graz.
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In 2017 Stepha Schweiger premieres her 100 minutes long music theatre work "The Mark on the Wall", she composed for the singer and performer Anna Clementi based on the story of the same name by Virginia Woolf from 1917 - for singer, speaker, dancer, ensemble, electronics - at Tete a Tete-Festival in London, followed by scenic performances - direction by Sebastian Bauer - at Acker Stadt Palast Berlin, at Festival für neue Musik, Klanghaus Ulm in April 2018 and at Theater im Delphi Berlin in October 2019.
Biography and worklist:
As a child: creations of performance and audio recordings. Piano lessons and choir singing, five years at dancing school Krippner Regensburg. At school: first encounter with 12-tone music and electronic music. Studies in philosophy, musicology, linguistic, and activities in the fields of indie and experimental music.
Studies in composition at the Hochschule (now Universität) der Künste Berlin among others under Gösta Neuwirth as Meisterschüler, as well as with Walter Zimmermannand Friedrich Goldmann. Further studies with Horatiu Radulescu, as well as with Helmut Lachenmann, Earle Brown and Barbara Monk Feldman, as well as Experimental Music Theatre with Dieter Schnebel and Daniel Ott. Piano studies with Cristian Petrescu and Larry Porter. One-year-course at the Ircam Paris, and at the Institute of Sonology, Conservatory The Hague.
Lectures and workshops (selection): at the Institut für Neue Musik Berlin ("Luciano Berio: Sequenze-Meisterkurs"), at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin (Reihe "Komponieren zur Zeit", and Mentoring: Diploma about Tristan Murail), at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, USA (Composers Symposium, Lectures and Workshop in Composition), at the Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln (Microtonal Projects) and others.
In 1993 Stepha Schweiger created her first experimental music theatre 1au9tu9mn3, commissioned by the Berlin Senate. Her works are performed internationally and are featured on radio and TV.
Stepha Schweiger’s texts on "composition, language and everyday life" and intonation are edited in KunstMusik World Edition Köln, KunstZeitung Usedomer Kunstverein, Positionen (review).
Worked on analysing destinctive compositions from the second half of the 20th century with an efficient method in respect to their organisation in time.
Her music has been published on the labels Subup Records Munic, GGM Galler Musikverlag Berlin, little salt and others.
Since the 1980-s Cassette/LP/Single/CD/DVD releases, as well as 2006-17 in the song project "Stepha" with the CD "Through the Screen" in 2006. Lately, in 2015/2016, Stepha released the Indie-Pop-EP "Dissolve into" (CD/Vinyl). In 2018 the album "Now I’m a Plant" produced by Hanno Leichtmann and two remixes by Pyrolator and Inthegardenofbeauty.
She performs and her works are performed among others at:
musikprotokoll im Steirischen Herbst Graz
Tete a Tete Opera Festival London
Staatsoper Berlin Unter den Linden, Atonale
Festival Agora, Ircam Paris
Suoni del Corpo Festival Rom
Festival für neue musik KlangHaus UIm
Composers Symposium, Albuquerque, University of New Mexico, USA
Werkschau Senat Berlin
Pyramidale Festival Berlin
Kulturbrauerei Berlin
Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin
Theater im Delphi Berlin
Acker Stadt Palast Berlin
BKA Club Konzerte Berlin
Kunstprojekt Karlshof
Frauenmusiktage Weimar
Darmstädter Ferienkurse
Randfestspiele Zepernick
Lucero Festival Paris
and at more festivals and events in Germany, Switzerland, England, Italy, Czechia, Turkey and Brazil.
Stepha Schweiger works (selection)
Titel (year) instrumentation duration / details / place and year of creation / production
Saprobie (1989/90) trumpet, saxophone, piano, 2 violins, double bass 13
Nine Pieces (1990) film-music for trumpet, trombone, saxophone, percussion, piano/synthesizer, 2 violins, viola, double bass 9 / selected at shortfilm festival Oberhausen / Berlin 1990
Songs 1 (1992) voice(s), piano ca. 30
Erspähet (1990/1992) alto-voice, piano 5
Sp19ri9ng one (1991) piano 20/1992
The Swing (1991/1999) variable string trio free /1996
Envelopes (1993) experimental music-theatre for one singer (text: Antonin Artaud and from newspapers) free /1993
amidst (1993) experimental music-theatre for singer, actor and pianist (prepared piano) free /1993
Words (1993) for speaking voice (text: Andrej Tarkowskij) /1993
1au9tu9mn3 (1993) experimental music-theatre for four variable instruments and dance (1) 60 /1993
Stück für einen Menschen (1994) for one or endlessly many persons free / 1994
Stück für einen Stromzähler, einen tropfenden Wasserhahn und eine Person (1994) for one performer free
28 (1994) experimental music-theatre for flute, clarinet, horn, trombone, violoncello, double bass 28 /1994
La Crescenza di 49 (1994) flute, clarinet, violoncello, double bass 7 /1994
Floréal (1994) flute 5 /2012
Solo für Ebba (1994) flute 60 /1994
Sites (1994) horn, violoncello 18 /1994
metaxy 1 (1995) experimental music-theatre solo for singing-/speaking voice/performance (texts taken from dreams and experiences by the singer/performer) free /1996
Vahide (1995) solo for singing violoncellist 19 /1995
ekloge (1996/97) mezzo-soprano, viola, guitar, percussion (text: Virgil) 10 /1997
frango phragmón (1996/97) accordion 5 /1997
Ashra (1997) experimental music-theatre for singing-/speaking voice (1), speaking voice/performance (1), percussionists (2) (text: Kabir) 89 /1997
Sommerregen (1997) choir (text: Thomas Bernhard) 6
Skira (1997) flute, violoncello, accordion 14 /1997
the garden of flowers (1997) mezzo-soprano (text: Kabir) 10 /1997
pandory (1997) marimba, piano 13 /1998
Spirkel (1998) theatre-music for oboe, horn 13 /1998
exilata (1998) soprano, clarinet (text: Emile M. Cioran) 5 /1998, also for soprano, flute /2013, and for soprano, bassoon
asphodels 1-7 (1999) trumpet, possibly amplified 4 /1999
Fresko - Crocifissione (1999) large orchestra 7
sum1999mer (1999) experimental piece for violin 10 /1999
sum1999mer 1 - 8* (99 / 00) experimental pieces for violin /trombone /(mezzo-) soprano /bass- voice (Goethe) /piano / flute /guitar /clarinet free /since 1999
Postkarte - Erzengel-Michael-Teppich (2000) based on a carpet from the Domschatz Halberstadt, the motive of a postcard received from Peter Ablinger, for large ensemble: 2 fl, ob, 2 cl, bass, horn, trp, trb, tuba, sax, harp, piano, 2 perc,2 vl, 2vla, 2 vc, db 13
ver-blich (2001) double bass, sound processed in real time, electronics 14 /2002
Spur (2002/03) string trio (vl, vla, vc), 5 parts, studio recording by Ensemble Faktor3, Hamburg 2015, 15, rough mix: soundcloud
BerlinTaumel (2002/03) electronic composition, 10 parts 20 / Institute of Sonology, Den Haag, Acker Stadt Palast Berlin 2016
sum1999mer’ (1999/2004) for Hilary Jeffery, experimental piece for trombone, possibly electrified 9 /2004 / Amsterdam 2004
Schneefeld (2004) concert guitar, possibly electrified 5 /2005
asphodels 8-10 (2004) double-bass, possibly electrified 3 / 2012
perpetual (2005) harp, possibly electrified 8 /2005
Songs 2 (2004-2012) voice, piano / guitar or band 120 /2006-2012
Engel (2011) Scene f. harp, accordion and digital medium with voice (text: Lil Steen) 16 /2011
Totraum (in memoriam H.B.) (2011/12) violoncello 10 /2012
frango phragmón extended (1996/97 /2012) accordion, electronically reworked 10
Sites (new version) (1994 /2011/12) violoncello and horn 11 / 2012
d. o. a. r. (2010-2013) string-quartet with speaking voice
d. o. a. r. (2010/2013/2015) string-quartet with speaking voice, scenic version
hiddensee 2 for Roman Trekel and Isa von Wedemeyer (2013) baritone and cello (Text: Ulrike Draesner), commissioned by Bezirk Berlin-Steglitz-Zehlendorf / Berlin Schwartzsche Villa 2013
Songs 3 (2014-2015)
Three Early Fluxus Pieces ( ... / 2015)
Durcharbeiten - dedicated to Dieter Schnebel on the occasion of his 85th Geburtstag - for Anna Clementi and Ariane Jeßulat (2015) for a singer/speaker/performer and a pianist/speaker/performer, Berlin, Akademie der Künste 2015
Das Geräusch einer Hand denken (2015) scenic work, text score for trombone, saxophone, accordion, violin
Envelopes (1993/2016) new version: inspired and performed by Natalia Pschenitschnikowa, Berlin 2016, Unerhörte Musik
Frost Pattern - Eisblume (2016) for e guitar and bass flute with scenic elements, optionally performed with electronic sounds, planned for Darmstädter Ferienkurse 2016 and premiered in November 2019, Köln Alte Feuerwache, Trio NYT: Pavel Tseliapnou, Stephan Wolke, Emanuel Wittersheim
The Mark on the Wall (2003 / 2014 - 2017), musical theatre based on the short story of the same name by Virginia Woolf, 100 Min, world premieres in 2017-2018: concertante in London, Tete a Tete festival, scenic in Berlin, Acker Stadt Palast, and in Baden-Württemberg at Festival KlangHaus Ulm, funded by the LAFT and the ministery Baden-Württemberg
TRAILER based on an idea by Aniara Amos: youtube
Connecting… Scetch for 4 electric Organs and fixed electronics, Elisabethkirche Berlin, May 2017, Thomas Noll, Nathan Plante, Silke Lange, Sebastian Elikowski-Winkler und Ferdinand Breil, Elektronik
Koi (2017), Electronic Tape, Text: Anna Hetzer, Sprechstimme: Stepha Schweiger, Acker Stadt Palast Berlin 2017
Koi Song (2017), for Anna Clementi, Performance with Voice and Electronics, including fragments of Women s March by Ethel Smyth, Brasilien 2017, funded by the City of Berlin
Drunken Trees (2018), fixed electronic composition, commissioned by Pacifico Exercises, funded by INM Berlin, Acker Stadt Palast Berlin, March 2018
ver.blich (2001 / 2018), double bass and electronics, 2018 for Margarethe Maierhofer-Lischka and IKO loudspeaker, asigned by Peter Venus, reworked for musikprotokoll at Steirischer Herbst Graz, October 2018
Now I’m a Plant (2012-2018), Songs nach Katherine Mansfield, produziert von Hanno Leichtmann, CD 2019, Wien WOW-Signal, Graz Cafe Wolf, Moosburg Jazzclub Hirsch, 2019
Pas d Asphodeles (2017/18) for Nathan Plante, Trumpet and Electronic Tape
Take a Seat (2019), vocals and performance: Natalia Pschenitschnikowa, electronics, commissioned by Pacifico Exercises II, choreography and dance: Mariangela Tinelli, founded by INM Berlin, Acker Stadt Palast Berlin, april 2019
Rook Song (2019), for ensemble with electronics and video, commissioned by Pyramidale Berlin, September 2019, Ensemble via nova Weimar youtube
Rook Organ (2019), adaption of Rook Song for Thomas Noll, Orgel, November 2019, St. Emmaus Church Berlin
When I was a Bird (2017-2020), Songs based on Katherine Mansfield poems, produced by Pyrolator, CD, Vinyl 2020, Frannzclub Berlin / RBB, radioeins 2020