Festival Schedule

Festival Concept

Click photos to enlarge.

Andy Van Dinh was born in Medicine Hat and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He graduated with a BFA at the University of Calgary, and is currently enrolled in the MFA program at Hunter College in New York City, USA. His artworks have been selected to be included in exhibitions internationally and include a special commission for Nike’s 25th anniversary of the Air Max ’95 shoes.

Growing up, Kevin Schwenkler read music before words. He sang in church choir and was trained on the piano from an early age. This training was probably his most formative; much of his work as a composer stems from piano improvisation. As a teenager, Kevin trained on the clarinet, cello, and as a baritone. As much as his pieces explicitly reference all this classical training, they also reference his studies in mathematics, physics, and pedagogy. He pursued these in addition to music while getting his Bachelors at Hampshire College. During this time, he began to see a common thread of openness, experimentation, and subversion running through all compositional and performance practice. It is this thread which he wishes to continue to elaborate.

Harvey Goldman has created critically acclaimed work in the fields of ceramics, digital imaging, animation and music. He is founder of the Digital Media program at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. His work has been exhibited widely throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Ford Foundation and the Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities. Goldman's work is included in numerous private and public collections including the Iota Center for Visual Music, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Everson Museum of Art, Decordova Museum, Currier Museum of Art, and the Crocker Art Museum. His animations have been screened throughout the world including, the Smithsonian's Hirshhon Museum, the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the White Box Museum, Beijing, China. His interests include gardening, storytelling, world music, sound exploration, language development, writing systems and basketball. He resides in Dartmouth, Massachusetts with his wife and fellow artist, Deborah Coolidge.

Cristobal Catalan
is an award winning visualist, lecturer, researcher and artistic director. Working principally in theatre, film and photography, Cristobal's research and artistic interests look into issues of voyeurism, perspective, ethnography, medicine, emerging and new technology. Cristobal's works have been screened and exhibited widely in academic, art and commercial contexts, including MOMA, BBC, MTV, Canal+ and the Sky Arts Channel. His works have also been selected for numerous international film festivals, including London Soho Rushes, the International Film Festival of Cinematic Art and the London Spanish Film Festival. He is on the board of the Asia Ethnographic Film Festival and is published widely in both peer reviewed academic and commercial contexts, including the Lancet Medical Journal, Bright Lights Film Journal, The Guardian, Washington Post, South East Asian Studies Journal and the Financial Times. He has also chaired and curated events on intercultural mental health and technology at LSE and the University of London. Earlier in 2016 Cristobal conceptualised and co-curated the Youmanity Photography Competition in conjunction with the European Commission and the Royal Photography Society. He also co-paneled the Breaking the Chains 'Mental health in Asia' conference at the University of London with Dr Niall Boyce and Professor Simon Dein in Spring 2016.“

Martin Klusák is a young composer and sound artist based in Prague, Czech Republic, and currently is an MA degree student of composition at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Having started as a film score composer and sound designer, he gradually became focused on concert and experimental works. Symbolism and inspiration in film speech are often the common aspects of his compositions. So far he has cooperated with major Czech musical formations and productions (BERG new music orchestra, Prague Philharmonic Choir, Czech Radio, etc.) and his pieces have been performed in the UK, France, Germany, and other European countries, as well as in the United States. His projects suceeded in a range of competitions, such as selection of Phonurgia Nova Awards 2016 in Paris, first prizes of the Prague Philharmonic Choir’s competition (Prague, 2012) and of “Generace” - competition of the Janáček May Festival for young composers of the Visegrad countries (Ostrava, 2014), awards for the best Czech electroacoustic compositions in the Musica Nova Competition (Prague, 2011, 2014), the audience prize in the Berg Orchestra’s competition (Prague, 2013), and other. Films with his original scores have been screened at major film festivals around the world, such as most recently at the Quinzaine des réalizateurs in Cannes (Happy End, dir. Jan Saska, 2016). Currently he researches the audiovisual counterpoint and possible links and crossovers between musical composition and film. He is also a co-founder of Topos Kolektiv - a project that researches site-specific approaches to music. In August 2016, the Electronmusikstudion (EMS) in Stockholm was having Martin on an artistic residency, and in September 2016 his project Topos Kolektiv was invited to perform at the Neu Now festival for emerging artists in Amsterdam.

Jakub Rataj is a Czech composer of orchestral, chamber and electro-acoustic music. His work includes interactive sound installations and performances inspired by the human body, movement, breath, pulse and gesture. Jakub is a member of O.E.M. ARTS – a Czech art group comprising of and connecting contemporary artists from the fields of sound performance, animation, and light design – where he’s playing electric guitar and processing sound by using sensors.  His compositions have been performed on many concerts and festivals (France, Japan, Russia, Sweden, Austria ao.), he was commissioned by ensembles such as Orchestr Berg, Prague Modern, MoEns and has worked with Kifu Mitsuhashi, Pamelia Kurstin, Pierre Strauch, David Danel and many other outstanding musicians, various choreographers, film directors etc. He worked with Jihočeská Filharmonie, Filharmonie Pardubice, Soloist NNovgorog. Jakub won various prizes for his compositions (among others the main prize Nuberg in 2014 and 2015) and was selected for artistic residencies (Czech Centre: 2014 - Wien, 2015 - Madrid). In 2013-2014 he studied composition and new technology with Luis Naon at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris where he also had the chance to take classes with Frédéric Durieux, Yan Maresz, Oriol Saladriguez, Tom Mays, Yan Geslin and Claude Ledoux. Jakub was selected by the teachers of new technologies at CNSMDP to take part at the Journées Nationales de la Musique Electroacoustique in Chalon sur Saone in 2014. Jakub participated in the ISA Academy, where he studied with Isabel Mundry and other outstanding musicians. In the Czech Republic, he studied composition with Hanuš Bartoň (2010-15) at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague where he started his Phd studies this year with Luboš Mrkvička. In 2015 he started to work as sound designer and musical director in the Czech Radio (Český Rozhlas). In the same year he founded Ensemble Terrible - an ensemble of young musicians based at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. With this ensemble Jakub organizes concerts to open the gates of the academy and the new generation of composers towards the public. Here is Jakub's website.

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Camilla Hoitenga

Lenka Kozderková (Prague) is graduate of State Conservatory in Ostrava, Janacek´s Academy of Music and Performing Arts. She took part in several international courses of interpretation lead by Severino Gazzelloni, Maurice Bourgh, Sandor Vegh, Zuzana Ruzickova, Eli Eban. In 1994/95 she gained the annual scholarship of French government for the study at Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot at professor Christian Lardé. Since 1994 she has been a member of the Czech-French experimental group „Theatre Ensemble“ and of the musical-stage duo Goelan. Since 1995 she has been a member of the contemporary music ensemble Moens. She is a known interprete of contemporary music. She premiered many compositions of composers such as: Alois Piňos, Peter Graham, Jan Klusák, Ivana Loudová, Miroslav Pudlák, Hanuš Bartoň, Roman Zdeněk Novák, Arnošt Parsch, Michal Nejtek, Miroslav Srnka, Michal Rataj, Martin Marek, Sylva Smejkalová, Jaroslav Rybář, Pavel Zemek, Kateřina Růžičková, Lenka Kilic and some works were dedicated to her. She performs in the Czech Republic and abroad – France, Italy, USA, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Sweden, England. In 2007 she performed the Zeitmasse of Karlheinz Stockhausen at Carnegie Hall in New York. Since 1999 she has cooperated with the Foundation VIZE 97 of Dagmar and Václav Havel. She teaches at the Prague International Conservatory, International Mastercourse in Prague - Zbraslav and International Mastercourse in Teplice /Music without borders. 

Still from Wilks and Barrat-Due's
"One Man, Eight Cameras" film.

Click photos to enlarge.

Albert Bayona is a visual artist and cultural promoter. Since 1986 he has been engaged in teaching at the School of Arts Leandre Cristňfol in Lleida. He was the director of this School between 1995-2000. His arts works involve many different disciplines like paintings, drawing, photography, video, digital technology and music. Between 1986 and 2000 he participated in the organisation of the Grants “Entrega” that Lleida’s town hall was giving. In addition, he was the artistic director of the Periferiat’s Gallery, the Museum “el Roser” and finally codirector of the Animac Animation Festival. He has benefited from the grants of the Catalan government “Generalitat de Catalunya”. His works have been presented in Taipei Fine Arts, Art Center La Panera, Museum Abelló, la Caixa Fundation, Museum Jaume Morera, Center Lectura, Espai Guinovart, Museum Patio Herreriano, CentroCentro Cibeles, MACBA auditorium, MEIAC, PetitGaleria, Gallery Sebastiŕ Petit, Gallery 44, Galerie Wedding or Hangar. Albert has participated in the following festivals: ARCO, Videoformes, New York International Independent Film and Video Festival, Split International Festival of New Film, Festival Signes de Nuit, LOOP Festival, Instantes de Paisaje CDAN, Athens Digital Arts Festival, Hamaca – Museo Reina Sofía 2015, or Madatac 07. In 1985 Bayona received the second prize of the XXIV International drawing prize, Fundation Joan Miró for his work Variacions per a una estčtica racional (1984). Later on in his career, in 2008, his audiovisualMonday to Friday  (2008) was the winner of the Vasudha Prize for the best environmental short film at the International Film Festival of India-Goa.

Isandro Ojeda-García (1989) was born in Sevilla.  At the age of six he started studiying musical theory and singing with his mother. He quickly joined the C.P.M. Francisco Guerrero, where he learned to play the saxophone with Miguel Romero Morán and Alfonso Romero Ramirez. With this latter, he was later initiated to composition. He’s currently studying with Michael Jarrell, Luis Naón and Eric Daubresse in Geneva’s Haute École de Musique. He worked on masterclasses and workshops with composers as Martín Matalón, Gabriel Erkoreka and Iván Fedele, receiving at the same time counsels from emerging younger composers such as Alberto Bernal, Daniel Zea or Pierre Jodlowski. His music was recently selectionated and programmed in such events as Forum Wallis 2014,  the XIIth Festival de Música Espańola de Cádiz, Festival Mixtur 2015, Monaco Électroacoustique 2015 or XVIIth Foro Internacional de Música Nueva de México D.F.

Charles Nichols is a composer, violinist, and computer music researcher who explores the expressive potential of instrumental ensembles, computer music systems, and combinations of the two, for the concert stage, and collaborations with dance, video, and installation art.  He teaches Composition and Creative Technologies at Virginia Tech, is a Faculty Fellow of the Institute for Creativity Arts and Technology, and previously taught at the University of Montana. He has earned degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Yale University, and Stanford University, where he studied composition with Samuel Adler, Martin Bresnick, Jacob Druckman, and Jonathan Harvey, and computer music with Jonathan Berger, Chris Chafe, Max Mathews, and Jean-Claude Risset.  His recent premieres include What Bends, for electric violin and interactive computer music in 3D immersive audio, accompanying narrated poetry, motion capture dance, animation, and processed video in 360ş projection, Epimetheus Gift, for amplified bassoon and computer in 3D immersive audio, inspired by the Swedish extreme metal band Meshuggah, Beyond the Dark, ambient synthesized sound for installation art and 3D projection, and Nicolo, Jimi, and John, a three movement concerto, for amplified viola, orchestra, and computer, celebrating the virtuosity of Paganini, Hendrix, and Coltrane.

Jay Bruns is an abstract audio/visual artist from Missoula, MT. His primary focus is the intersection of color, texture, rhythm and movement. His audio work includes analog percussion and the use of found sounds and textures. Visually, he mixes elements of nature and contrasts them with color and synthetic landscapes. In 2016, Jay provided live visuals and electronics during a North American tour with his band Modality. Jay collaborates with a variety of other musicians and artists, providing album artwork, videos for live performance, and audio remixes. Jay posts new work daily online. For more information, visit nojayart.com. Performed by Charles Nichols and Jay Bruns, at the Root Signals Festival, in Carter Recital Hall, at Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA, February 10, 2017.

Naren Wilks is an artist who creates short films, music videos and interactive artworks in order to explore an obsession with rotational symmetry. He has pioneered an image-making technique which involves the recording of live action from the combined perspectives of a multiple camera setup, to create a mind bending kaleidoscopic vision. His short films and music videos have picked up awards at film festivals worldwide. He was born in Yeovil in 1985 and lives in Bristol. 

Peder Barratt-Due is a composer and violinist, his young career includes highlights like solo violinist in the production of the opera Pollicino by H.W. Henze at the Norwegian Opera and Ballet (2009), national and international tours with the chamber orchestra Oslo Camerata and the Barratt Dues Junior Orchestra, first price as well as Musician of the Year at the Norwegian National Competition for Young Musicians (2011) and the scholars assignment award at Berklee College of Music (2016). As a recent composer he has had success having had his first orchestral debut with the piece Ulvetid, performed by Arctic Philharmonics (February, 2017). One Man, Eight Cameras being performed at Matera Intermedia (December 2016), NSEME2017 (March 2017) and Fagerborg Festspillene (April 2017), and his piece Fireflies for two violas scheduled to be premiered in Oslo, Norway (April 2017).

Still from Abbott's "Ways of Kissing" film.

Gabrielle Abbott is a multi-media artist from Seattle whose work explores feminism, sexuality and social justice. Her film “Ways of Kissing” examines intimacy in the public realm and explores how daily activities can be an artistic practice.  Abbott holds an MFA from University of the Arts, London and is a lecturer of Socially Engaged Art and Drawing at Antioch University, Seattle. In addition to directing the film, she performs in it alongside Barnaby Brookman a professional actor from Bristol, UK, known for his comedic and musical abilities. His recent projects include “No Point” a parody of the sports industry, and “Last Show Tonight” an original rock musical written and performed by Mr. Brookman. He is also the lead singer for the experimental punk band “Kichigai.”

Jue Wang (China) is a pianist and composer based in New York City. She is the founder and the artistic director of It’s A Secret Performance – a theater group that works on immersive music theater performances with surround sound system. Jue’s recent music compositions often combine of acoustic instrumental sound and pre-recorded electronic music. Through frequently presenting raw and physical sound materials in unusual close-up performance spaces, Her work intend to stimulate a sense of intimacy for the audience, which addresses the dialectic relationship between private and public in a performance. Apart from her sonic experiments, Jue’s recent compositions have been focusing on expanding the visual and the theatrical dimension of musical performance. Jue explores dramatic forms of performance including object-oriented performance, magic shows, sound sculptures and videos.  Her ongoing immersive theatrical project series, titled Bedroom Performances, intend to bring together all these theatrical and magical elements in the most immersive sense. Jue’s another focus is to work on experimental music performances with children in the age range from 6 to 12 years old. As a Ph.D. student, her academic research examines children’s relationship to abstract sound and experimental music. She seeks more opportunities to bring young performers and young audiences into the realm of experimental music. Jue has been honored with performances of her music throughout China, United States and Europe by ensembles including Jack Quartet, Talea ensemble, Momenta Quartet, Loadbang, Orchestra of the League of Composers, Krulik Quartet. She has also worked with established solo performers such as Thomas Buckner, Miranda Cuckson and William Lang. A review by Cleveland Classical in 2012 has described her as “having a sensitive ear and original voice … surely someone we will be hearing much about in the future”. In the same year, her chamber opera, Scholar, Monk, Snake, was selected by the Center for Contemporary Opera to be performed in NYC. Jue received her B.M. degree at Oberlin Conservatory and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at New York University. Vimeo

David Means' (Minneapolis) graphic scores, installations and performance systems have been exhibited and presented by the Walker Art Center, IRCAM, Documenta IX, the Xi An Conservatory of Music (China), Het Stroomhuis (Holland), Logos Foundation (Belgium) and the Arts Council of Great Britain. He is currently an Associate Professor of Media and Fine Arts and producer of the Strange Attractors Festival of Experimental Intermedia Art at Metropolitan State University. David contributed greatly to Echofluxx 12 as a technician, performer, U-Stream interviewer and video-photo documentarian for Echofluxx 12-17 See David's site here.

Dan Senn (Prague-Wisconsin) is an intermedia artist working in music composition, kinetic sound sculpture, experimental and documentary film. He has been a professor of music and art in the United States and Australia. Dan travels internationally as a lecturer, performer and installation artist living in Prague where he directs the Echofluxx festivals, and Watertown, Wisconsin, the USA, with his partner- collaborator, Caroline Senn. Dan's work moves freely between expressive extremes and languages depending upon the aesthetic joust at hand. He studied music (composition, French Horn, conducting) and art (ceramics) at the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse with Truman Daniel Hayes, Leonard Stach and William Estes, and at the University of Illinois, Urbana (composition), with Salvatore Martirano, Ben Johnston and Herbert Brün. His music is published by Smith Publications of Baltimore. His work for "Any Three Treble Instruments In the Same Key," called "Rivus," was released in 2015 by Ravello Records, along with works by Scotto and Cage and performed by the McCormick Percussion Group. In 2017 his work "Four Psams Modal" was premiered by the Kuhn Choir of Prague, and his "Seven for Piano" was premiered in February 2017 by Caroline Senn in Wisconsin. Dan founded Newsense-Intermedium of Tacoma, Washington, and cofounded Roulette Intermedium of New York City. He is the artistic director of Echofluxx which he cofounded along with Anja Kaufmann in 2011.

Opening Performance Orchestra

“We are living in a period in which many people have changed their mind about what the use of music is or could be for them. Something that doesn't speak or talk like a human being, that doesn't know its definition in the dictionary or its theory in the schools, that expresses itself simply by the fact of its vibrations. People paying attention to vibratory activity, not in reaction to a fixed ideal performance, but each time attentively to how it happens to be this time, not necessarily two times the same. A music that transports the listener to the moment where he is.” John Cage (1989)

Susan Hefner and Michael Evans

a
Still from Cristobal Catalan's "No Man's Land."


Click photos to enlarge.

Elisabeth Ajtay was born and raised behind the iron curtain and growing up in Western Germany, Elisabeth Ajtay is a conceptual artist primarily working in photography. Her work reflects and questions western culture with themes related to advertising, the psychological impacts of technology and the notion of home. Her multi-facetted practice is a reflection on her translation from growing up in, and, constantly moving between two different systems. Ajtay's work is in numerous private collections. She has exhibited throughout Europe and in the US, including inSPIRACJE and Art Moves Festival in Poland, Goethe Institutes in Morocco, Prague, New York and France. Museum shows include the MKK - Museum for Art and Cultural History Dortmund, Germany and Blue Star Contemporary in San Antonio, Texas. Most recently she has exhibited with Alter Space and Savernack Street in San Francisco, CA. The Ministry of Education and Training of Northrhine-Westphalia is working with her series “Zuhause/At Home” for educational purposes, encouraging dicsussions about the notion of belonging and nationality. Ajtay received a diploma in communications design from the University of Applied Sciences Dortmund and a MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute.

Brigid Burke is an Australian composer, performance artist, clarinet soloist, visual artist, video artist and educator whose creative practice explores the use of acoustic sound and technology to enable media performances and installations that are rich in aural and visual nuances. Her work is widely presented in concerts, festivals, and radio broadcasts throughout Australia, Asia, Brazil, Europe and the USA. Recently she has been a recipient of an Australia Council Project Music Fellowship & new work commissions ‘Coral Bells’ & “Instincts and Episodes’ also Artist in Resident at Marshall University USA with a Edwards Distinguished Professor Artist Residency 2015 &17with ensemble BHZ, Indiana University but  and ADM NTU Singapore. Also recently she presented works on the Big screen at Federation Square Melbourne, Tilde Festival, ABC Classic FM, International Media Festival Echofluxx in Prague and Generative Art Festivals GA19 Italy. She has a PhD in Composition from UTAS The University of Tasmania and a Master of Music in Composition from The University of Melbourne.

(Click on artist for sound/video)

Phill Niblock (New York-Ghent)
Bob Ostertag (San Francisco)
Jaap Blonk (Holland)
Joanna Hoffmann (Berlin-Poznan)
David Danel (Prague) performing works by
MAREK, CAGE, RNKA, FELDMAN and RATAJ.
Jakub Rataj (Prague) with Helena Šťávová
(Prague) and Markéta Jandová (Prague).
Echofluxx Ensemble performing the
vs. Intrepretation book (Agosto Foundation)
with David Means (Minneapolis), Oscar
Kubica (Prague), Michael Karman (Spain)
and Ladislav Železny (Prague).

See photo documentation of E15!

(Click on artist for sound/video)

Echofluxx Ensemble, David Means, Director
Lucie Vítková, solo performance
John Keston, solo performance
Lenka Kozderková, work by Dan Senn
Lenka Kozderková, work by Lucie Vítková
Lenka and Markéta 1 of 2, ensemble work
Lenka and Markéta 2 of 2, ensemble work
Agnes Kutas 1 of 2, solo performance
Agnes Kutas 2 of 2, solo performance
Brigid Burke, solo performance
Phaerentz, solo performance
Dariusz Mazurowski, solo performance
Michal Kindernay, solo performance
Mark Zanter, solo performance
Puppenklinik Installation, Diana Winklerová
& Dan Senn (sound only)