Cultural Practitioners
Artists, scientists and community members
Adrian Ivaniţchi (Sighişoara)
Adrian Ivaniţchi organises and directs cultural projects with young people at the Interethnic Educational Youth Center in Sighişoara. He was the director of a private TV studio, was music consultant for the Romanian national broadcasting association, selected content for a range of music programmes, and has worked as a set designer, tennis coach and language teacher. Adrian Ivanitchi is also a musician, and plays guitar and piano.
Go back.
Alexandru Barabaş (Sighişoara)
Alexandru Barabaş has worked as a conductor and performing musician in Romania on projects including appearances with the state ensemble "Alba Julia“ and for local and national TV, and has been involved in musical performances for radio and TV broadcasts. He plays the violin, and performs in Transylvania with his bands at weddings and other festivities.
Go back.
Bilen Işiktaş
Born in 1980 in Istanbul, Bilen Işiktaş completed his primary and secondary education there. His first encounter with the oud was in 1996, when he took oud lessons under the supervision of Cengiz Sarıkuş from Veysel Music House in Aksaray (Istanbul). He advanced his abilities on the instrument in self-study until 1999 when he met with the oud composer Polat Tezel, whose style he adopted, and continued to pursue his studies independently until 2002. In that year, the guidance of Esin Şentürk, one of the lecturers in the Department of Voice at ITU State School of Art for Turkish Music, enabled Bilen Işiktaş to receive oud lessons from Ertan Özkaya, a lecturer at the same conservatory.
In the same year, he met Yurdal Tokcan, whom he regards as his idol, and benefited extensively from his expertise in many subjects. In terms of performing a piece of composition, Bilen Işiktaş adopts Tokcan’s musical approach; his meeting with Tokcan thus played a significant role in his musical life. He has studied the art of creating advanced and rare sounds on the instrument, including its fifth octave, and has embarked on a methodological study of playing positions he developed himself.
In 2003, Bilen Işiktaş was accepted at the Departments of Foundation Studies and Voice at ITU State School of Art for Turkish Music. While studying here, he received lessons in musical theory and oud from Osman Nuri Özpekel and Mehmet Bitmez, and studied the works of masters including Muhiddin Targan, Nevres Bey and Yorgo Bacanos under these teachers. In 2004, Bilen Isiktas performed on stage in Switzerland with world-famous oud artist Mahmoud Turkmani and guitar tutor Markus Plattner, both lecturers at Bern Conservatory. In the same year he formed the band “3DEM” with Sami Dural and Bekir Şahin Baloglu, and has given numerous concerts with these partners in addition to many appearances as an accompanist. In 2005, he started the Dual Major Program in Voice Education at ITU State School of Art for Turkish Music, where he is studying today.
Go back.
Daniela Mayrlechner
Daniela Mayrlechner, born in 1983 in Henndorf am Wallersee, began to study concert flute at the University Mozarteum Salzburg in 2002. She has lived and studied in Vienna since 2003, graduating from the University of Music and Performing Arts in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in instrumental and vocal instruction. With traditional music and ethnomusicology as part of her studies, she took part in field research in Austria, Lithuania and Albania and is currently about to complete her Diplom course; her thesis examines the opportunities for the application and use of traditional music within the scope of institutional instrumental instruction. In addition to activities as a tutor for flute, Schwegel (traditional form of the transverse flute) and zither at numerous seminars and further education courses, she is also a member of the musicians’ workshop Glatt & Verkehrt and a Schwegel tutor at the Institute of Traditional Music Research and Ethnomusicology at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Since her work as a musician and teacher focuses on free music-making in the field of traditional music, she can often be found at musicians’ sessions.
Go back.
Alessandro Ginevri
Born 1980 in Genoa, Alessandro Ginevri began his musical career as a self-taught guitarist before studying classical transverse flute at the Philharmonic Society “G. Rossini” in Recco (near Genoa), followed by private study of the transverse flute and harmonic jazz. He completed courses in transverse jazz flute held by the musician Michele Gori, as well as many other courses in Afro-Cuban melody, Latin America folklore, Latin jazz and the folklore of Southern Italy such as “pizzica”, “tammurriata” and “taranta”.
Alessandro Ginevri participated in the cultural project “Nversi”, the product of a collaboration between the poet Marco Carbone and the musician and producer Roberto Gabrielli blending Genoese popular poetry with reggae. During this project, he released the record “Tra u marcu e l’anchizze”, on which he played transverse flute and trombone. The recording was a work of research on the Genoese language, which retains numerous “Creole” words with their origins in ancient contacts and exchanges among foreign cultures. Alessandro Ginevri formed the musical group “Yattaman” with the aim of re-examining Jamaican music (ska, reggae and rocksteady) from the European point of view. In this group he was the vocalist and flute player and wrote lyrics which were set to music. In addition to “Yattaman”, he plays with other bands including “Jam in all”, “Bandog” and “The Vicious”. He currently plays transverse flute in a quartet which arranges Latin American pieces in a new lounge style.
At Genoa’s Apollo Studio, Alessandro Ginevri composed and recorded music for satellite TV commercials, played transverse flute on the mini-CD “P.O.P. ep” by hiphop ensemble “Zero Plastica”, and composed and played music in the short film “Deus ex machina”. He also holds guitar and singing workshops in primary schools in Genoa, adopting a playful approach to teaching music.
Alessandro Ginevri is currently learning piccolo as an autodidact.
Go back.
Josef Zapf
“If the people don’t come to the music, the music has to come to the people”– a philosophy that, far from mere lip service, is lived and breathed by Josef Zapf, a self-confessed practising “pub musician”. The clarinettist plays the music of the people: Bavarian and international, traditional and modern. A musical builder of understanding between nationalities, he is both cosmopolitan and thoroughly Bavarian.
Go back.
Maria Hafner (Munich)
Maria Hafner is a member of the traditional group Zwirbeldirn, which won the Traditional Music Award of Theater im Fraunhofer, Munich. She was a scholarship holder at the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation “Live music now” with the traditional group HahnImKorb, participated in the 2008 Summer Academy for Bavarian Folk Theatre and is a member of the free theatre group Theater ImPuls. Maria Hafner plays violin and viola, piano, viola da gamba, clarinet, trumpet and accordion. She studied speech and speech training at the Stuttgart Conservatory of Music and Performing Arts and music teaching (specialising in violin) at Munich Conservatory of Music and Theatre. Maria Hafner works as a musician, actress and speech trainer.
Go back.
Matteo Haitzmann (Vienna)
Matteo Haitzmann, born in 1990 and the youngest MakingMusician, plays fiddle whenever he can: at music sessions, in the theatre, for the Austrian Embassy in Ankara, at festivals from Switzerland to Slovenia, in churches, on the street, at weddings – and at MakingMusi Hoagartn. His interests are music, dance and other cultures.
Go back.
Sebastian Meier (Munich)
Born in Hirschau in 1982, Sebastian Meier began to play tenor horn in the local brass band at the age of six. He began attending traditional music seminars held by the society for local traditions in 1996 and founded his first traditional band, “Hoibruckmusi”, in 1998. After completing training as a brass instrument maker in 1999, he worked for a Munich company in this capacity until 2008, joining Bavarian musicians’ group Niederbayerischer Musikantenstammtisch in 2003, the Munich group Landlergschwister in 2005 and the Balkan brass band Kein Vorspiel in 2007. After moving away from Munich in 2008 he is now a freelance master brass instrument maker in the Oberpfalz region and farmer.
Go back.
Sophie Rastl (Vienna)
Born in 1983, Sophie Rastl grew up in Styria and trained as a graphic designer before embarking on the study of musicology in Vienna in 2005. Her interest in traditional music arose in the summer of 2002 when she visited a Styrian musicians’ festival in Johnsbach im Gesäuse. “I was impressed by the approach to this form of making music and began to learn guitar, double-bass and viola, also discovering a passion for yodelling. I’ve been learning violin for a year now”, she explains. For the past two years Sophie Rastl has directed a yodelling group in Vienna and takes part in seminars in Austria and abroad (Denmark, Slovenia, Ireland). Her aim is to foster her own traditional music and pass it on, both in authentic form and modified in various ways. She is a member of numerous ensembles including Fensageiger (dance music from the Ausseerland region), The perfect styrian sound ramblaz (9-strong traditional music orchestra) and Salzbäuerinnen (string quartet playing traditional music).
Go back.
Tatiana Zakharova (Genoa)
Singer, musician and soprano. Born in Valday, Russia, in 1974 Tatiana Zakharova concluded the secondary school and, after that, the School of Music in Russia. She graduated at the Conservatory in Tver with full marks getting also a specialization in Conductor of choirs. In 1993 she moved to Moscow where she studied the Russian Romances (brief love songs sung in the Russian salon between 800 and 900). In 1998 she won the national competition for salon music in Vladimir. From 1997 to 2001 she recorded two Russian Romances CD’s. From 2001 she began travelling in Europe as busker accompanying herself on her guitar. In 2005 she attended the classes at the “Niccolò Paganini” Conservatory in Genoa to study singing and opera with Carmen Vilalta and Gloria Scalchi. Since 2006 she is collaborating with Chance Eventi and the Suq Festival for musical events and training courses.
Go back.
Cristian Cercel (Romania)
Cristian Cercel, born in 1984, studied European studies, cultural management and political philosophy at Bucharest University in Romania before completing a one-year master’s programme on the theme of nationalism studies at Central European University, Budapest. He submitted a master’s thesis in 2007 on “The identity of the German minority in Transylvania between 1933 and 1945”, for which he received a research fellowship at the Institute of German Culture and History in South-East Europe at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich. Prior to this he was an Erasmus Foundation scholar in Florence in 2004 and received a one-year grant from Theodor-Heuss-Kolleg in Berlin (2007/2008).
Cristian Cercel has translated many (specialist) articles and books from German into Romanian (including works by Marius Babias and Georg Simmel). He was editor of the weekly Bucharest cultural magazine Observator cultural from October 2007 to September 2008. In January 2009 he took up PhD studies at the Political Science Department of the University of Durham, UK, for a thesis provisionally entitled “The image of the German minority in Romanian society”.
Go back.
Michele Maschi (Genoa)
From frame drums to Afro-Cuban percussion instruments - Michele Maschi has the beat. The Genoese percussionist is as much at home with traditional Italian instruments as with their more exotic cousins. He studied percussion 4 years with the musician Marco Fossati and 1 year with the musician Corrado Sezzi focusing on Latin American rhythms. At present, he is finishing a 2 year-research study on drums techniques and rhythms in central and southern Italian traditional music.
Michele Maschi plays in several bands in various associations and clubs both in Genoa and in other Italian cities: Free Folk Ensemble, Burundanga, La Malacrianza, Pizzicamuffati, and Trio Freschezza.
Go back.
Devrim Lüküslü (Istanbul)
Devrim Lüküslü, born in 1981, first studied law at Bilgi University, Istanbul, before deciding to switch his focus to communication studies. In addition to numerous photographic courses he has taken, he is currently preparing for graduation from Yeditepe University, Istanbul, where he is enrolled in a special master’s program for radio, TV and cinema. Devrim Lüküslü also works at IZ TV, Turkey’s first documentary channel.
Go back.
Demet Lüküslü (Istanbul)
Demet Lüküslü, born in 1977, is a lecturer in sociology at Yeditepe University, Istanbul. After graduating from the French-speaking Department of Politics and Administrative Studies at Marmara University, Istanbul, in 2000, she received a grant for further studies in Paris at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and completed her M.A. in sociology there in 2001.
Go back.
Jane Woddis (Birmingham)
Jane Woddis, a cultural scientist from Birmingham (UK), first studied English and education at Cardiff and Birmingham and spent almost two decades in a range of community art and schools projects before deciding to return to studying. She gained her PhD from the University of Warwick Centre for Cultural Policy Studies in 2005. Jane Woddis has a wealth of experience in socio-cultural fields (community arts, theatre-in-education) and most recently was a director at Birmingham’s Big Brum Theatre. A further area of focus was her academic work in the field of cultural policy; she has specialised in the interaction between art and local policy, particularly in developments in art education and the theatre and the role of cultural practitioners in civil society.
Go back.
Dominik Nostitz (Wien)
Dominik Nostitz is a musician, cultural manager and curator whose work includes the development of concepts and ideas, organization, project management, performances, presentation, etc. He currently lives in Vienna, Austria.
Dominik Nostitz is the founder and director of the verein08, a cultural initiative and compact performance space in the 8th district of Vienna where a programme of performances, interviews and project demonstrations is presented on Thursdays in a highly intimate “living-room” atmosphere which harks back to the “salon” tradition. verein08 is open to the public. Artists appearing may come from all over the world and work in different genres including music, film, theatre or literature.
Go back.
Michael Fischer (Wien)
Michael Fischer is an instrumentalist, composer and conductor at the intersection of improvised music, new music and sound art, incorporating feedback as an integral textural element; works with saxophone, violin and radio studio setups examine the linguistic immanence of musical material; conducting projects and projects which redefine the borders of categorisation; initiator of the Vienna Improvisers Orchestra; festival invitations to Europe and Japan, presentations at Brussels Academy/Arts, Amsterdamse Hogeschool/Kunsten, MAK/Vienna; ensemble partnerships with William Parker, Irene Schweizer, Rozemarie Heggen, John Edwards, Phil Durrant, Luc Ex, Tamaho Myake, Daisuke Terauchi and many more. Projects in literature, dance, performance, fine arts, film/video, social sciences; Japan 2007 Tour incl. conducting works at CM-Festival/Shiga, conducting projects with FOCO Orchestra at Festival Internacional de Improvisación, Madrid 2008.
Go back.
Tibi Gheza
Born in 1970, Tibi Gheza is a vocal and instrumental performer in the Romanian cultural scene.
Go back.
Ian Chapman (Birmingham)
Ian Chapman lives in Birmingham, where he has worked as a musician and composer for many years. He works with young people in deprived areas of Birmingham and teaches music at a number of schools in the city. In the schools project PIPE UP 2 he worked with pupils to design organ-like instruments which were played in a performance at the Birmingham Symphony Hall. Ian Chapman was musical director of Pied Piper Performance (2003), composed music for SPNM’s Sound Inventors Scheme, worked as a musician with the disabled persons’ music project StrikeAChord and is a partner of MUSO (Midlands Unconventional Sound Orchestra), where he holds “junk percussion workshops” and designs sound sculptures. His own musical projects have been nominated for a host of awards including the COMA Open Score Composition Prize (2004) and UK & EIRE COMPOSITION PLATFORM (2001). At the Codsall Millennium Arts Festival Competition (2000) he received a Highly Commended in the Award for MM for Open Ensemble. Ian Chapman plays brass, guitar, brass instruments, keyboards and gamelan, and sings.
Go back.
Chris Bolton (Birmingham)
Chris Bolton has received his BA in Drama & Theatre Studies with English Literature, his MA in Performance Research & Practice and his PGCE– Secondary Drama at Chester University. Since then he has been working as drama teacher in various schools. He is now Advanced Skills Teacher of Drama at Golden Hillock School. Within MELT he has been working together with the Gratia Deledda Ensemble from Genoa to develop the theatre piece “Journey of a Migrant” which was performed both in Birmingham and Genoa.
Go back.
Deledda Ensemble
The Deledda Linguistic High School in Genoa has long devoted itself to didactic research focusing on expressive activities (acting – music – singing –dancing).
Its aim is to develop the integration between foreign language studies and a good knowledge of methods of expressive communication - an indispensable experience in shaping versatile, creative and authentic students. To pursue this objective an Arts & Sports Centre, the Gratia Deledda Ensemble, was formed, which provides a valuable opportunity for social and cultural integration.
The Gratia Deledda Ensemble was recently involved in the EU Project “MELT – Migration in Europe and Local Tradition”, and supported exchanges with students from Golden Hillock School in Birmingham. The outcome of this collaboration is “Journey of a Migrant”, a drama piece performed in Birmingham as well as during the Suq Festival 2009 in Genoa.
Go back.
Carla Peirolero
Carla Peirolero studied acting at the Scuola di Recitazione del Teatro Stabile di Genova and received a degree in sociology (thesis on “Theatrality in Everyday Life”) from the Political Science Faculty in Genoa. She founded Teatro dell’Archivolto with other actors and artists and worked from 1982 to 1985 with Teatro Stabile di Genova and Compagnia Granteatro under Carlo Cecchi. In 1985 and 1986 Carla Peirolero worked for the Head of Programming at RAI di Genova in the Programme Structure department. She was a member of the ensemble at Teatro della Tosse from 1986/87 and appeared regularly there until 2003. In 1999 she and Valentina Arcuri founded the association “Associazione Chance Eventi”, with which she stages theatre pieces and events including the direction of the Suq Festival in Genoa.
Go back.
Davide Ferrari (Genoa)
Born in Milan in 1963 and now based in Genoa, Davide Ferrari studied music therapy in Turin and pursued specialist studies at the Musicology Institute of Milan.
Davide Ferrari teaches ethnomusicology for music therapy and improvisational music for music therapy at institutions in Rome, Udine, Turin and Genoa. In the course of his research into ethnomusicology, he has realised studies and projects with musicians from all over the world.
Davide Ferrari was director of the 1992 Festival Musicale del Mediterraneo and directed traditional music projects in various theatres from 1997. From 2004 he has been co-curator of Museo delle Musiche dei Popoli at Castello d’Albertis in Genoa. Also in 2004, he was co-director (with Fura dels Baus) of “ON NAUMON”, the opening show for Genoa’s European Capital of Culture celebrations, with an audience of 140,000.
Davide Ferrari has released an array of publications (most recently the CD Imani Ngoma – Zanzibar, Medesign Music 04 Echo Art, Gnawa Bambara; book + CD “Musica, rito e aspetti terapeutici nella cultura mediterranea”, edition Erga; and contributions to “Di tanti palpiti” by Marco Jacoviello and “Manual of Music Therapy” by G.Manarolo) and has composed extensively for dance and theatre, including “Isole Sonore” ambient music at the Parc of Modern Art Gallery and at Museo delle Culture del Mondo, Castello d’Albertis.
Davide Ferrari has worked in music therapy at a rehabilitation centre since 1992 and joined Hospital San Martino in Genoa in 2006, offering music therapy for cancer sufferers. In addition, he is curator of the project Centre of Music Therapy for Orphan Children in Sarajevo, Bosnia.
He collaborates with numerous associations including Emergency and Survival International, organising events to support social projects around the world.
Go back.
La Banda di Piazza Caricamento
The “Piazza Caricamento” band is a musical project with a strong social focus, itself a result of the influence of ethnic sounds generated by a long-standing immigration process started in Italy 20 years ago. The band, an idea of Davide Ferrari, President of the “Echo Art” association, came into being thanks to the support of the Arts Council of the Municipality of Genoa.
It represents a new opportunity to improve dialogue and exchange opportunities among the different cultures coexisting in Genoa while at the same time offering alternative ways to encounter, enrich and promote them. It is an “open” project which brings together different ethnic groups and musical styles, collecting the energy of young immigrants who are used to mixing their traditional languages with the urban slang of the city’s natives. The “Piazza Caricamento” band could become the artistic symbol of a new concept of creativity and cultural metamorphosis, contributing to the recognition of Genoa as a city of multi-ethnic art, as an expression of peaceful co-existence.
The band was created by a selection of young musicians from foreign countries. Its members are Yana Odintsova (Russia – voice and dance), Smail Maarouf (Morocco – percussion), Rachid Hani (Morocco - keyboard, percussion, voice), Issam Boulakchrour (Morocco - darbouka, voice), Abd el-rrazaq El-Aidi (Morocco – percussion), Albert Sardei (Italy/ Rwanda – voice), Olmo Manzano Anorus (Mexico/ Italy – Afro-Cuban percussion), Marasinha Siriwardana Kasun Dias (Ceylon – percussion), Kai Kundrat (Germany - bass, sax, percussion), Laura Gonçalves (Brazil – voice), Elias Salvini (Brazil - percussion, trumpet, voice), Pape Ndong (Senegal – percussion), Alessandra Ravizza (Italy – voice), Nadeshwari Joythimayananda (India – dance, voice), Cheikh Sadibou Fall (Senegal - djembe, kora, voice), Ash Arop Lombardo (Sudan/ Italy – dance, percussion), Davide Ferrari (Italy- artistic direction).
Go back.
Clare Edwards
Clare is a freelance music consultant who specialises in running projects that foster new collaborations and partnerships. She currently works for a number of clients from both the music education world and the music industry.
Clare is a regional councillor of the Arts Council of England, is Chair of Sound It Out Community Music and on the boards of Moby Duck, Birmingham International Jazz Festival and Black Voices.
Clare is Director of the Gigbeth music festival and conference and was previously director of the community arts organisation artSites Birmingham.
Clare is a Governor at her local primary school and has an active musical life as the music director of Notorious choir and a soprano in Ex Cathedra.
Clare is the overall winner of Birmingham Young Professional of the Year 2007 and UK Young Music Entrepreneur 2008.
Go back.
Familienmusik Servi
Nikolaus Servi (father) is an IT engineer by profession. He began to play the hammer dulcimer at the age of nine (4 years of tuition), followed by two years of guitar tuition from the age of 13. He is a self-taught Styrian accordion and jews harp player and sings couplets in the Bavarian tradition.
Gertraud Servi (mother) is a qualified chemist. She began to learn guitar and hammer dulcimer at the age of 22 and began harp lessons at Eching Music School at the age of 28. She also plays Raffele and Scherrzither – historic instruments that were the precursors of today’s zither.
Johannes Servi (born 1991) began to play hammer dulcimer at the age of 5 ¼, moving to the diatonic accordion at the age of nine. He has attended Camerloher Musical Grammar School in Freising since 2001, with the hammer dulcimer as his main instrument. Johannes also plays Hölzernes Glachter, a rare Alpine xylophone, in addition to double bass and harp. He also enjoys athletics and juggling.
Leonhard Servi (born 1993) began to play hammer dulcimer at the age of 6, changing to brass instruments in third grade. Since the age of nine he has learnt trumpet with the famous concert trumpeter Manfred Niezgoda. Leonhard joined Camerloher Musical Grammar School in 2003. He also plays tenor horn, flügelhorn, double bass and piano. When he is not playing music, he enjoys football and juggling.
In 2001 Familienmusik Servi received the cultural award of the Freising region for services to traditional music. In 2005 the Servis won third prize in the traditional music competition in Wolnzach, Hallertau, and were nominated for the Fraunhofer Traditional Music Award in Munich in 2008. Familienmusik Servi plays in various line-ups at traditional music festivals (Drumherum in Regen, Dellnhauser Volksmusikfest in Au i.d. Hallertau), at Hoagartn, concerts, festivities (weddings, birthdays) of all kinds and at church events and ceremonies.
Go back.
Siegfried Haglmo (Munich)
Siegfried Haglmo is a musician, lyricist and composer primarily working in the field of alternative traditional music. His first contact with traditional music was through playing with his family; he learnt accordion from his father. Later he extended his musical experience as a singer and bass player in rock bands. Siegfried Haglmo has been involved in the alternative traditional music scene since 1994 as a member of bands including “Hundsbuam Miserablige” (1994 – 2004) and “Edelschwarz”. He has worked with Monika Drasch since 2004 on projects including a literary and musical programme on the life of Bavarian writer Emerenz Meier (1874 – 1956).
Go back.
Marco Jovanovic (Munich)
Marco Jovanovic was born in Serbia. After training as an electrical engineer, he became a professional musician at the national broadcasting association in Novi Sad in 1981, and until 1989 was a permanent member and Primaš of a tamburica orchestra, occasionally also performing as a soloist. In 1989 he moved to Munich and founded the tamburica trio “Šajka”, performing regularly at weddings and festivities and for broadcasts by the Bavarian Broadcasting Association. Marco Jovanovic spent two-and-a-half years as a stage musician at Munich’s Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz.
Go back.
Christa Jovanovic (Munich)
Christa Jovanovic is originally from Griesbach/ Rottal in Lower Bavaria. She studied at Plattling Music Vocational College from 1979 to 1981 and subsequently joined Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich, studying zither and harp (focusing on traditional music) with clarinet as a subsidiary. She has been a member of “Hirschenkreuther Tanzlmusi” since 1983. In 1984 she took part in the Novi Sad folklore festival organised by all broadcasting associations of the Danube countries. Christa Jovanovic has taught at the City of Munich Music School and Ingolstadt Music School since 1985. With her husband Marco she is a regular performer at Hoagartn and broadcasts by the Bavarian Broadcasting Association.
Go back.
Andrea Huber(Munich)
The photographer and film-maker was born in 1969 in Trostberg and has lived in Munich since 1990. She studied social education and photographic design in Munich, was a refugee aid worker and freelance photographer and completed numerous film and photography projects on the theme of migration in Romania, Bosnia, Yemen and Africa. Andrea Huber’s awards include the German awards for youth photography and film, Jugendfilmpreis and Jugendfotopreis. In 2002 she made a film portrait of photographer Loc Nguyen, a refugee from Vietnam who returned to his birthplace after 25 years. She has been a theatre photographer for the Münchner Kammerspiele theatre since 2006.
Go back.
Nguyen Tan Loc (Munich)
Photographer and graphic designer, born in Gia Dinh/Vietnam in 1971. A resident of Munich since 1979, he studied philosophy at LMU Munich from 1993 – 98 and studied at the State Photographic design Academy, Munich, from 1997 – 2000 (specialising in portraits and features) before taking a postgraduate course in photojournalism at the London College of Printing in 2000 – 01. He has been a freelance photographer since 1999 and exhibits regularly.
Go back.
Nelin Tunç
Nelin Tunç received her MSc (DI) degree in Architecture from the Vienna University of Technology. She was a member of the planning team of the Urban Renewal Office Ottakring / Vienna 2005 – 2008, and on the team of the arts initiative Soho in Ottakring. Her specialist areas are neighbourhood development, participatory urban regeneration and arts-based revitalisation. She also works as a facilitator in public participation projects and in Local Agenda 21 processes in various districts in Vienna.
Nelin Tunç is currently deputy representative of the association Soho in Ottakring. Within the project MELT she has been carrying out the sub-project “Urban Narratives” together with Ula Schneider interviewing artists – mostly with migrant background – on their artistic situation in urban environments.
Go back.
Maximilian Pongratz (Munich)
Born in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1987, Maxi Pongratz grew up with Bavarian tradition and began to play accordion at the age of eight. He was soon playing in a number of traditional Bavarian groups, later joined a funk rock band, and today is a permanent member of “Kofelgschroa”. He enjoys cycling and spends as much time as possible in the mountains.
Go back.
Obiora C-Ik Ofoedu (Wien)
Charles Ofoedu is a Nigerian writer living in Vienna, Austria. He was educated at Abbot Boys’ High School, Ihiala, and then at the Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu. His postgraduate study at the University of Vienna was interrupted due to circumstances beyond his control. He has worked as a teacher and Public Relations practitioner. As a journalist, Ofoedu was a columnist and essayist in a magazine for foreigners living in Austria which he had helped to establish. He later joined CARITAS, while at the same time working on his play: "Caught in the middle", which premiered in May 2005. Among other accomplishments, he has acted in many Austrian theatres, coupled with numerous stage performances in dramatising his poems. He has published two poetry books: The Mind’s Eyes and Geistauge (German title). The prose he wrote while in detention as a prisoner of conscience has been published in German under the title: Morgengrauen, and was chosen as Book of the Month for September 2000 by the Afrikahaus institution in Relbehaus, Germany. The English edition of the book, entitled "The Framed Boss", is awaiting publication. Ofoedu has also contributed to anthologies both in Austria and in the USA, and earned an honourable mention for the 1996 Who’s Who Poet of the Year award. He also contributed to the 2005 University of Vienna publication on migration, on the occasion of the UN International Migration Day. During Black History Month in 2004, he was awarded a certificate by Pamoja, an association of Africans in the diaspora, in recognition of his selfless services to the African community in Austria. Ofoedu is the first African writer to become a member of the Austrian and International P.E.N. Club, and several of his literary works (both published and unpublished) are kept at the Austrian Literary Archives of the Austrian National Library. He has delivered public lectures in Austria and other European countries, and has been involved in European Union immigration and art projects.
Go back.