Gunda Gottschalk
Thursday, April 5
 7:00 pm
Gunda Gottschalk, violinist plays improvised and contemporary music and combines her musical work with other art forms such as dance, theater, film, composition, visual art and literature. Born in 1969 she lives in Wuppertal, Germany and will visit the Pioneer Valley for a week in early April. Her energized style and daring, expressive approach makes her contributions to the field invaluable. Gottschalk began her studies at the State Hochschule for Music in the Rhineland. Since 1991, Gunda Gottschalk has been a member of Partita Radicale, a quintet for new and improvised music. Besides developing original improvisation cycles, the ensemble became known to a broader audience through their silent movie programs with live music, music theater productions and collaborations with composers. In 1994/95 the violinist met renowned bassist Peter Kowald, who during this year carried out his project "365 Tage am ORT" (365 Days in Place) in Wuppertal. She performed in Peter Kowald's Ort-Ensemble and with important international soloists for improvised music such as Joelle Leandre, Carlos Zingaro, Even Parker. 1995-2002 Together with Xu Feng Xia she made up the core trio of Peter Kowald's "Global Village" Ensemble, which brought together musicians from radically different cultural heritages. In ensembles ranging from trio to sextet, "Global Village" concertized in Europe and the USA. Among the many guest artists collaborating with the trio were Jin Hi Kim, Savina Yannatou, Pamela Z, Jeanne Lee, Otomo Yoshihide, Le Quan Ninh. Since 1995 Gunda Gottschalk has worked with the Belgian bassist Peter Jacquemyn. Their duo-CD "e pericoloso sporgersi" was awarded a prize in the young artist forum of the international Society for New Music and Ensemble Modern. In 1998 the French pianist Christine Wodrascka founded the Trio "KRIZDA" with Isabelle Duthuit and Gunda Gottschalk. And, together with Thomas Beimel, Gunda Gottschalk received a work and production stipend in 2001 from the Film Foundation of North Rhine - Westphalia which was used to realize the radio play "Das Paradies" (Paradise). Solo tours in 2002 and 2003 took the musician all over the USA. There she played with William Parker, Susie Ibarra, Assif Tsahar, Michael Zerang, Oliver Lake and Fred Frith among many others. Gunda Gottschalk has been well represented on festivals of contemporary and improvised music all over Europe and is a regular guest at the avant-garde Vision Festival in New York City.