Project partners
Sua Trio
Itxaso Etxeberria, piano
Mariana Hernández, violin
Juliette Froissart, violoncello
2 plus 2 equals 3!
The Sua Trio originates from two different duos. Since 2010 the spanish pianist Itxaso Etxeberria and the french cellist Juliette Cürlis play music together in the ‘Fédji Duo’, having met during their studies in the Netherlands.
Known by the name ‘Lorca Duo’, Itxaso Etxeberria and the mexican violinist Mariana Hernández are playing music together since 2018. They have found each other during their studies at Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Germany.
The idea of a new trio came up during the pandemic, when all orchestras and music universities were closed. When it was possible to make music together again, the trio met for the first time and decided to call themselves ‘Sua Trio’ (’sua’ means fire in basque).
This name is supposed express the joy and passion of the three musicians, who could meet again after a long time of suffering and play music together again.
- Itxaso Etxeberria Jaurrieta, piano -
(Pamplona, Spain)
Itxaso Etxeberria studied piano in San Sebastián (Spain) with Marta Zabaleta. She then completed her Master of Music in Piano with highest honor at Prince Claus Conservatoire, Groningen (Netherlands) with Paul Komen. Later she finished her Master of New Music at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen (Germany) with Benjamin Kobler, Barbara Maurer and Günter Steinke, also with the best possible grade.
Some of her most recent performance locations are e.g. Aurora Festival (Groningen), Mixtur Festival, Internationales Festival für Klangkunst, BeethovenFest (Bonn), IMPULS (Halle). Furthermore she has worked in recent years with orchestras and ensembles, among them the Bochumer Symphoniker, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Ensemble S201, Broken Frames Syndicate, Tempus Konnex, Kommas Ensemble and Vortex Ensemble. She also has a fixed duo for violin and piano (Lorca Duo), a piano trio (Sua Trio) and another trio for violin, saxophone and piano (Abraxas Trio).
- Mariana Hernández, violin -
(Ciudad de México, Mexico)
Mariana Hernández completed her Bachelor of Music at the ‘Escuela Superior de Música del Instituto Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes’ in Mexico with Prof. Frasin Vlad. She then finished her concert exam with honors in Germany at the music university Münster with Prof. Helge Slaatto and her Master of Professional Performance at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen with Prof. Mintcho Mintchev.
She has won numerous competitions both as solo violinist and as chamber musician. She has participated at the Lucerne Festival, Chamber Music Festival Colorado, NJO Summer Academy, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Chamber Music Festival in Uberlandia, Aurora Festival in Groningen, NOW-Festival, IMPULS-22 and more.
Currently she is studying for her Master of New Music at Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen with Prof. Barbara Maurer, she is a fixed member of the New Philharmonics Westphalia, member of the new music ensemble ‘Tempus Konnex’, as well as violinist with the ’Lorca Duo, ’Sua Trio’ and ’Abraxas Trio’.
- Juliette Cürlis, violoncello -
(Nancy, France)
Juliette Cürlis was born in Nancy, France.
She studied at the music university of Bremen, Germany, with Alexander Baillie until 2009, when she became a student of Michel Strauss und Jan-Ype Nota at the Prins Claus Conservatorium in Groningen, where she graduated in 2012.
She participated in various master classes, e.g. with Michel Strauss, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Maria Kliegel, Roland Pidoux, Anner Bylsma and Henri Demarquette and has various concert experience in Germany and the Netherlands. Juliette Cürlis is an orchestra member of the New Philharmonics Westphalia.
More information:
YouTube: Sua Trio, Brahms Trio no. 1 Op. 8 in B major
Christian Benning Percussion Group
Tradition. Transformation. Future.
The artistic principles and aspirations of the Christian Benning Percussion Group could hardly be described more accurately.
The Percussion Group has set itself the task of taking up classics of modern percussion literature as well as works by the most well-known and influential composers of the past centuries, such as Bach, Ravel or Beethoven, and transforming them into a purely percussive chamber music setting.
In the past years, the Christian Benning Percussion Group has developed into a well-established percussion ensemble of the european music scene. The cadre around the solist and artistical head Christian Benning and his congenial partners and collegues Marcel Morikawa, Patrick Stapleton, Felix Kolb, Godwin Schmid and Jan Čibej varies in the size of the formation (trio to sextett), adapting to the many multiformed concert projects and productions.
After groundbreaking debut concerts at international festivals and in important concert halls in Germany, Austria and Italy last year with their BEAThoven program, the six multi-percussionists have committed themselves to a very special project, especially for 2022, and are celebrating the anniversary of Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001).
The six musicians all met during their time studying at the Munich University of Music and Theater. There they studied with Peter Sadlo, Alexei Gerassimez and Adel Shalaby. Raymond Curfs, Arnold Riedhammer and Wolfram Winkel, all of whom are considered supporters of the ensemble.
The young musicians' first joint international concerts took place in Egypt and Oman in 2012. The pure drummer formation was officially founded by Christian Benning in 2015, initially under the name Christian Benning & Percussion No. 1. Since then, concerts have taken place in the Karlsruhe Center for Art & Media, in the Hamburg Laeiszhalle, at the European Weeks in Passau and in the Munich Philharmonic, among others.
As the Christian Benning Percussion Group (since 2020), the ensemble recently made its debut in, among others, the Bremer Glocke, the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, the Festival of Young Artists in Bayreuth and the Munich Herkulessaal.
More information:
www.christianbenning.de
YouTube: Christian Benning Percussion Group
Nina Deuse
Nina Deuse (*1990, Aalen, Germany) studied Integrative Composition with main focus on Instrumental Composition with Prof. Günter Steinke at the Institute for Computer Music and Electronic Media (ICEM) at Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen (North-Rhine-Westphalia, Germany), earning a Bachelor of Music degree. Further subjects of this education included Electronic Composition, Pop Composition and Composition and Visualization. She also received composition lessons with Edgar Mann, Philipp Vandré, Moritz Eggert and Jan Kopp.
Since october 2023 she is studying composition (master's program) with Gordon Kampe at the State University of Music Hamburg (Hochschule für Musik und Theater).
In april 2024 she was awarded a 11-month fellowship from the Free State of Bavaria in Internationales Künstlerhaus Villa Concordia in Bamberg, Germany.
Nina Deuse received the Bundespreis Komposition 2013 (national prize for composition) for two of her compositions, Mondphase and Lose Yourself. She was four times accepted to Jugend komponiert Baden-Württemberg (Youth Composes Baden-Württemberg 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012) with Achim Bornhöft and Jan Kopp, also to Jugend komponiert Sachsen-Anhalt 2010 (Youth composes Saxony-Anhalt 2010), each time with premiere performances of her compositions. She participated in a composition workshop with Charlotte Seither at Jeunesse musicales in Weikersheim, Germany. In 2012 she received a scholarship for composition lessons with Jan Kopp from the Landesmusikrat Baden-Württemberg (music council of the state Baden-Württemberg).
In 2022 Nina Deuse created Rent-A-Composer, a concept for cooperation projects of contemporary music.
The main focus of her artistical work is a variously shaped fusion of classical contemporary music and elements of popular music of diverse musical genres.
Examples for this amalgamation in her works are beatboxing on flute, seamless combination of vocal techniques from rap, scat or beatboxing with contemporary vocal techniques, usage of - with contemporary music theory processed - hip hop rhythms and bodypercussion. Her work in progress, the piano series Toccatas + Remixes contains amongst her original compositions also some highly abstracted remixes of old music (e.g. Frédéric Chopin’s 24 Préludes, op.28).
Nina Deuse has worked in many different fields of contemporary composition: Electronic music (i.a. debut album Maverick (2020, digital release)), video in combination with electronic music or video with instrumental live music, vocal music, music with dance performance, audio plays, as well as instrumental compositions (solo to chamber music).
More information:
Website Nina Deuse
Youtube Channel 1: Instrumental music and score videos
Youtube Channel 2: Electronic music + visualizers