Overview of current projects & teaching positions
> The new potential of a 21st century recorder
Since its beginnings in the 14th century, the recorder has been undergoing a constant process of transformation as it continually weaves itself into the musical tapestry of the changing times. The variety of designs it has taken throughout history has given us the possibility of working not only with historical instruments, but also with contemporary recorder models. However, the picture is not what one would expect. Copies of historical instruments are still predominantly used for all musical forms and styles, and I work to answer the questions: to which degree can contemporary recorder models enrich the contemporary repertoire, add to the catalog of available playing techniques, and expand recorder performance practice to fulfill the new challenges and demands of contemporary music.
In my research, I mainly focus on a specific model, the Helder Tenor, which was developed in the 1990s by Maarten Helder and fulfills many of the requirements expected from a recorder in the 21st century: balanced volume, dynamic possibilities, extended pitch range, and an increased variety of tone colors. With regards to method, extended instrumental techniques, and performance practice of this and many more contemporary recorder models, we find ourselves at a beginning point with a world of information yet to research, gauge, and document.
-> Dissertation
-> Appendix
-> Helder Evo tenor recorder
> Recorder Now @ University of Arts Berlin
Since the academic year 2023, recorder player Susanne Fröhlich and recorder player Carsten Eckert have been leading the recorder class at the UdK Berlin. Both are interpreters and researchers, respectively, who enjoy an international reputation as specialists in the historical and contemporary recorder repertoire. The special feature of their program is that both early and contemporary music are treated with equal weight and thoroughness, depending on the individual orientation, so that the rich spectrum of the recorder is already focused on equally in the training.
-> Study program
-> The teachers
> Marc Sinan Company
The Marc Sinan Company enriches the scene of independent ensembles of European contemporary music with a focus on three essential aspects of content: collective memory as well as media and cultural diversity and permeability. Since 2008, the company’s projects have addressed socially immanent themes and artistic approaches to collective remembrance. At the same time, the focus lies on media and technological innovation as well as post-migrant and transcultural related priorities. Based in Berlin, the Marc Sinan Company develops its award-winning productions with numerous international reknown artists and orchestras.
> SPAT Kollektiv
Susanne Fröhlich and Gerriet Krishna Sharma met in 2016 as part of their artistic-academic doctoral studies at the University of Art in Graz. Both explored two extraordinary and at the same time irritating pioneering instruments both practically and theoretically: Helder tenor recorder and icosahedral loudspeaker (IKO). In their first joint project, Semaphor, they uncovered the perceptual spectrum of both instruments in dialogue, thereby expanding the aesthetic possibilities of spatial sound composition in the present.
As a duo, they are currently working on the project Interspecies - presences of improbable space-time functions with performative installation set-ups in which they attempt to decline intermedial body-space relationships. In the process, acoustic media collide with built architecture and bodies as mediators between lived and imagined space.
> Trickster Orchestra
The Trickster Orchestra performs in varying lineups and sizes. Among its collective are superb musicians and vocalists from genres including electronic and New Music, global classical music traditions, jazz, Old Music, weird pop, and free improvisation. The ensemble does not merely paste these together, but strives to develop collective forms of creation for a contemporary musical language of radical diversity on an equal footing.
Based on the conviction that today’s artistic practice can no longer take place within the categories of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Trickster Orchestra envisions a New Music that transcends separate genres and cultures. Traditions and skills become tools of mimetic improvisation that permits musical innovation. In this way, the orchestra opens up entirely new sonic experiences.
> The new potential of a 21st century recorder
Since its beginnings in the 14th century, the recorder has been undergoing a constant process of transformation as it continually weaves itself into the musical tapestry of the changing times. The variety of designs it has taken throughout history has given us the possibility of working not only with historical instruments, but also with contemporary recorder models. However, the picture is not what one would expect. Copies of historical instruments are still predominantly used for all musical forms and styles, and I work to answer the questions: to which degree can contemporary recorder models enrich the contemporary repertoire, add to the catalog of available playing techniques, and expand recorder performance practice to fulfill the new challenges and demands of contemporary music.
In my research, I mainly focus on a specific model, the Helder Tenor, which was developed in the 1990s by Maarten Helder and fulfills many of the requirements expected from a recorder in the 21st century: balanced volume, dynamic possibilities, extended pitch range, and an increased variety of tone colors. With regards to method, extended instrumental techniques, and performance practice of this and many more contemporary recorder models, we find ourselves at a beginning point with a world of information yet to research, gauge, and document.
-> Dissertation
-> Appendix
-> Helder Evo tenor recorder
> Recorder Now @ University of Arts Berlin
Since the academic year 2023, recorder player Susanne Fröhlich and recorder player Carsten Eckert have been leading the recorder class at the UdK Berlin. Both are interpreters and researchers, respectively, who enjoy an international reputation as specialists in the historical and contemporary recorder repertoire. The special feature of their program is that both early and contemporary music are treated with equal weight and thoroughness, depending on the individual orientation, so that the rich spectrum of the recorder is already focused on equally in the training.
-> Study program
-> The teachers
> Marc Sinan Company
The Marc Sinan Company enriches the scene of independent ensembles of European contemporary music with a focus on three essential aspects of content: collective memory as well as media and cultural diversity and permeability. Since 2008, the company’s projects have addressed socially immanent themes and artistic approaches to collective remembrance. At the same time, the focus lies on media and technological innovation as well as post-migrant and transcultural related priorities. Based in Berlin, the Marc Sinan Company develops its award-winning productions with numerous international reknown artists and orchestras.
> SPAT Kollektiv
Susanne Fröhlich and Gerriet Krishna Sharma met in 2016 as part of their artistic-academic doctoral studies at the University of Art in Graz. Both explored two extraordinary and at the same time irritating pioneering instruments both practically and theoretically: Helder tenor recorder and icosahedral loudspeaker (IKO). In their first joint project, Semaphor, they uncovered the perceptual spectrum of both instruments in dialogue, thereby expanding the aesthetic possibilities of spatial sound composition in the present.
As a duo, they are currently working on the project Interspecies - presences of improbable space-time functions with performative installation set-ups in which they attempt to decline intermedial body-space relationships. In the process, acoustic media collide with built architecture and bodies as mediators between lived and imagined space.
> Trickster Orchestra
The Trickster Orchestra performs in varying lineups and sizes. Among its collective are superb musicians and vocalists from genres including electronic and New Music, global classical music traditions, jazz, Old Music, weird pop, and free improvisation. The ensemble does not merely paste these together, but strives to develop collective forms of creation for a contemporary musical language of radical diversity on an equal footing.
Based on the conviction that today’s artistic practice can no longer take place within the categories of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Trickster Orchestra envisions a New Music that transcends separate genres and cultures. Traditions and skills become tools of mimetic improvisation that permits musical innovation. In this way, the orchestra opens up entirely new sonic experiences.