Asasello-Quartett, E-MEX-Ensemble & Christiane Oelze
Biography Asasello-Quartett, E-MEX-Ensemble & Christiane Oelze
Christiane Oelze
studied singing at the Cologne University of Music with Klesie Kelly-Moog and Erna Westenberger in Frankfurt/Main. She attended masterclasses with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.
Christian Oelze has worked with renowned orchestras in Boston, Cleveland, and Los Angeles, as well as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the London Symphony, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and with conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Michael Gielen, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and Sir Simon Rattle. As a soloist, she was invited to festivals such as the BBC Proms, the Glyndebourne Festival, the Salzburg Music Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Lucerne Festival, and the Tanglewood Music Festival. She has performed at opera houses such as Covent Garden, the Hamburg State Opera, and the Paris Opera.
Christiane Oelze was initially regarded predominantly as a Mozart interpreter and also distinguished herself in classical modernism. Her special love is the lied.
She taught as a lecturer at the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf from 2003 to 2008. Since 2018, she has been a lecturer at the Swiss Kalaidos Musikhochschule.
Her Mahler Symphony No. 4 and her Schoenberg String Quartet No. 2 were awarded the German Record Critics’ Prize. By 2015, her discography had already included 70 CD and DVD productions.
Asasello-Quartett
In the musical activities of the Asasello-Quartett, classical training and the avant-garde combine seamlessly. The ensemble brings its eclectic repertoire to interdisciplinary collaborations with dance and theater companies. As an event organizer, the quartet is advancing its supreme discipline into the 21st century and is currently working to foster dialogue between the East and West.
Notable for its consistent commitment and quality, the Asasello-Quartett has garnered numerous awards. Longstanding collaboration with private foundations and public cultural institutions has enabled the ensemble to realize its creative ideas continuously for many years. The Asasello-Quartett is a regular guest at renowned international festivals and concert venues. Moreover, the quartet’s recording projects have been met with international acclaim, earning esteemed awards such as German Record Critic’s Award and Grammophone Editor’s Choice. The Asasello-Quartett’s most notable mentors include renowned artists such as Walter Levin, the Alban Berg Quartett and Chaim Taub.
Asasello-Quartett was founded 2000 in Basel and has been based in Cologne since 2004. The members are Rostislav Kozhevnikov from Russia, Barbara Streil from Switzerland, Justyna Sliwa from Poland, and Teemu Myöhänen from Finland.
The name Asasello (Eng. Azazello) is a nod to a character in Mikhail Bulgakov’s cult novel The Master and Margarita.
E-MEX-Ensemble
which specializes in contemporary music of a wide range of styles, was founded in 1999. E-MEX has set itself the goal of permeating the boundaries between genres, styles, and art forms as much as possible. This is evidenced not only by projects with jazz musicians, sound and video artists, dancers, and actors but also by repeated collaborations with such diverse personalities as Johannes Kreidler, the enfant terrible of the new music scene, the cabaret artist and presenter Martin Zingsheim, and the soprano Christiane Oelze.
Composers from Germany, France, Eastern Europe, the USA, China, and Korea have written works for E-MEX. Time and again, E-MEX relates contemporary works to music from other eras to create connections and access points for the audience. Numerous CD productions attest to the cooperation with radio stations such as SWR, WDR, and DLF. Concert tours regularly take the ensemble to other European countries, South America, the USA, and Asian countries.
