The three vocal artists Natalia Pschenitschnikova, Frauke Aulbert and Anna Clementi appear not only as brilliant soloists and in a wide variety of ensembles. Since 2021 they have also been captivating audiences as a trio. In this formation they unfold their exceptional abilities and sovereignly deployed extended vocal techniques. Their voices – by turns powerful and filigree – transform complex as well as simple sonic structures into an immediately physical experience.

The voice is a carrier of personal, social, lyrical and political meaning. It is sound and stance at once. In “Stimmen!” three performers meet in works by six contemporary composers who explore the vocal in radical, sensitive and experimental ways.

Natalia Pschenitschnikova: Un-Kraut (2021)
Un-Kraut is a piece about unwanted sounds, mostly produced unconsciously during conversation. Such non-verbal sounds and noises can, by virtue of their physiological intensity, often establish greater closeness between those communicating than language itself.

The linguist and semiotician Roman Jakobson spoke of “the need for contact, a physical channel or psychological connection between sender and receiver, enabling both to enter into and remain in communication”. In the most varied languages, this establishment of physical contact is taken over by sounds that fulfil a meaning-free function of mere touch.

The answer is provided by a comparison: the weeds in a garden often unfold a simple, vital beauty that can bind us to nature more powerfully than even the most beautiful garden flower.
Natalia Pschenitschnikova

Olga Krashenko: Song-Line (2010/2024)

Song-Line

No, don't tell me … nothing …

***

About a freshly pressed sunset ...
When we breathed in the wind,
And the birds let
The songs fall into the river.

Tell me nothing.

How the sun rose
On its knees,
We are free from the shadows
Of doubts swimming
On the old map …

Nothing? No, no, no. Don't tell me …

***

Of the freshly pressed sun
In the lap of the wind,
In doubt.
Dropped
The shadow of a song.

While the sunset floats
Breathing freely
In the rivers of an old map …

Don't tell me, don't tell me …

***

Above the birds of freedom
That rose with the sunset
The song of the river
With the wind that sails
All on the same old path
To the sun.

Fall to your knees
The breath of the map
Your doubt.

Tell me not
There is nothing
No, no, no, no, no …

Don't tell me … free.

One
Knee
River
Lena
Map
Sunset
Old
Wrapping
Doubting
Risen
Opinions
Swum
In the song
In the dream
Together
Shadow
Breathed
Fresh
Pressed

Don't say “no”…
Olga Krashenko, translated from the Russian by Natalia Pschenitschnikova

Charlotte Seither: Echoes of O's (2007)
Echoes of O's consists of silent gestures. It is a visual piece made up of three movement models that are nonetheless to be understood as “music”. What cannot be heard is therefore – as a structure of proportions – to be seen. Eye and ear exchange their functions. The fast gesture consists of rapid, punctual gestures. The slow gesture draws on slowly flowing movements. The frozen gesture establishes a rhythm of rigid movements. The result is a composed, three-part polyphonic movement that wishes to be “heard” as pure musical form. “O” refers to the sound “O” in its various shades of meaning: wondering, crying out, rejoicing, etc.
Charlotte Seither

Anna Korsun: I hear voices (2013)
I work a great deal with the human voice. In my view, the voice need not necessarily be bound to a text. The voice is not only a medium between literature and music, but a unique and very special, intimate instrument. On the other hand, a text need not necessarily be embedded in music, for its phonetics have their own expression and can themselves become music.
Anna Korsun

Juhi Bansal: Stinging, ringing bells (2018)
As an Indian composer who grew up in Hong Kong, Juhi Bansal draws on elements as diverse as Hindustani music, spectralism, progressive metal, music theatre and choral traditions to create expressive, evocative sonic worlds. Her music, spanning genres from acoustic concert music to multimedia and film, is always driven by the telling of stories, with a focus on stories about strong women, the wilderness and the celebration of cultural and ideological diversity.

Juliana Hodkinson: &€(/Ø⎍♺ (@þ!+@(_$ (2025)

To whom or what do you give your voice?

Next time. Last time.
Your first vote, your second vote.

Who wins or loses your voice?
Your next voice, your last voice.

And what does one's own voice count for at all?

But.
For now we are (still) here.

Let's get to it. Let's get this thing going!
Find a balance, hold your own pitch.

It begins right here and now.
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Juliana Hodkinson