Two voices + an artistic director + the X Factor = the vodeon experience.
In a concert world where classical music is often presented in rigid formats, Berthold Schindler (tenor), Hana Katsenes (alto), and Clayton Bowman (conductor, artistic director) pursue a distinctive mission: they create experiences. Their concerts invite audiences to engage with history and context, as boundaries between styles, eras, and art forms begin to blur.
A melodrama with tv detective Udo Wachtveitl, an early-music program with the Baroque orchestra Concerto München, or a newly imagined Mozart matinée with dance painting. Nothing is impossible. As Berthold Schindler puts it:
“Classical music is our home, the place we come from and deeply love. But we want to continue telling its story in our own way, opening up new perspectives. With our voices, our ideas, and our passion for new programs in a wide range of expressive forms.”
Starting from this idea, the recipients of the Bavarian Art Promotion Award continually explore and redefine the ensemble’s sound, moving between solo and tutti, individual vocal color and ensemble blend, grand drama and playful lightness. Together with outstanding guest artists who share their passion for the vodeon experience, they weave a growing network of friendships and creative collaborations. These include Anna-Lena Elbert, Jonas Müller, Camilla Saba Davies, Ansgar Theis (voice), Anna Gebhardt, Rebeka Stojkoska, Rudi Spring, Nathan Harris (piano), Anima Henn, Cristian Cucco (dance/painting), Daniel Holzberg, Lina Witte (acting), Angela Metzger, Johannes Berger (organ), Elli Neubert (direction), Konstantin Parnian (dramaturgy), Richard Friedrich Schwartz (libretto), Sophia Schambeck (recorders), and Christopher Verworner (composition).
In 1777, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote to his father:
I cannot write poetically: I am no poet.
I cannot divide phrases so artfully that they give light and shadow: I am not a painter.
I cannot even express my sentiments and thoughts through gestures and pantomime: I am no dancer.
But I can do it through sounds: I am a musician.
And it’s true: Mozart was a musician. And so vodeon presents his sacred music in what seems like a traditional way—simple, songlike, for solo voices SATB, in classical concert attire and with piano.
But doesn’t his music also feel poetic? We explore this by creating a contrafactural reinterpretations of Latin texts—such as those from the Mass—as commissioned works for the librettist, allowing the poet to lay his own thoughts as new lyrics under the influence of Mozart’s music.
Finally, vodeon believes that his music also shimmers with color and even dances:
Two dancing painters will, over the course of the performance, create their own stage design live—painting the set with brushes and interacting in gesture and movement with Mozart’s reimagined works.
At the start of the performance, only the sound of five musicians fills the otherwise empty stage. By the end, we will all have arrived somewhere else—at a place glowing with color, moved by the musician, poet, painter, dancer: Mozart.
Performers:
Camilla Saba Davies, Soprano
Hana Katsenes, Alto
Berthold Schindler, Tenor
Georg Gädker, Baritone
Nathan Harris, Piano
Anima Henn & Cristian Cucco, Dancing Painters
Clayton Bowman, Artistic Director
Richard Friedrich Schwartz, Libretto
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“La Biche” from Six Chansons by Paul Hindemith
Palestrina: A Global Prayer to the People - live from the Augsburg Cathedral 2020
vodeon performs John Cage’s “Story” from Living Room Music while under lockdown, Munich 2020.
ABOUT US NEWS MUSIC VIDEOS GALLERY CONTACT SITE NOTICE
vodeon, GbR
Represented by
Hana Katsenes
Truderinger Straße 200
D-81825 Germany
Telephone: +49 176 / 99147850
E-Mail: vodeon.munich@gmail.com
