Alumni 2020
Jana de Troyer
Thrilled by contemporary sounds, Jana De Troyer (°1994) moves – whether or not accompanied by her saxophones – between the most diverse genres of the 20th and 21st century. She was already part of various small and big ensembles and played (contemporary) classical, free improvisation, pop, rock, electronic, orchestral, chamber, world, wind band and big band music.
As a performer, composer, conductor and journalist she has already been on many Belgian and German media, and on stages throughout Europe and Asia.
Jana studied saxophone in Lübeck (DE; Prof. Rico Gubler), Munich (DE; Koryun Asatryan) and Ghent (BE; Koen Maas, Raf Minten, Rik Vaneyghen). She received grants from Live Music Now Hamburg and MusikERkennen. In 2017 she was Artist in Residence in Künstlerstadt Kalbe.
Kelsey Cotton
Known for her chameleonic musicianship and fearless performance of new and experimental works, Kelsey Cotton is quickly garnering a reputation as a distinctive and powerful voice within contemporary music. The Australian born vocalist studied at the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music at Monash University (AUS), where she graduated with her Bachelor of Music (First Class Honours) in 2017.
A passionate champion of new, experimental and Australian works, she is devoted to pushing the boundaries of music and the limits of the human voice. Kelsey has sung numerous world premieres with the ASTRA Chamber Music Society (AUS), debuting works by acclaimed composers such as Vlad-Razvan Baciu, Paul Kopetz and Andrew Byrne. Kelsey had her operatic debut with Victorian Opera in 2017, in Aaron Copland’s politically provocative The Second Hurricane, a production described as “ethereal and… haunting” (Classic Melbourne). She also recently sang the world premiere of Melbourne composer James Christensen’s one-woman chamber opera. Her “complex and detailed” performance in the opera; When I Awoke, was received with great acclaim at Melbourne’s ‘The Butterfly Club’ in January 2018 (Stage Whispers).
Mélanie Vibrac
Mélanie is a French clarinetist from East of France. She started her musical studies at the Épinal and Metz Conservatories before moving to Paris for two years to study literary field and musicology in “classe préparatoire” at lycée Fénelon. Then, she entered “Académie supérieure de musique de Strasbourg” for a bachelor degree in classical and contemporary music.
She studied music performance at the University of Montreal during an exchange year well as continuing a pedagogy degree that she pursued back in Strasbourg to obtain the diploma as a clarinet teacher.
During the year in Canada, she worked for several cultural magazines, publishing articles on live shows and interviews.
Back in Strasbourg, she participated to Musica – International Festival of Contemporary music, the “clarinet week” at Cité de la musique et de la Danse, she also played with l’Atelier Mobile – French troupe with circus and pupett. Moreover, she explored the musical theater and the link between text and music.
During this year she also worked in different schools to teach clarinet and musical theory, and she participated for the second time to a three weeks musical camp in Haïti where she taught clarinet. Finally, she’s very fond of travelling, as it brings her the opportunity to discover new and different cultures in order to express this inspiration through her art.
*Photo credit: Alexandre Schlub
Robert Menczel
Robert Menczel’s artistic focus lies on contemporary music with acoustic and electric guitar, musical theater and interdisciplinary performances. With Open Source Guitars, he went on tour to Brazil and Mexico, premiered new pieces by composers like Henry Fourès and Sarah Nemtsov, worked with conceptual and visual artists like Pablo Wendel and Thomas Putze, and developed different projects with international partners like IRCAM Paris, GMEM Marseille or ZKM Karlsruhe. In Open Source Guitars’ most recent production, the ensemble collectively composed a live soundtrack for the Russian silent movie The New Babylon with performances at Europäische Kulturtage Karlsruhe 2018.
He regularly plays for different freelance productions, such as Madame Lenin in Freiburg, Karlsruhe and Berlin or at PODIUM festival in Esslingen.
He was born in Böblingen, Germany, and studied at Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Trossingen and Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid with Michael R. Hampel, Michal Stanikowski, Tillmann Reinbeck and Miguel Trápaga. In 2018, he finished his master’s degree with distinction. He was awarded a special prize at Iris-Marquardt-Competition 2018.
Sander Saarmets
Sander Saarmets 
is a composer, sound designer and electronic musician from Estonia. He was first exposed to music through his father’s extensive record collection, where Pink Floyd and Ryuichi Sakamoto were held in high esteem. Sander began playing the violin at the age of 6, but was not entirely won over by the classical music and became
more and more interested in the visual arts, until hearing the music of György Ligeti and Autechre.
In the early 2000s, he started creating electronic music as Muschraum. His debut album Naterijeka was released in 2005 by Ulmeplaadid. In 2007, he entered the EstonianAcademy of Music and Theatre to study electronic music and composition. Before receiving his BA, Sander started learning Chinese and finished his first intensive language course in Kunming, China. Back at the academy, his graduation piece Pram Tak Mir was chosen for the NEU/NOW festival in 2011. In the same year, he was given the opportunity to compose for a full length documentary Uus Maailm (The New World) by Jaan Tootsen.
In 2012, Sander moved to Taiwan for a period of 5 years. There, together with artist Virge Loo, he established an audiovisual group called V4R1. While living in Taipei, he also worked as a sound designer for 8ilmmaker Ella Raidel on her short 8ilm BERG.
After returning to Estonia in 2017, he released V4R1’s debut album, collaborated with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, worked together with choreographers Maria Uppin and Marie Pullerits and composed for Jaan Tootsen’s new documentary.
Sandra Kuntu-Blankson
Sandra Kuntu-Blankson is twenty-five years old and hail from Ghana, West Africa. She considers the Contemporary Performance and Composition Master’s Program is a great opportunity to develop herself as a performer and to be an agent of positive change in her society.
She believes in becoming a link and a role model for females in her community who yearn to follow the line in making music a profession and the actualization of such dreams.
Sara Constant
Sara Constant is a flutist from Toronto, Canada, working with a special interest in contemporary music.
Sara completed her Bachelor’s degree in music at the University of Toronto (where she studied flute with Camille Watts), followed by an MA in musicology at the Universiteit van Amsterdam with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century music. She has since participated in new music workshops and festivals in Austria (Impuls Academy), the United States (Oh My Ears), and Canada (Toronto Creative Music Lab; Waterloo Region Contemporary Music Sessions).
Sara’s performance practice and research focus on contemporary chamber music, experimental theatre, Asian American identity, and ecology. Active as a soloist and ensemble musician, she has performed recently as a soloist with the Silverthorn Symphonic Winds, and as a flute/voice duo with soprano Rebecca Gray, where collaboration with composers is a core part of their work. In Toronto, Sara’s current projects include working as an editor at The WholeNote magazine, curator with the Music Gallery, and co-organizer of the Toronto Creative Music Lab (TCML) – a peer-mentored summer workshop for early-career performers and composers.
*Photo credit: Kalina Leonard
Yorgos Stavridis
Musician, sound artist, primarily percussionist and composer.
He explores the sonic range of percussion instruments in continuous interplay with electronic media and technology.
Approaching sound texture and timbre as the main elements for interpreting and making music, Yorgos emphasises improvisation as a source of musical expression, responding through immediate action and playfulness to the temporality and site specificity of sound and music.
He studied Instrumental and Electroacoustic composition at the Ionian University and classical percussion at the Athens Conservatoire. He is a member of Ke.Di.Mou.Ra, a collective consisting of musicians engaging in composition, sound art and improvisation, found in Corfu.
Ryszard Alzin
Ryszard Alzin is a Polish pianist and composer. Born in 1991, Ryszard graduated from the 
Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, with studies in piano performance and composition. Ryszard has been awarded prizes in music competitions in Poland and abroad
As a pianist, Ryszard has always been keen on performing contemporary music and has premiered several pieces by Polish composers, including Anna Ignatowicz-Glińska’s “Tylko spójrz” for piano solo, which was dedicated to him. He is also active as an improviser, and has recently given a number of fully improvised piano recitals. As a composer, Ryszard is interested in autonomic composition, as well as in interdisciplinary collaboration – in particular with artists from film and theatre. A selection of Ryszard’s compositions can be heard at soundcloud.com/ryszard-alzin.
Tamara Laverman
Tamara Laverman started playing the piano at the age of 8, taking 
lessons with a private teacher. Though she liked to play and enjoyed the music, she only realized at the age of 16 the artistic field could mean more to her than just a hobby. In 2011 she started in a preparatory course at ArtEZ university of the arts in Arnhem, taking piano lessons with the pianist Frank Peters. In 2013 she started the bachelor classical piano at ArtEZ university of the arts in Zwolle, a school also housing other art disciplines like fine art, creative writing, dance etc. and therefore known for its interdisciplinary study.
During her bachelor she had several projects with these different faculties searching for new ways of performing. It was in this period when she discovered the love of composing herself and chose to take composition lessons in the last two years of her study.
She is also active in a piano duo, Laverman&Scheffer, a duo focusing on 20th and 21st century music trying new ways for listeners to experience contemporary classical music.
Alumni 2018
Felix Stachelhaus
Felix Stachelhaus grew up in a family of musicians in the Ruhr area during the structural change from coal and steel industry to a cultural metropole, surrounded by a whole region searching for it’s identity and concerts, theatre and dance in old factories and collieries.
He got in contact with music very early, learned drums, trumpet and piano and started songwriting, composing and arranging. Besides, interdisciplinary projects with dancers and theatre became an important part of his activity. His enthusiasm for contemporary music and different musical styles led him to his Bachelor in drums/percussion at location Wuppertal of HfMT Köln with Prof. Christian Roderburg (classical/contemporary), Mathias Haus (jazz vibraphone) and Mirek Pyschny (drum set) and to a lot of masterclasses (Katarzyna Mycka, Tatiana Koleva, Gordon Stout, Eric Sammut, Tony Miceli). During these studies he became a demanded soloist, orchestra and chamber musician in the Rhein/Ruhr region.
He would like to find a way to change the traditional ritual of classical concerts. His aim are programmes based on a topic or question, bringing together different styles, integrating the possibilities of room, movement, texts and technology assembled to an artistic concept.
Jaanus Siniväli
Jaanus Siniväli is a double bass player and performer with interest in DIY electronics and electronic music, which has led to simultaneous use of double bass and modular synthesizer, also longtime interest in western philosophy and more recently eastern philosophy has led him to game pieces and game theory, but also to questions regarding functionality of music.
Worked 6 years as a double bass player in The Symphony Orchestra of Theatre Vanemuine in Tartu. Obtained his BA degree in Double Bass from EAMT (Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre) with Kaupo Olt and Mati Lukk. While getting the decisive impact towards contemporary-, experimental music and free improvisation from lessons with Taavi Kerikmäe.
Kristin Kuldkepp
Kristin Kuldkepp completed her Bachelor studies of classical double bass in Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre in 2016. She has played in various orchestras (such as Estonian National Orchestra, Animato Fundation Philarhmonic Orchestra, Tallinn Baroque Orchestra etc.) and ensambles, also performed as soloist. She has participated in different master classes of double bass, including Alberto Bocini, Nikita Naumov, Pedro Vares and contemporary music workshops (most important Camilla Hoitenga’s workshop of performing the Kaija Saariaho’s music). From 2015 she started to study viola da gamba with prof. Markus Kuikka. She has worked with Estonian young generation composers (Krõõt-Kärt Kaev, Ove-Kuth Kadak) to find different extended techniques for double bass and also tried to encourage them to increase the repertory of the instrument.
The enormous impact for her was the Alexander Technique course with Maret Mursa Tormis, where she discovered the importance of the free movement of the body for playing the double bass and for overall existing.
As the main interests for her have always been music from baroque and renaissance area with contemporary music and free improvisaton next to it, she has had hard times to choose which way to go. Finally, with applying to the CoPeCo master programme, the right decison has been made.
She tries to understand of how world of sounds and noises affects human-beings and how music could help them to get know more about themselves, their habitudes and subconscious reactions. She tries to manipulate with different sound-objects for reaching to the primal instincts of the human and finding the meaning for the phenomenon of existence.
Maria Jönsson
Maria Jönsson is a flautist from Lund, Sweden. She began playing the flute at the age of 9, She then studied classical flute with Ann Elkjaer at Musikhögskolan Ingesund, Karlstad University. She completed her undergraduate studies in Reykjavik, Iceland at Listahaskoli Islands in flute and music pedagogy with Martial Nardeau. There she also studied other woodwind instruments, clarinet and oboe.
Maria has a strong passion for contemporary music and teaching, where her final thesis for her Bachelor investigated the education of extended techniques for flute in Iceland. She has been exploring the realm of experimental composition with graphic scores and strives to push the limits of what she can accomplish on the flute. One of her dreams is for everyone to share her love of contemporary music and to at least give it a chance and to not base opinions on preconceived notions of contemporary music. This is very important to Maria as she wants to integrate contemporary music into her teaching and wants to reach out to an audience who doesn’t usually listen and experience contemporary music.
Romina Romay
Romina Roman is a composer and pianist born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. After studying traditional classical piano at the Conservatory Julian Aguirre of Banfield, Buenos Aires, she decided to get involved in composition by studying this domain at the National University of Arts (UNA), Buenos Aires, Argentina. Romina has participated as a musician in theatre, concerts, varieté, music festivals and operas. Nowadays she works in environmentally sound design and composition, improvisation with electronics, mechanical objects and piano, and in the sustainable development of musical performances.
Saeyoung Kim
Educated in National Middle and High Schools of Korean Music, Saeyoung completed her bachelor’s degree of Korean Music as a Gayageum player at Seoul National University, under the teaching of Ji-young Yi. She also studied English Literature as a minor during her bachelors.
Saeyoung loves experiencing new cultures which has led her to travel the World, and Europe extensively. To further experience new culture, Saeyoung was an exchange student at Stockholm University, Sweden between 2014 and 2015. Coming in to contact with plethora of diverse cultural experiences in society, music, media and literature from visiting many countries in Europe during this period have led her to dedicate herself to new music.
As a musician who is playing a Korean traditional musical instrument, the Gayageum, she is now seeking to broaden her own musical genre by combining gayageum and contemporary music. She is looking to accomplish this by working on a project to create interactive music using computer technology and the traditional Korean sounds of the Gayageum.
Teemu Mastovaara
Teemu Mastovaara, a video game and Alexander technique enthusiast, started his musical career in 2001 by beginning to play cello at Lounais-Häme Music School in Finland under Timo Oikkonen. In 2009 he continued to Turku AMK to graduate as Music Educator (cello) in 2014. His teachers were Timo Hanhinen, and Erkki Lahesmaa. He has also taken part in master classes by e.g. Lauri Angervo, Robert Irvine, Arto Noras, and Roi Ruottinen. In 2015 he was awarded a diploma for his multidisciplinary and international orientation by Turku AMK.
With Mastovaara, composition has always travelled hand in hand with playing. He has worked on his compositions e.g. with Henry Foures, Seppo Pohjola, Kim Helweg and Fredrik Schwenk. Mastovaara has also completed Supplementary Studies in Musicology at Turku University in 2016. His Bachelor’s thesis explored natural sounds used in Verisäkeet album by extreme metal band Moonsorrow.
Mastovaara is a borderless musician. He has e.g. performed as soloist of Turku Philharmonic, is the founding member of multi-genre group Fourtune Cello Quartet, and has composed music for theater. He has worked with dancers and visual artists as performer and composer, played on multiple albums, and performed on numerous festivals in Finland (e.g. Hanko, Naantali, Nagu, Rauma, and Turku), around Europe, and in Japan.
In CoPeCo, Mastovaara is looking forward to develop his skills in composition and electronics, and gain musical influences to complete his Master’s project relating to a stage performance with a soundscape of different musical genres, and dancing influenced by martial arts movements.
Alumni 2016
Carla Genchi
Singer, composer, improviser
Performing with international groups and ensembles in Marseille, Koln/Bonn, Tarragona, Hamburg, Lyon, Antwerp, Brussels and Italy using distortion pedals, electric bass, megaphone, clarinet bell and casio keyboard.
Examples:
soundcloud.com/de-batteries/fur-hildegard
youtube.com/watch?v=ktYzdtdHCaQ
Solo program including contemporary music and improvisation:
soundcloud.com/kimdealer/birds-are-flying-high-and-fish-are-jumping
Cooperation project with an Italian pianist in Netherlands:
soundcloud.com/tullia-2/carla-genchi-tullia-melandri-ravel-kaddish-mp3
More information: www.carlagenchi.com
Elad Bardes
Musician based in Israel.
Examples of recent projects:
AOE trio – Adi Snir (sax.), Ofer Bymel (drums), Elad Bardes (guitar, electronics)
(untitled) – Yuval Tamir (bass), Nadav Hajos (drums), Elad Bardes (guitars, electronics)
comfortpartybility – dance/music collaboration with Avigail Sfez (choreography)
youtu.be/4XLfiHLzaEo
Emilie Girard-Charest
emiliegirardcharest@hotmail.com
Performer, composer and improviser based in Lyon and Montréal working as a freelance musician between Europe and the Americas.
Currently a doctorate student at the CNSM in Lyon in the composition department under the guidance of Philippe Hurel and Laurent Pottier.
Recently was awarded a prize by the SOCAN Foundation for S’offrir, a piece for viola and cello written during the CoPeCo studies.
Hara Alonso
Hara Alonso is working as freelance musician combining the performance and the pedagogic side. Currently she lives in Stockholm where she is sound designer/researcher in the circus company CirkusPerspective. This project is a joint artistic research within KTH-Royal Institute of Technology and the Stockholm University of Arts.
She is also an active performer both in piano and electronic music.
More info: www.haraalonso.com
Pedro Gonzalez Fernandez
Working for a research Institute from the UKE (medical university in Hamburg) doing interactive sound design for experiments: www.socsmcs.eu
2017-2018 Associated researcher – socSMC European project (Hamburg) Department of Neuro and Pathophysiology, UKE Hamburg. Supervisor- Andreas K. Engels (Hamburg, Germany)
2016-2017 Student assistant position – socSMC European project (Hamburg) Department of Neuro and Pathophysiology, UKE Hamburg. Supervisor – Andreas K. Engels (Hamburg, Germany)
Apart from that Pedro has been working as a freelance violinist and composer, playing in different festivals in Germany, e.g. at ZKM, in Munich and Dortmund “Zither auk Zeche festival” and collaborating with ensembles and improvisation collectives in Germany and Spain.
2017-2020 Dr. sc. Mus. HfMT Hamburg “Moving Together. Creating immersive, multimodal, interactive scores for interdisciplinary composition and performance”
2016-2017 Kontakte Studium – New Composition techniques. HfMT (Hamburg, Germany)
Sylvain Devaux
Freelance musician residing in Paris. Sylvain participates in a large variety of projects/ensembles, e.g:
- Open Call for Oboe and electronics composer and performer
The first version of the piece was performed in Hamburg at the CoPeCo Final concert. - Warn!ng Collective – improviser, interpreter, artistic coordinator
Work in progress: Insanæ Navis – Musical theatre piece (no media available yet)
Improvisation broadcast with the collective: www.dailymotion.com/video/x4c65qq
www.collectifwarning.com - Ensemble l’Itinéraire – performer
www.litineraire.fr - Ensemble Ictus – performer
Last project: Collaboration with Amir Elsaffar Concert’s recording on France Musique: www.francemusique.fr/emissions/le-concert-du-soir/amir-elsaffar-ictus-36681 - Collaborations with the composer Chia Hui Chen – improviser/interpreter
Chia Hui Chen, premiere of Replisome III for Oboe and electronics (excerpt: medias.ircam.fr/xb9d514 ) - Collaboration with the video artist Jacques Perconte and the ensemble Miroirs étendus on the Faust Project (teaser: vimeo.com/221334642)
Mersid Ramisevic
