Barbara Buchholz
Encyclopedia
Barbara Buchholz is a Berlin-based german musician and composer. She is one of the leading Theremin
-players of the world.
, guitar, bass guitar and singing at the Bielefeld University
. She earned her first success as a bass player in the German woman jazz band Reichlich Weiblich. Since the early 1980s she worked on various interdisciplinary projects both as performer and composer. She produced e.g. Tap It Deep - „midified“ Steppdance and music, Human Interactivity and Theremin: Berlin-Moscow.
At the end of the 1990s Buchholz met Lydia Kavina
, the grandniece of Léon Theremin
; later she went to Moscow and became a master student of Kavina. In jazz and contemporary music she develops new playing techniques and experiments with various sound possibilities for the theremin.
Together with Lydia Kavina, 2005 Buchholz founded the Platform Touch! Don't Touch! for theremin. New compositions for the platform were worked out amongst others by Moritz Eggert
, Michael Hirsch, Caspar Johannes Walter, Juliane Klein, Peter Gahn, Gordon Kampe and Sidney Corbett
.
Buchholz performs e.g. in a trio with Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen
and live electronics performer Jan Bang, tours with Jazz Bigband Graz in the framework of ELECTRIC POETRY & Lo-Fi Cookies and conducts solo performances as well.
She played the theremin in various contemporary works, like The Little Mermaid, a ballet
by John Neumeier
, music by Lera Auerbach
, and in the operas Linkerhand by Moritz Eggert and Bestmann-Opera by Alex Nowitz.
In 2009 Buchholz participated in the talent show - the German version of Got Talent - and succeeded in presenting the theremin to a wide audience.
Theremin
The theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device...
-players of the world.
Life
Buchholz studied fluteWestern concert flute
The Western concert flute is a transverse woodwind instrument made of metal or wood. It is the most common variant of the flute. A musician who plays the flute is called a flautist, flutist, or flute player....
, guitar, bass guitar and singing at the Bielefeld University
Bielefeld University
Bielefeld University is a university in Bielefeld, Germany. Founded in 1969, it is one of the country's newer universities, and considers itself a "reform" university, following a different style of organization and teaching than the established universities...
. She earned her first success as a bass player in the German woman jazz band Reichlich Weiblich. Since the early 1980s she worked on various interdisciplinary projects both as performer and composer. She produced e.g. Tap It Deep - „midified“ Steppdance and music, Human Interactivity and Theremin: Berlin-Moscow.
At the end of the 1990s Buchholz met Lydia Kavina
Lydia Kavina
Lydia Kavina is a Russian theremin player, and is currently the leading performing musician on the instrument.The grandniece of Léon Theremin, Kavina was born in Moscow and began studying the instrument under the direction of Theremin when she was nine years old...
, the grandniece of Léon Theremin
Léon Theremin
Léon Theremin was a Russian and Soviet inventor. He is most famous for his invention of the theremin, one of the first electronic musical instruments. He is also the inventor of interlace, a technique of improving the picture quality of a video signal, widely used in video and television technology...
; later she went to Moscow and became a master student of Kavina. In jazz and contemporary music she develops new playing techniques and experiments with various sound possibilities for the theremin.
Together with Lydia Kavina, 2005 Buchholz founded the Platform Touch! Don't Touch! for theremin. New compositions for the platform were worked out amongst others by Moritz Eggert
Moritz Eggert
Moritz Eggert is a German composer and pianist.- Life :Moritz Eggert began his studies in piano and composition in 1975 at Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium in Frankfurt , at the Musikhochschule Frankfurt and at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München...
, Michael Hirsch, Caspar Johannes Walter, Juliane Klein, Peter Gahn, Gordon Kampe and Sidney Corbett
Sidney Corbett
Sidney Corbett is an American composer based in Germany.- Biography :He studied music and philosophy at the University of California, San Diego, and earned his doctorate from Yale University in 1989. From 1985-88 Corbett studied at the Musikhochschule in Hamburg with György Ligeti...
.
Buchholz performs e.g. in a trio with Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen
Arve Henriksen
Arve Henriksen is a Norwegian trumpet player, renowned for his distinctive, flute-like sound on the trumpet, inspired by the sound of the Japanese shakuhachi flute. He also sings; his unique wordless vocalising was central to Chiaroscuro, where he often sings in a soprano's range...
and live electronics performer Jan Bang, tours with Jazz Bigband Graz in the framework of ELECTRIC POETRY & Lo-Fi Cookies and conducts solo performances as well.
She played the theremin in various contemporary works, like The Little Mermaid, a ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
by John Neumeier
John Neumeier
John Neumeier is a well-known American ballet dancer, choreographer, and director. He has been the director and chief choreographer of the Hamburg Ballet since 1973. 5 years later he founded the Hamburg Ballet School, which also includes a boarding school...
, music by Lera Auerbach
Lera Auerbach
Lera Auerbach is a Russian-born American composer and pianist.-Early life & education:Auerbach was born in Chelyabinsk, a city in the Urals bordering Siberia. She holds degrees in piano and composition from The Juilliard School, where she studied piano with Joseph Kalichstein and composition...
, and in the operas Linkerhand by Moritz Eggert and Bestmann-Opera by Alex Nowitz.
In 2009 Buchholz participated in the talent show - the German version of Got Talent - and succeeded in presenting the theremin to a wide audience.
Discography (Selection)
- Touch! Don't Touch! (2006; wergo), together with Lydia Kavina & Kammerensemble Neue Musik BerlinKammerensemble Neue Musik BerlinKammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, also known as KNM Berlin, is a music ensemble for contemporary music based in Berlin, Germany.The ensemble was founded in 1988 in then East Berlin by students of the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler"...
- Theremin: Russia with Love (2006; intuition)
- Moonstruck (2008; intuition)