Artist-in-Residence with CDH and the Digital and Cognitive Musicology Lab (DCML), Prof. Martin Rohrmeier
- Concert and dialogue: Wednesday May 11 – 8:30 pm
Michael Wollny Trio
EPFL Forum Rolex - Workshop: Tuesday May 10 – 6:15 pm
With Michael Wollny and Martin Rohrmeier
EPFL Room BC420
> Free entry
At the invitation of the CDH and the DCML, Michael Wollny will explore the artistic spaces of music creation, music theory and computation during his EPFL residency. During his first visit, he will offer a workshop and concert with his trio, in which he will provide a look into an artist’s creative processes and explore questions of aesthetics, composition and expression.
Michael Wollny Trio
- Concert and Dialogue
Wednesday May 11 – 8:30 pm
Forum Rolex Learning Center
Michael Wollny (piano)
Christian Weber (bass)
Eric Schaefer (drums)
Our Artist-in-Residence 2022, Michael Wollny and his trio will perform some of their recent compositions. The event will also feature academic dialogue and interaction with the audience. It will look into the artists’ workflow, questions of aesthetics and expression, collective improvisation and the role of the “now” in live music creation.
The discussion will be in English.
Wunderkammer, Laboratory and Stage
- Workshop with Michael Wollny and Martin Rohrmeier
Tuesday May 10 – 6:15 pm
EPFL Room BC420
A look into the workshop of an improvising pianist and composer
Workshop with Michael Wollny and Martin Rohrmeier
What roles do ‘artistic research’ and ‘informed intuition’ play in the creative process? How are pieces created? How are ensembles formed? How does one compose for improvising musicians? Using selected examples of Wollny’s work, both as a soloist and as part of an ensemble, this workshop will shed light on underlying motifs, aesthetic ideas, musical structures, and the working process itself. It will focus on the relationship between material, process, and moment.
The workshop is open, and everybody is invited to bring their own questions, ideas, and even their own works for feedback and discussion.
The workshop will be held in English.
Michael Wollny
Michael Wollny is an internationally successful jazz pianist, music inventor, unconventional thinker, and popular figure. Nobody plays piano like him. His trademark: the unpredictable, the quest for the never-before-heard, the courage to devote himself to the moment, to make the unforeseen sound self-evident. His desire to keep reinventing himself, both in terms of sound and composition; that is what makes him a “consummate piano maestro” (FAZ) and “the biggest (jazz) musician personality that Germany has produced since Albert Mangelsdorff” (Hamburger Abendblatt).
Wollny feels at home in many different formats: solo, in duo with musicians like Heinz Sauer, Vincent Peirani, Tamar Halperin or Konstantin Gropper, with the Michael Wollny Trio, the quartet „Out Of Land“ and many other collaborations with musicians from all kinds of musical directions such as Nils Landgren, Emile Parisien, the Norwegian Wind Ensemble, Marius Neset, Leafcutter John or Joachim Kühn.