Dense wood

Georg Blaschke lives with his family in Seestadt in Vienna and works as a freelance choreographer, art producer and dance performer. As a lecturer for contemporary dance training, he teaches at festivals, universities and conservatories for dance and performing arts. The specific method of his teaching always incorporates the somatic practice associated with the respective projects. The current productions are particularly influenced by the evolutionary background of the human body, its archaeological significance as a found object and its forms of representation in the visual arts and are usually developed as interventions specifically for unconventional performance spaces. The choreographic language crystallises in the close interplay of movement research with video, light, costume and sound design.

Current projects: dense wood / Extinct Choreography / Cracks / Grass

www.georgblaschke.com

Matthias Kranebitter (*1980 in Vienna) studied electro-acoustic composition in Vienna with Dieter Kaufmann and German Toro-Perez, media composition with Klaus-Peter Sattler, postgraduate composition in Amsterdam and in Graz with Alexander Stankovski and Beat Furrer.

His music thematises aspects of our media society with its flood of information. It is characterised by a high degree of density and heterogeneity, the inclusion of the most diverse (un)musical materials as a de-hierarchisation and relativisation of dogmas and taboos. He works increasingly with electronics and new media.

His works have been honoured with the 1st Prize at the Gustav Mahler Competition 2006, 1st Prize Project Holland Symfonia Gaudeamus Music Week Amsterdam 2009, Impuls Composition Prize Graz 2013, Publicity Award of Austro Mechana 2013 and the City of Vienna Promotion Prize 2014.

In 2015/16 he received the scholarship of the Young Academy of the Academy of Arts Berlin, in 2020 the Erste Bank Composition Prize of Wien Modern and Klangforum Wien as well as the Composition Prize of the City of Stuttgart, and in 2022 the Ernst Krenek Prize of the City of Vienna.

Previous collaborations have taken place with ensembles such as the Belgian Nadar Ensemble, Decoder Ensemble Hamburg, Ensemble Mosaik Berlin, Ensemble Garage Cologne, Talea Ensemble New York, Ensemble Phace, Klangforum Wien or RSO Vienna.

He is co-founder of the Unsafe+Sounds Festival and artistic director of the Black Page Orchestra.

www.matthiaskranebitter.com

The BLACK PAGE ORCHESTRA is an ensemble founded in Vienna in 2014 for radical and uncompromising music of our time.

Named after the composition "The Black Page" by Frank Zappa, an almost black page due to the excessive density of notes, the ensemble has been able to set significant new aesthetic impulses in the Viennese music scene in its 10 years of existence. Numerous international composers, but also local composers of the youngest generation, whose works are at the intersection of music, technology and media art, were introduced to the local audience for the first time by the Black Page Orchestra.

In addition to numerous guest performances (e.g. at Märzmusik Berlin, Warsaw Autumn, PAN Festival Seoul, Mixtur Barcelona, Music Current Dublin, Ultraschall Berlin, Wien Modern, Wiener Festwochen, ImPulsTanz)  the ensemble has also had its own concert cycle in the Musikverein's Gläserne Saal since 2020.

Alina Bertha lives in Vienna and works as a performer, choreographer and dance teacher. She completed her training at the Anton Bruckner University. As a performer, she has presented works by Valentin Alfery/Hungry Sharks Cie, Sara-Lisa Bals, Jarek Cemerek, Daphna Horenczyk, Dorian Kaufeisen, Evangelos Poulinas, Francesco Scavetta, Ich bin O.K. dance company and danced at the Landestheater Linz under the direction of Karl Absenger. She is currently working with choreographers Lisa Bunderla and Romy Kolb as well as with visual artists Elena Kristofor and Laura Sperl.

Elda Gallo is a contemporary dancer and performer who graduated from the Paolo Grassi Dance Theatre Academy in Milan and the SEAD Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance. She studied with and danced for choreographers such as: L.Child, Shen Wei, Gruppo MK. A.Vidach, P.Blackman& C.Gouzelis, M.Koistinen, R.Olivan.  She has danced for international companies such as Pietro Marullo (BE) and Natiscalzi DT (IT) as well as for various productions at Dschungel Wien (AT). She has worked for the Austrian companies: TanzCoop, Vrum, Lazuz, Cie Two in One, Puc and others. Over the years she has worked with M.Matsushita, R.Murgi, E.Bromberg, Luca Signoretti, M.Marfoglia, S.Zuber (CH).  After some experience as a choreographer for the Hangartfest festival. She created her productions "Ocean" (2020) and "A forest to grow people" (2023) and presented her work "2070". She was part of the TQW dance group Parasol 2024 and worked for the choreographers Ulduz Ahmadzadeh and Elisabeth Ward. In 2025 she worked for the Vienna State Opera.

András Meszerics was born in 1994 and is a Hungarian dancer, singer, poet and performing artist. Early on he connected with the underground improvisation scene in Budapest, both in dance and music. In 2014 he moved to Salzburg to study contemporary dance at the SEAD (Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance) and he completed his bachelor programme in 2018. His artistic interest lies in creating performances with a multidisciplinary approach. Since 2019 he has been working with Tomaz Simatovic in an ongoing collaboration. In 2020 he received the working scholarship of the province of Salzburg and in 2021 a scholarship of the Wiener Festwochen.

Maartje Pasman is a Dutch performer and artist and lives in Vienna. She has danced for Florentina Holzinger and Joachim Schlömer, among others, and was part of the ensemble of De Dansers (NL) and Dschungel Wien (AT). As a performer, Maartje has danced in countless performances for young audiences worldwide, e.g. Ubumuntu Festival (RW), ASSITEJ Festival (KOR), Tweetakt (NL). For her artistic efforts she received the Stella14 award for "Outstanding Performing Performance" and danced in Roses (Wies Merkx) and Couple Like#2 (Keren Levi & Ugo Dehaes), both of which were honoured with the award for "Best Performing Performance for Young Audiences". As a freelance artist, her artistic works have been shown at the SCHÄXPIR Festival (AT), among others. Maartje received the danceWEB scholarship in 2018, the Start Scholarship and the Working Scholarship 2020. She is always looking for new artistic ways to create high quality performances for young audiences.

Niko Božek was born in Croatia in 2005, where he graduated from the music school in Varaždin. He has been studying concert tuba at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna since 2023. He regularly takes part in classical and contemporary music projects. He has often been honoured at competitions, most recently at the 2025 Woodwind&Brass Competition, where he won first prize / first place.

Teresa Doblinger is active in the contemporary art field as a clarinettist, dancer and choreographer, combining these disciplines in many ways, both creating and performing, among others as a member of the Black Page Orchestra, LaKT Ensemble and Ensemble N. She has performed worldwide, including in Canada, the USA, South Korea and Argentina. http://teresadoblinger.com/

Helene Kenyeri began her concert studies in 1998 at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz/Institut Oberschützen with Gerhard Turetschek. At the same time, she studied at the Vienna Conservatory in the class of Harald Hörth and at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna for instrumental and vocal pedagogy. She graduated with honours in both subjects. To further her musical development, she studied privately with Paul Kaiser and attended the PPCM (Performance and Practice in Contemporary Music) master's programme at Klangforum Wien, which she completed with distinction in November 2012.

During her studies, Helene Kenyeri already played oboe and cor anglais in the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera. She is currently an oboist with recreation - Großes Orchester Graz, the ensemble reconsil wien, Trio Mignon Wien and the Black Page Orchestra.

She has been passing on her skills and passion to pupils and students at the Joseph Haydn Conservatory in Eisenstadt since 2012.

Helene Kenyeri has received numerous prestigious prizes and awards, including the Vienna Symphony Orchestra Prize in 2003 and the Dr Karl Böhm Scholarship in 2007.

Spiros Laskaridisborn in Corfu, studied at the Aghia Paraskevi Conservatory in Athens and at the Musikhögskolan in Malmö. He was solo trumpet player in the orchestra of the Greek National Opera and tutti trumpet player in the state orchestra in Thessaloniki. He is a trumpet lecturer at the Friedrich Gulda School of Music and trumpet teacher at the Freie Musikschule Wien. He is a member of the PHACE and Ergon ensembles.

Chloé Ryo is a contemporary trombonist and sound artist who currently lives in Vienna and whose work straddles the boundary between experimental and modern classical music. Her creative work covers a broad spectrum ranging from the interpretation of written scores to improvisation, electronic composition and performative art. She has participated in many different contemporary ensembles and festivals, such as the Musik Fabrik Ensemble, the Zeitfluss Ensemble, the Trickster Orchestra, the Klangforum Wien, the Lucerne Academy Orchestra, the Ulysses Ircam Ensemble, the Podium Festival Ensemble, the Graz Impro Fest, Elevate...

Sophie Freimüller was born in Kirchdorf a.d. Krems in 1996. She completed her bachelor's degree in theatre, film and media studies at the University of Vienna in 2019. In 2020/21, she gained her first experience in assistant directing and dramaturgy as an assistant director at Dschungel Wien. In 2024 she worked as a production assistant for the Festival Tangente St. Pölten and now works in the areas of production, dramaturgy and assistant directing in productions for young audiences by UNUSUAL BEINGS and the collective Lovefuckers Berlin such as "The Return of Ishtar", "Kalaschinkow mon Amour", "Way Out" "KINGX & QWEENS" and "Hungry Hearts".

Hanna Hollmann is an artist living in Vienna. Starting from an idea, an object, a body, hollmann wants to overcome unambiguity. The resulting images should complete themselves in the eye of the viewer. The search for form and material are essential components of the work process. In her graphic works, the artist is not concerned with perfection, but with the series, the variation, the multitude of possibilities. Time becomes visible through the overlapping of layers, comparable to a performer walking through space. Hanna Hollmann regularly works with  visual artists, directors, dancers and choreographers. She has been involved in many of Georg Blaschke's productions since 2012.
www.hannahollmann.org

Melissa Danas is a sought-after horn player with a successful career as an international concert musician. Born in New York, she studied with Erik Ralske (principal horn of the Metropolitan Opera) at the Juilliard School and later won the prestigious Fulbright Award to study in Vienna with Thomas Jöbstl (horn player of the Vienna Philharmonic) at the mdw. Although she loves the horn, it is only one facet of her creativity. In addition to her extensive freelance work as a guest artist with various orchestras, she has built a career as an entrepreneur and curates her own projects. Growing up and studying in New York taught her to appreciate the importance of diversity, entrepreneurship and innovation in music, and these pillars shape her principles as an artist. Although she harbours a deep love and reverence for the classical tradition, she strives to expand it and make it more inclusive. As a female brass player who has carved out a place for herself in a male-dominated institution, it is her mission to use the position she has gained to make room for others.

The horn player Jason Pfiester is known for his versatile career, which encompasses contemporary, classical and jazz traditions. He lives in Austria and performs both as a soloist and as an ensemble musician. His most recent solo performance took place in Portugal with the Remix Ensemble Casa da Música under the direction of Enno Poppe. He performs regularly with leading ensembles such as Klangforum Wien, the Black Page Orchestra, Ensemble XXI. Jahrhundert, PHACE and Quasars Ensemble and is solo horn player with both the Vienna Ensemble and Oper Burg Gars. This season he is also touring internationally as principal horn with the Rachmaninoff International Orchestra.

Jason is also at home in other traditions and has already performed with the Bach Consort Vienna and jazz ensembles. He can also be seen regularly with Bühne Baden. His artistic interests include microtonality and extended techniques, which he pursues both in solo projects and in ensemble contexts, thus expanding the expressive possibilities of the horn.

In addition to his work as a musician, Jason is passionate about philosophy, enjoys discovering new musical scores and spends a lot of time with his wife and children.

Juan Pablo Trad HasbunDouble bassist and composer, born in Mexico City. Studied double bass with Marji Danilow at the Mannes College of Music in New York and with Petru Iuga at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz. He is a member of the Blackpage Orchestra in Vienna (since 2014) and the Ensemble neue Raum in Klagenfurt (since 2019). He regularly performs in various formations such as RSO Vienna, Ensemble neue Musik Graz, Echos Ensemble, Ghoro-mix,  La Cumbestia and others  on. He has premiered numerous works as a soloist and has taken part in various music and art festivals as an improviser.

Studied composition with Gerd Kühr and Alexander Stankovski at the KUG. His works have been successfully premiered at various famous music festivals, such as Wein Modern, Musik Protokoll, Musica Electronica Nova, ISCM Avant Garde 100, Soli-fan-tutti concert series and Symphonie der Menschenrechte. Some of these works have also been shown on ORF. In 2016, he founded the trio with his colleagues Nos Incogniti. They have played at various festivals such as Tonraum, Jazzwerkstatt, Impuls and Interpenetration. In 2021 they received Nos Incogniti the prize of the Phonoechoes 2021 competition for sound art, electronic music and improvisation. In 2024, in collaboration with Oper NOW, her first monodrama "O" based on the myth of Syisyho by Albert Camus was premiered at the Theater am Lend Graz.