Let me play the lion too

Alexander Chernyshkov

Alexander Chernyshkov is a composer and improviser whose work explores the expansion of sonic possibilities through acoustic and mechanical inventions. He builds instruments from tubes, motors, relays and electromagnets to physically shape sound. His artistic focus is on performative music theatre, particularly within his company Error Theater, which frames misunderstanding and the unfinished as central compositional principles. His music has been performed by ensembles such as musikFabrik, Nadar, PHACE and the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble, at festivals such as Wien Modern, the Venice Biennale and the Maggio Musicale. His theatre works have been staged at Opera Stabile Hamburg, Oper Halle and Deutsche Oper am Rhein. As a former scholarship holder of the Akademie Musiktheater Heute, he received the NOperas! prize (2021) and won the FUX Composition Prize (2025). As a performer he is active in the Viennese improvisation scene, among others with Franz Hautzinger and Marina Poleukhina. His recordings have been released by Pan Y Rosas and TOPOT.

Philipp Lossau

Philipp Lossau is a director and set designer with a focus on experimental and contemporary music theatre. Since 2020, he has co-directed the Error Theatre company with composer Alexander Chernyshkov, with performances at festivals such as steirischer herbst, Musiktheatertage Wien and Deutsche Oper am Rhein. He works with composers such as Saskia Bladt, Jesse Broekman, Marina Poleukhina and Diana Syrse as well as with the Ensemble Modern. His work often includes music theatre for and with children and young people; since 2021 he has directed the Allez Hop series at the Wiener Konzerthaus. Trained in stage design at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna under Anna Viebrock and Nina von Mechow, he was a directing fellow at the Akademie Musiktheater Heute. From 2013-2018 he worked closely with Hans Neuenfels on productions at major opera houses and festivals, including the Bavarian State Opera and the Salzburg Festival. He was born in Lörrach and currently lives in Vienna.

Maria Buzhor

Maria Buzhor is a dramaturge, author and performer whose work is situated between opera, performance and politics. As a central member of the collective Hauen und Stechen, she develops immersive and cross-genre pieces that draw on the operatic canon and her personal biography. Her perspective as a Ukrainian migrant often characterises her artistic narratives. She has written numerous libretti and adaptations, including Carmen (2017) in Paris and Kitesh (2020) at Oper Halle, where she collaborated with Alexander Chernyshkov. In search of polyphony and radical inclusion, she developed Tristan und Isolde together with Theater HORA and later founded the inclusive ensemble Trisolde. She wrote the libretto for the village opera Nacht von Allerheiligen (2021). Her prophetic research on Jeanne d'Arc and the opera Kitesh gained new relevance in the context of the war in Ukraine. In 2022, she curated Sound of the City at Oper Wuppertal, which united Ukrainian fencers and local martial artists with the opera ensemble.

Marino Formenti

Marino Formenti is a pianist, conductor, composer and performance artist, described by the Los Angeles Times as "a Glenn Gould for the 21st century". Known for his radical concert formats and innovative programming, he develops musical experiences that combine works, cultures and eras - often in settings that challenge traditional concert forms. In projects such as NOWHERE, he lives and plays in a public space for weeks at a time, while ONE TO ONE invites you to private, intimate musical encounters. He has performed at major festivals such as Salzburg and Lucerne and played in halls such as Lincoln Centre and Wigmore Hall. Formenti has worked across genres with artists such as Georg Baselitz and hip-hop musicians such as Megaloh and collaborated with contemporary composers, while advocating a deeply personal approach to interpretation. He has conducted at La Scala in Milan and performed under conductors such as Dudamel and Salonen. Formenti teaches at the Mozarteum Salzburg and was awarded the Belmont Prize in 2009.

Thorbjörn Björnsson

Thorbjörn Björnsson, born in Iceland, is a singer, performer and director known for his work between opera and experimental theatre. He studied singing at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin and worked intensively with director David Marton at renowned theatres such as the Schaubühne Berlin, the Opéra de Lyon and the Wiener Festwochen. He made his directorial debut with Das Verein at the Neuköllner Oper and with Holzfæller at the Sophiensælen. Björnsson is a regular collaborator of the collective Hauen und Stechen, with performances at the Bavarian State Opera, the Hamburg State Opera and others. He sang the title role in the world premiere of Kleist by Rainer Rubbert and appeared in Angela Schanelec's film Der traumhafte Weg. In recent years, he has developed a close artistic partnership with the composer Alexander Chernyshkov, with joint projects at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and the Hamburg State Opera. Since 2018, he has formed the duo Björnsson/Marx with Julia Marx.

Katelyn Rose King

Katelyn Rose King is a musician, performer and researcher working at the intersection of theatre, contemporary music and the spaces in between. Her current artistic and scholarly interests include post-digital music and theatre cultures, electronic extensions of percussion, and feminist perspectives on trans/post-humanist musical practice. Her solo practice combines percussion, extended vocal techniques, electronics and physical presence to explore authorship, composition, improvisation and sonic immersion. In addition to her solo work, she teaches, performs in pop contexts and is also active in classical contemporary percussion. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, she has worked in the USA, Canada, Switzerland and Austria. She lives in Vienna and is pursuing a doctorate in artistic research. She is a Fulbright Scholar and holds degrees from the Bern University of the Arts (MA in Composition & Theory with a focus on Théâtre Musical), McGill University (MMus in Percussion) and Kennesaw State University (BMus in Percussion).
www.katelynkingpercussion.com

Errortheatre

Errortheater is a music-theatrical liberation action. Alexander Chernyshkov is a trained composer, his scores include notes as well as situations. He founded Errortheater in 2016. Philipp Lossau joined in 2020 and works in the areas of set design and directing, preferably somewhere in between. Dramaturge Maria Buzhor has worked closely with Errortheater since developing the play Eternal October at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein (2024).
Errortheater has already established itself with numerous productions and destructions at festivals such as Biennale di Venezia, Steirischer Herbst and venues such as Radiokulturhaus Wien and Elektrotheater Stanislawski Moscow and Deutsche Oper am Rhein. Recurring actors work in ever new and expanded constellations on productive and disruptive encounters.
After Trascrizione di un errore, No Distance Left to Sound and most recently Der Simmerring, Liberace marks their fourth appearance at the Musiktheatertage Wien.