Concerts and Events
Saturday, June 26 to Sunday, July 4, 2010
Daily from 04pm to 06pm
A multidimensional installation of photography
and sound recordings
By Julia Calfee
The project presented by Julia Calfee is part of her work The Last Songs of the Glaciers which the American-born artist has been developing since the summer of 2007 in and around the Länta Glacier in Vals. Julia Calfee researches the phneomenon of climate change with a special focus on fresh water as the source of all life on our planet. Edition Therme Vals showcases the experimental, multidimensional and multi-media approach to one of the most relevant themes of our times.
"Soon my new friend which I named Honeycomb Glacier began to disintegrate, and the holes in the ice became the windows to the sky. I would lie under the igloo-like shape and watch the clouds go by until all become one vision. Lying under this roof, I heard many strange noises within the last rhythms of the melting ice, sounds like a heart beating very fast, beating desperately for its last oxygen. The ice continued to melt, and was transformed into the shape of dolphins. I took photos of all these attempts for survival which were at the same time all encompassing and pitiful".
Julia Calfee
Julia Calfee
American-born photographer Julia Calfee has spent most of her professional life living and working in Europe. She majored in journalism at NYU and studied art history at the Sorbonne in Paris. Her first book, Photogenes, was published by the Joan Miro Foundation in 1995. Other books by Julia Calfee inlcude Mountain Spirits and Ghosts: Journeys through Mongolia (powerHouse Books, 2003), and Inside the Chelsea Hotel (powerHouse Books, 2008). Calfee's work, e.g. her photo essays, have appeared in the National Geographic book Inside China in 2007 as well as in many other publications, such as the New York Times Magazine, Paris Match, Figaro Magazine, Time, London Sunday Times, The Guardian and has also been shown in museums and galleries worldwide. Her work The Last Songs of the Glaciers was first published by Edition Therme Vals (Stone and Water, Winter 2008) and recently presented by Radio Free Europe in November 2009 in the context of the World Climate summit in Copenhagen.
Thursday, July 22 and Friday, July 23, 2010
In the Therme and open air
René Krebs: conch shells
Alejandro Blau: didgeridoo
Listening closely to sounds, to barely audible sounds - blown, almost whispered. For the first time this unconventional wind-duo made up of Alejandro Blau (Berlin) and René Krebs (Zürich) will improvise soundscapes on the didgeridoo and conch shells. Miniature wind pieces that take the listener on uncharted acoustic journeys and woven into them silence and the thrill of experimenting with unsual techniques.
René Krebs
A creaking, a squeaking, a gurgling, a twanging: the musician René Krebs experiments with a different sort of sound. Orginally a trumpet palyer and jazz musician, Krebs likes to experiment with highly unusual instruments. He plays the gas flame organ and conch shell, or submerges his trumpet while blowing it. His unconventional instruments have earned René Krebs a gig at the Expo 2010 in Shanghai.
Alejandro Blau
Alejandro Blau performs in ensembles and as a soloist. His versatile knowledge of playing the didgeriddo allows him to present audiences with many different styles of music. What fascinates him most is the amazing range of moods this instrument can produce.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
11:30 pm | in the Therme
Echo vom Zürihorn
Priska Walss, Nick Gutersohn, and Robert Morgenthaler: alphorn
Priska Walss, Nick Gutersohn, and Robert Morgenthaler, a.k.a. the alphorn trio "Echo vom Zürihorn", have been exploring new paths and forms of expression since 2000. Each adds his or her many years of experience with African or classical music, free improvisation, and jazz to the new pieces they create together. The trio's range extends from purely percussive numbers, to jazz standards, to long overtones, from Australian didgeridoo sounds, to pulsing Afro-grooves, to South American dance.
Priska Walss
Born in Zurich. Priska Walss studied at the Zürich Conservatory and was a member of the Grisons Chamber Orchestra for more than ten years. Parallel to this, she improvised on the trombone and alphorn both as a soloist and in ensembles. In addition to playing at jazz festivals at home and abroad, she also collaborated in various theater, musical, and ballet productions and developed her own projects in which she combined her music with visual forms of expression or texts. Through her involvement in a wide range of activities, Priska Walss has, over the past two decades, contributed significantly to the discovery and establishment of the alphorn in experimental music.
Nick Gutersohn
Grew up in the Zürcher Oberland. In 1994 he received his teaching degree in trombone at the Zürich Conservatory and went on to study at the Swiss Jazz School in Bern for two more years. He started out working as a substitute trombonist in symphony orchestras but became gradually drawn to jazz, above all improvised music. Especially the primordial sounds of the conch shell and the alphorn have fascinated him for years.
Robert Morgenthaler
Robert Morgenthaler studied at the Zürich Conservatory and the Swiss Jazz School in Bern. He has taught at the Bern University of the Arts and the Music School of the Lucerne University of Applied Arts since 1979. International activities as trombonist and compser have taken him on tour in Europe, Africa, USA, South America, Asia and Russia. In addition to being involved in various radio, television, and cd productions. Robert Morgenthaler performed at the World Fair 2000 in Hanover as a soloist in the Swiss pavilion, and in 2002 he was commissioned to compose a piece for the opening of the Expo.02 in Murten with "Roots of Communication" and Erika Stucky.
Friday, September 17, 2010
06:00 pm | in the Blue Lounge
Fusion of Jazz and Musica Popular Brasileira
Simone Santos: vocals, percussion, and lyrics
Jodok Hess: piano and composition
Patrick Sommer: double bass
Florian Reichle: drums, percussion
The Simone Santos Quartett takes listeners on a musical journey to a world that churns the taste of the ocean and life's whims into songs. With poetic lyrics by Simone Santos and compositions by Jodok Hess their music hovers somewhere between jazz and Musica Popular Brasileira.
Dürrenmatt's imagery has accompanied the quartet from the start: Simone Santos was reading Dürrenmatt's ballad "The Minotaur" when Jodok Hess asked her if she would write the lyrics to one of his compositions. The labyrinth of mirrors was soon transformed into the words to a song, and this piece became the seed that grew into the Simone Santos Quartett.
Simone Santos
Simone Santos' musical roots go back to Brasilia, where she palyed in a guitar orchestra for three years after graduating from music school. After that, she sang in different Brazilian groups and won the Best Singer award and first place at the Gama Festival, Brazil. In 2001 she moved to Switzerland, and with her charismatic voice she soon found her place in the Brazilian and jazz scenes. In addition to her Simone Santos Band, she also performs in projects by Rodrigo Botter Maio, in the duo with her partner Sven Olar, and since 2008 in the Simone Santos Quartett.
Jodok Hess
After attending the highly acclaimed Berklee College of Music in Boston, and while he was studying German at the University of Zürich, Jodok Hess also played many concerts as bandleader and sideman and recorded albums with various groups - including CMYK Note and Ademir Candido - as well as with his own Blue Goat Quartet. Since 2008 Jodok Hess has headed the jazz department at the Swiss radio station DRS.
Patrick Sommer
Patrick Sommer studied double bass and electric bass at the Swiss Jazz School in Bern and in Los Angeles. Because of his warm and full sound, his brilliant technique, and his mutability, he is one of the most sought-after sideman in the scene today. His current album projects include recordings with Adrian Frey Trio, Julian Amacker, and the Marianne Racine Quartet. Patrick Sommer is also a muscian and composer for theater and dance productions, and he works as an independent muscian, playing numerous concerts in Switzerland and abroad. He lives in Zurich.
Florian Reichle
Florian Reichle studied at the Lucerne Jazz School. He spent numerous semesters abroad in Brazil and Ghana, where he devoted himself intensely to studying Brazilian, African, and Afro Cuban grooves. Florian Reichle is an expectional timekeeper, a very imaginative and virtuoso soloist, and a perfect team player all wrapped into one. He regularly plays concerts (jazz, Musica Brasileira, and hip hop), lives in Uster and teaches part-time at a music school.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
10:30pm ¦ In the Therme
Heights of Communication
The many, many gongs, drums, and other percussion instruments, the likes of which no one has ever seen before, are the tools of the trade for these two musicians. They maintain focused eye contact with each other; exactly timed riffs, followed by perfectly placed accents. They play together like a single hearbeat. The Zumthor-Niggli Duo is in every way the height of communication and brings together two percussion poets from the younger generation of the Swiss scene. In a series of their own pieces and improvisations they make the instruments their vehicle for expressing the sensibility, the lyricsm - even the silence.
Friday, October 29, 2010
06pm ¦ in the Old Swimming Pool
Dionysian Duo - A Physical Concert Experience
Like two magicians the percussion artists Peter Conradin Zumthor and Lucas Niggli sit among their drums, coaxing and conjuring various sounds and rhythmso out of them. They get their instruments to sing the way others do with language. Their music is as subtle and ambiguous as poetry. Sometimes it is like calm and thoughtful breathing, and other times it is hyperventilating, so intense it makes you sweat. In addition to their own pieces and improvisations the Drum Duo will also be playing the two moving pieces by the Swiss composer Felix Profos "Erster Tanz" und "Zweiter Tanz" numbers written specifically for the Niggli-Zumthor Duo. The first piece was commissioned by the Hotel Therme Vals and the world premiere took place in Vals in October 2008.
Peter Conradin Zumthor
Born in 1979, lives in Haldenstein. Autodidactic studies in many areas. He writes music for theater and installations and tours with different groups, collaborating on a number of projects in Switzerland, Germany, Slovenia and Croatia. He plays in the band azeotrop with Dominik Blum and is a member of the African-Swiss drum quartet beat bag bohemia with Kesivan Naidoo, Rolando Lamusseene, and Lucas Niggli, and the Steamboat Extended Ensemble.
Lucas Niggli
The musician and composer Lucas Niggli was born in Cameroon in 1968 and today lives in Uster near Zurich. He is a member of Steamboat Switzerland. Niggli plays in various bands led by Pierre Favre (Singing Drums, European Chamber Ensemble, and the drum octet The Drummers). Since 1999 he has composed music for his own group Lucas Niggli zoom, which has performed at a number of festivals to date. Niggli has been on tour all over the world many times and has performed works by contemporary composers, including Mauricio Kagel, Larry Polansky, John Cage, Frederic Rzewski, and Gunther Schulter.
Monday, November 8, 2010
06pm ¦ in the Old Swimming Pool
Jonas Tauber: double bass
Daniela Oswald: cello
Friday, November 26, 2010
06 pm ¦ in the Old Swimming Pool
Jonas Tauber: double bass
Daniela Oswald: cello
In the summer of 1824, when Gioacchino Rossini wrote his well-known and well-loved Duetto for Cello and Double Bass, Domenico Dragonetti (1763-1846) was one of the major figures in the London music scene. Also known by his nickname "il drago" he was regarded as the "Paganini of the double bass" and was the first international virtuoso on this instrument. In addition to being the solo bassist at the King's Theatre, he was also a composer. Among other works, he wrote several concerts for double bass, the said Duo in B Flat Major for Cello and Double Bass, and vocal music in which the double bass has already secured itself a spot as an outstanding solo instrument. Pieces they wrote themselves are included in their repertoire, rounding off this journey through musical history.
These two dissimilar siblings, the cello and double bass, may make an ood picture at first glance, but on second glance one notices the sheer unlimited range of sound possibilities and the many areas for applying this exciting contrast between the rhythmic bass foundation and the steady soprano melody.
Daniela Oswald and Jonas Tauber
have been collaborating musically for many years. Born in Winterthur, raised in the USA, Jonas Tauber received his Bachelor of Music in Performance and Literature as a cellist at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. After several years of performing as a soloist with various orchestras and as a cellist and double bassist on numerous concert tours, the musician and composer now lives in Switzerland. He has released countless cd's and teaches double bass improvisation at the Bern University of the Arts. Daniela Oswald was born in Zurich and studied with Johannes Degen and Thomas Grossenbacher. In 2004 she earned her teaching degree, graduating with honors from Lucerne Jazz School under Marek Jerie. She plays in various orchestras in Switzerland and abroad as a substitute and is a member of several chamber music ensembles.