24 April 2014
7.30 p.m.

Werkstatt der Kulturen – Club
Wissmannstraße 32, Berlin-Neukölln
U7, U8 Hermannplatz

Amos Elkana – Composition, Computer, Electric Guitar
Hindol Deb – Sitar
Dan Weinstein – Cello
Roy Amotz – Flute

The International Research Center »Interweaving Performance Cultures« organized a concert of current IRC Fellow Amos Elkana, Hindol Deb, Dan Weinstein and Roy Amotz. Their performance was based partly on free improvisation and partly on Elkana’s compositions prepared especially for this concert. A review (in German) of the evening is available here.

Free admission.

Artist Biographies

Amos Elkana, born in Boston, grew up in Jerusalem. He studied Jazz guitar at Berklee College of Music and composition at the New England Conservatory of Music. He then went on to Bard College, where he earned an MFA in electronic music and sound. Over the years, Elkana has received numerous awards for his compositions, among them the 2011 Israeli Prime Minister’s Prize for Music Composition and the 2012 Rozenblum Prize for excellence in the arts. Elkana composes concert music for orchestras, ensembles and individual performers as well as for dance, theatre and film. His works have been performed and recorded by ensembles and musicians from all over the world, including the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and the clarinettist Richard Stoltzman. Elkana regularly participates in concerts and performances of improvised music.

Hindol Deb is sitar player and one of the promising concert soloists of India. Though firmly rooted in his tradition, he has a remarkable experimental instinct. He has been working closely with some accomplished musicians from different genres bringing out a fine synthesis of Indian classical music with Blues, Jazz, Flamenco, Middle Eastern, Nordic, Irish folk music, Contemporary Western Classical and avant-garde music. Deb was invited by the Carnegie Hall for a residency and by the French and Swedish government to work on projects with different musicians and participate in festivals. Further he realized a Japan tour. He regularly gives concerts and conducts workshops on Indian music at schools and universities in Asia, Europe and North America.

Dan Weinstein is a graduate of the Tel Aviv Music Academy and of the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris. He is a virtuoso and versatile musician, teacher and lecturer. Among his activities he runs projects which combine dance, theatre and electronic music. Weinstein has collaborated with composers and musicians from various fields including Steve Reich, Giya Kancelli, Betsy Jolas, John Zorn and David Grubbs. He has performed and recorded on French and Israeli radio and television, for the European Union broadcasting union. Notable festival appearances have included a solo recital at Main d’œvures, Paris, Europe en Musique, Le Printemps de la Danse, the Israel Festival, the Spring Festival in Rishon, the Kfar Blum Festival, the John Zorn Festival and the Ultra Nova Festival, as well as numerous of chamber music concerts across Europe and Asia. He regularly performs with several contemporary music ensembles and is a member of the Musica Nova Consort, for whom he has produced a number of experimental concerts and an Opera incorporating contemporary pieces and electro acoustic elements.

Roy Amotz was born in Jerusalem in 1982 and now lives in Berlin. Amotz performs worldwide as a soloist and in various chamber music formations as well as in the orchestral field. His range of musical activity includes early music, classical and romantic repertoire as well as contemporary music. His interest in new music and new forms has brought with it collaborations and experiments with young composers and in 2012 the creation of a concerto for flute and string orchestra together with composer Amit Gilutz »While We Danced«. Dedicated to promoting new classical music in Israel, Amotz is a member of the acclaimed »Ensemble Meitar« – founded with the objective of performing and recording contemporary and Israeli chamber music. In this frame he has cooperated with numerous composers and toured world wide.