Trumpet, Radio, Speaker, Objects

Born in Nuremberg, she studied the visual arts, which still have an important influence on her music. Since moving to Hamburg in 1982 she has been involved in free improvisation and experimental music. Since then she has "established a distinguished grammar of sounds beyond the open trumpet" (jazzdimensions.de). She performs solo, with dancers, working ensembles, and one-time collaborations with musicians from around the world. Current projects include duos with Ute Wassermann, Gino Robair, Christoph Schiller and Stereo Trumpet with Leonel Kaplan, the trio Nordzucker (with Chris Heenan and Michael Maierhof) and the stark bewölkt quartet. Performances in Europe, the US, South America, Russia and the Middle East together with UNSK, the Trio PUT (with Ulrich Phillipp and Roger Turner), Nordzucker, Heddy Boubaker, Martin Klapper, Rhodri Davies, Chris Heenan, Tim Perkis, Robyn Schulkowsky, John Edwards, Damon Smith, Gene Coleman, Sean Meehan, Ernesto Rodrigues, Nate Wooley, Bryan Eubanks and Sven Ake Johansson.

Current Groups
Duo with Lucio Capece
Duo with Ute Wassermann, voice
Nordzucker with Chris Heenan, counterbass clarinet and Michael Maierhof, cello
Duo with Gino Robair, energized surfaces, voltage made audible
Duo with Gregory Büttner, electronics
Stereo Trumpet, with Leonel Kaplan, trumpet
Radio Silence No More - trumpet solo - trumpet, radio, speaker, mutes
Myelin with Heddy Boubaker, analogue synthesizer
Duo with Christoph Schiller, spinet
Stark Bewölkt Quartett with Michael Maierhof, Heiner Metzger and Gregory Büttner

Past Groups
Quartet with Marianne Schuppe, Christoph Schiller and Wolfgang Ritthoff
PUT with Ulrich Phillipp and Roger Turner
European Improvisation Orchestra with Tim Hodgkinson, Albert Márkos, Martin Klapper, Krzysztof Knittel, Raymond Strid amongst others
Duo with Ernst Thoma
Trio with Damon Smith and Martin Blume
Trio with Martin Klapper and Jürgen Morgenstern
65 with Doro Schürch, Marianne Schuppe, Hannah E. Hänni, Stevie Wishart, Claudia Ulla Binder, Co Streiff and Robyn Schulkowski
Trio with Nina Polaschegg and Peter Niklas Wilson
UNSK with Martin Küchen, Lise-Lotte Norelius and Raymond Strid
Trio with Lou Mallozzi and Michael Zerang

Works with Visual Artists/Film
Reveille, piece for the sound and light installation 'Wake Up' of Allora and Calzadilla, at The Renaissance Society, Chicago
Linien with Syl Betulius, video and Ernst Thoma, live-electronics, Konstanzer Jazzherbst
Graphic Works on Polaroids, exhibition at the NurNichtNur Festival, Kleve
Oszillator #1, concert with new and improvised music, installation of Viola Kiefner Nordzucker + Rhodri Davies, Westwerk Hamburg, 2006
Discrete Palettes, exhibition and concerts at 21 Grand in Oakland, 2005
Menschen am Sonntag, with Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, Glasgow 2008
and AMP2 - Advanced Music & Media Pool Palermo 2011

Performances with Dancers
Performance with Jürgen Morgenstern, doublebass / Wolfgang Schliemann, drums
and Fine Kwiatkowski, dance in Hannover
with Ute Wassermann, voice and Junko Wada, dance at Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart
with Damon Smith, doublebass / Jêrome Bryerton, percussion / Paige Sorvillo
and Leyya Tawil, dance at Temescal Arts Center in Oakland
with Gino Robair, electronics and percussion / Tim Perkis, electronics and
Paige Sorvillo, dance at Maybeck Studio in Berkeley

Festivals
High Zero Festival, 2013, Baltimore
Sonic Circuits Festival, 2013, Washington D.C.
Altera Festival, 2013, Naples, Italy
katarakt festival 2011, 2013 and 2014 Hamburg
Tsonami 2012, Valparaiso, Chile
Perspectives Festival 2012, Västeras, Sweden
Teni Zvuka Festival 2012, St Petersburg
Blow Up 2010, Oslo
Festival Musiques Innovatrices 2010, St. Etienne, www.musiquinno.fr
Seattle Improvised Music Festival 2010, seattleimprovisedmusic.com
Densités Festival, Wesnes-en-Woevre, 2009, vudunoeuf.asso.fr
Edgetone New Music Summit, 2008, San Francisco
Soundfield Festival 2007, Philadelphia
FONT Festival of New Trumpet Music 2007, New York
Kaleidophon Ulrichsberg 2007, Austria, www.jazzatelier.at
Festival für improvisierte und komponierte Musik 2006, Basel
On the Outside Festival 2006, Newcastle with Daniel Carter, Roy Campbell, William Parker, Hamid Drake, Gail Brand, Pat Thomas and Gerry Hemingway amonst others. www.ontheoutsidefestival.co.uk
i and e Festival 2006, Dublin, www.i-and-e.org
High Zero Festival 2005, Baltimore, Maryland www.highzero.org
Plain Music Festival 2005, Warsaw
Suoni e Sound 2002, Elba
Szünetjel Festival 1999, Budapest (Tim Hodgkinson, Albert Márkos, Johannes Bauer, John Edwards, Rhodri Davies, Dieter Ulrich, Söres Zsolt)
LEM Festival 1999, Barcelona
Warsaw Autumn 1998: International Festival of Contemporary Music
European Improvisation Orchestra (with Tim Hodgkinson, Albert Márkos, Martin Klapper, Krzysztof Knittel, Raymond Strid) Radio- and TV broadcast
Konstanzer Jazzherbst 1995 und 2001
HumanNoise Congress 1995 und 2007, Wiesbaden
Jazzfestival Schaffhausen 1995

CDs
Slants
Birgit Ulher, trumpet / Ernst Thoma, live-electronics
Unit
Tidszon
UNSK: Birgit Ulher, trumpet / Lise-Lott Norelius, live-electronics / Martin Küchen, saxofon Raymond Strid, drums & percussion
Creative Sources
Kunststoff
Birgit Ulher, trumpet / Ute Wassermann, voice
Creative Sources
Sputter
Birgit Ulher, trumpet / Gino Robair, energized surfaces, voltage made audible,
Creative Sources
Landscape: recognizable
Birgit Ulher, trumpet / Lou Mallozzi, microphon, turntables / Michael Zerang, percussion
Creative Sources
500 gr
Nordzucker: Birgit Ulher, trumpet / Lars Scherzberg, sax / Michael Maierhof, cello
Creative Sources
Sperrgut
Birgit Ulher, trumpet / Damon Smith, doublebass / Martin Blume, drums & percussion
Balancepointacoustis
Scatter
Birgit Ulher, trumpet
Creative Sources
3:1
Birgit Ulher, trumpet / Sharif Shenaoui, guitar / Mazen Kerbaj, trumpet
Creative Sources
Doppelgänger
Birgit Ulher, trumpet / Carlos Santos, live-sampling / Ernesto Rodrigues, viola
Creative Sources
Radio Silence No More
Birgit Ulher, trumpet, radio, mutes, speaker
Olof Bright
Blinzeln
Birgit Ulher, trumpet / Heiner Metzger, tablesounds
Creative Sources
Blips and Ifs
Birgit Ulher, trumpet, radio, mutes, speaker
Gino Robair, voltage made audible
Rastascan
Yclept
Birgit Ulher, trumpet, radio, mutes, speaker
Ariel Shibolet, soprano sax
Adi Snir, tenor & soprano sax
Roni Brenner, guitar
Michel Mayer, guitar
Damon Smith, double bass, laptop
Ofer Bymel, drums
Balancepointacoustics
Tehricks
Birgit Ulher, trumpet, speakers, mutes
Gregory Büttner, computer
1000füssler
Pögiff
Birgit Ulher, trumpet, radio, mutes, speaker
Tim Perkis, electronics
Gino Robair, energized surfaces, voltage made audible
bug incision
Choices
Birgit Ulher: trumpet, radio, mutes, speaker
Lucio Capece: bass clarinet, soprano saxophone, preparations, mini-megaphone
anothertimbre
Axon, Myelin
Heddy Boubaker, saxophone
Birgit Ulher, trumpet, radio, mutes, speaker
intonema
Hochdruckzone
Birgit Ulher, trumpet, radio, speaker, obejects
entr'acte
Kolk
Christoph Schiller, spinet
Birgit Ulher, trumpet, radio, speaker, objects
anothertimbre
Studio-Reihe Neuer Musik 7"Vinyl Split
Birgit Ulher, trumpet, radio, speaker, objects
Fake the Fact: Someting New

Press
Over the course of ten tracks she prooves herself to be a resourceful experimenter in the vein of such fellow trumpeters as Axel Dörner, Franz Hautzinger, Greg Kelley and Herb Robertson.
CD review Scatter,
Kurt Gottschalk, Signal to Noise
Birgit Ulher has established a distinguished grammar of sounds beyond the open trumpet tone.
Tobias Richtsteig, Jazzdimensions
Ulher's spectrum of toneless breath noises, soft valve pops and chuckling meta-bop flurries calls for close and evenly suspended attention.
Brian Morton, The Wire
Ulher's personalised style is geared to close collective interaction rather than extrovert flamboyance and these fine duo and trio recordings show well her capacity to integrate very effectively without playing safe.
Julian Cowley, The Wire
Birgit Ulher puts her focus on the fragments themselves. It seems to me that for her the flux means less than the balance between silence and no silence.
Thomas Millroth
Ulher makes good use of long silences as a contrasting medium for her affirmations, often utilizing a solid timbre which gets inevitably modified by the extended techniques she's commonly associated to.
Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes
2006 Portrait in The Wire by Julian Cowley
2011 Portait in Nutida Musik by Johan Redin
2013 Sept Trompettes by Le Son du Grisli

Birgit Ulher
MySpace