ImproVision – The second improv festival at Villa Seligmann

From November 12 to 16, international stars of the improv scene will once again be guests in Hanover, presenting an extensive program of concerts, workshops and interactive events.

Musical improvisation is demonstrably a basic component of historical performance practice and a primary source of music creation. It exists in all styles and musical genres. As a philosophy of life, it stands for freedom of expression and form with instinctive, sensual and also intellectual approaches. In contrast to musical interpretation (of already composed works), improvisation is interactive and spontaneous: it enters into a creative exchange with the listener and opens up hitherto little-explored and little-known paths of communication. Beyond musical abstraction, the ability to improvise is a high craft that requires special skills and characteristics.

With these guiding principles in mind, Villa Seligmann invites those interested in culture, young creatives and curious concertgoers to have a lively experience in the creation of improvisation and to play an active role in shaping it. The festival is not a specialist conference, but an open space for creativity in which the boundaries between performers and listeners are conceptually and spatially dissolved. As a source of inspiration, the festival is aimed at all people who are looking for inspiration and new ways of interacting and who want to gain an insight into the world of unlimited musical possibilities.

The program consists of 10 concert encounters and 2 workshops. The performing artists are internationally recognized greats in the field of improvisation. In all events, the listeners play a decisive role in shaping the program.

Wed, November 12

7 p.m. Concertante encounter with Omer Klein (jazz improvisation)

Thu, November 13

7 p.m. “Back to the origin” – interpretation, composition and improvisation with Lucas Debargue and Jean-Baptiste Doulcet

Fri, November 14

7 p.m. “Synaesthesia in improvisation”

Marina Baranova transfers the synaesthetic impressions into the music. Visuals by Damian Marhulets, dance by Sara Ezzrell and impulses from the audience flow into her improvisation and mark the moment.

8 p.m. “Untold Tales” – Concertante encounter with pianist and composer Beatrice Berrut

9.30 pm Silent Movie Night “The Golem”, with improvisational accompaniment by Jean-Baptiste Doulcet

Sat, November 15

11 am Lecture and workshop with John Mortensen / Open Stage for young improvisers

7 pm “Vision: near, far, and imaginary”

Can musical improvisation inspire us to see things differently?
The magic of the unpredictable unfolds in Noam Sivan’s concert: From familiar sounds, surprising twists and turns and new meanings emerge in free improvisation. A special moment – playing blindfolded – reveals a deeper dimension of musical intuition.

8 p.m. “Piano Battle” with Georg Thoma and Jean-Baptiste Doulcet

10 pm “Orphic Hymns” – A sensual sound meditation with electronic sounds

In an intimate atmosphere and softly dimmed lighting, the sense of sight is allowed to rest – and the electronic sounds fill the room.
With his Orphic Hymns, multimedia artist and composer Damian Marhulets creates improvised sound meditations that lead inwards and widen the view – towards the infinity of being.

Sun, November 16

9 am Workshop/Masterclass with Noam Sivan

6 p.m. “Music at a glance” with Markus Becker

Music always has a direction, a view. It looks forwards or backwards, moves forward, hesitates, lingers, searches, finds. This is particularly noticeable in Markus Becker’s improvisations.

7 p.m. “Bring Your Own Story” – Wish concert with Noam Sivan, Marina Baranova, Georg Thoma, Ashley Hribar and John Mortensen

Subject to change without notice.

The improvising artists
in alphabetical order

Irene Zandel

Marina Baranova
Marina Baranova was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and has lived in Hanover since the age of 19. As the daughter of a couple of pianists, she grew up in a world of classical music, jazz and improvisation. She began playing the piano at the age of five. After moving to Germany, she studied at the HMTM Hanover. After numerous successful competitions and debuts, she realized that a career as a classical pianist only expressed part of her musical personality. At the same time, she also remembered another talent that had already made itself felt in her childhood, in addition to absolute pitch: synaesthesia. In Marina Baranova’s case, it is the combination of sounds and colors that leads to creative explosions in her head. She returned to improvisation and composition. To date, she has released seven albums in which she combines classical music, jazz, minimal music and synaesthesia. Since spring 2024, she has been running her own music salon at Villa Seligmann in Hanover. The aim of this space is not only to listen to music, but also to reflect on it, discuss it and experience it in a comprehensive sense.

Irene Zandel

Prof. Markus Becker
Prof. Markus Becker has established himself as an outstanding interpreter of piano literature from Bach to the modern era and impresses with his versatility, both in classical music and jazz. He regularly performs at renowned festivals such as the Ruhr Piano Festival and the Beethovenfest Bonn and has worked with leading orchestras and conductors such as Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic. His recordings, including the complete recording of Max Reger’s piano works, have received numerous awards. As a professor at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, he has been passing on his knowledge to a successful pianist and chamber music class since 1993.

© Christian Meuwly

Beatrice Berrut
Beatrice Berrut is a Swiss pianist and composer. Her dynamic work as a successful soloist, composer, arranger and artistic director of her own festival “Les Ondes” in Switzerland, has made her a cultural visionary in the European art scene. Her musical vision is inspired by the legacies of European spirituality and mysticism, skillfully navigating the wide range of music by composers such as Bach and Liszt to create a series of acclaimed recordings that serve as a meeting point for her listeners to find common ground and shared experiences. Deeply convinced of the exclusive existence of either good or bad music, Beatrice’s work is fluent in all compositional genres, which is why she has also been commissioned to write works for classical music series as well as for electronic music festivals and for films. An iconoclast and ardent defender of the classical tradition, Beatrice’s strong desire to democratize classical music and break down the barriers between genres has led her to create her own festival, where traditional classical music concerts meet klezmer, jazz or flamenco.

Xiomara Bender

Lucas Debargue
Born in 1990, Lucas Debargue took a highly unconventional path to success. After discovering classical music at the age of 10, he began to nourish his passion and curiosity with a variety of artistic and intellectual experiences, including studies in literature and philosophy. An interpreter of great integrity and impressive expressiveness, Lucas Debargue draws inspiration from literature, painting, cinema and jazz in his playing, developing a very personal interpretation of a carefully selected repertoire. Although the core piano repertoire is at the center of his career, he enjoys presenting works by lesser-known composers. Debargue devotes much of his time to composition and has already created over twenty works for solo piano and chamber ensembles. Today, he is invited to perform as a soloist and with leading orchestras in the world’s most prestigious concert halls.

Nikolaj Lund

Jean-Baptiste Doulcet
Jean-Baptiste Doulcet was born in Paris in 1992 and is a pianist, improviser and composer. He has won prizes at numerous international competitions, including the Piano Nordic Competition. Alongside Alexandre Kantorow and Rémi Geniet, he is regarded as one of the rising stars of the French piano and released his first CD with works by Beethoven, Schumann and his own improvisations on themes from the public. His second album (Schumann and Liszt) was released in 2022 on the Mirare label. Jean-Baptiste is a versatile artist, known for his musical personality both as a soloist and as a chamber musician, but also for his improvisational concerts. As a composer, he has written more than twenty works for solo instruments, chamber music or larger ensembles.

© Iris Kloepper Photo Design

Ashley Hribar
Ashley Hribar is an Australian-born pianist and composer. He has built a reputation as a versatile musician whose repertoire encompasses world music, interdisciplinary art forms and a wide range of traditional genres. With a keen interest in contemporary aesthetics, he is the curator of numerous projects including Sound and Color in Scriabin’s Piano Sonatas and Magic Hands – Two hands, Two pianos. Ashley’s compositions are poly-stylistic collages, often using extended performance techniques, voice and electronics. In 2018 he completed his PhD at the University of Adelaide on the music of American composer Frederic Rzewski.

Peter Hönnemann

Omer Klein
Omer Klein was born in Israel in 1982 and grew up in Netanya. He is the son of parents of Israeli descent and the grandson of immigrants from Tunisia, Libya and Hungary. Klein began playing keyboard instruments at the age of 5, concentrating on the piano at the age of 13 and composing and improvising from a young age. He studied at the Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts in Givatayim before moving to the USA on a scholarship from the New England Conservatory in Boston, where he studied jazz and classical piano. He has lived in Germany since 2009.
A prolific musician and composer, Klein has released ten albums as a soloist and over 100 original compositions. Together with bassist Haggai Cohen Milo and drummer Amir Bresler, Klein founded the Omer Klein Trio in 2013. The trio plays Klein’s compositions and tours extensively. He also works with mandolinist Avi Avital, the Aris Quartet and the NDR Big Band, among others. For his activities in 2023, Klein received two nominations for the German Jazz Award in the categories “Piano/Keyboards” and “Live Act of the Year”. He regularly performs as a soloist, composer and bandleader at numerous international festivals.

© Sebastian Madej

Damian Marhulets
Damian Marhulets was born in Minsk in 1980 and was accepted to the renowned Minsk Academy of Music at the age of 6. In his early childhood he won prizes at numerous important international music competitions. His musical career took a new turn in 2000 when he moved to Germany. Following his artistic curiosity, he soon immersed himself in the underground scene of experimental music. He is known for his unconventional graphic and interactive digital scores as well as immersive musical experiences in virtual spaces. With a background equally rooted in classical music and the avant-garde tradition, enriched by his unique expertise in sound design and multimedia as well as his extensive experience in working with new technologies, he rejects conventional musical norms to create a distinctive sonic identity and embark on journeys through uncharted realms of creativity.

Rick Nickerson

John Mortensen
John Mortensen is a leader in the international rediscovery of historical improvisation. He performs frequently as a concert artist and masterclass teacher at colleges and universities worldwide and is renowned for his ability to improvise entire concertos in the historical style. He is the author of “The Pianist’s Guide to Historic Improvisation”, the world’s most widely used book in the field of historical piano improvisation, which is now used as a textbook at many leading conservatoires. He is the founder of Improv Planet, an online school of improvisation whose students include concert artists and conservatory teachers from around the world. Mortensen teaches historical improvisation at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and is a professor of piano at Cedarville University in Ohio.

Navina Neuschel

Noam Sivan
Prof. Noam Sivan is a pianist and composer and a pioneer in the revival of classical improvisation. He plays fugues and four-movement sonatas extemporaneously, leads orchestral and choral improvisations and collaborates with instrumentalists, singers, dancers and actors. His solo album Ambiro’s Journey has been described as a “new milestone in the development of improvisation”. Born in Haifa, Israel in 1978, Noam Sivan was Director of Improvisation at the Curtis Institute and taught at the Juilliard School. Since 2021, he has been a professor at the HMDK Stuttgart, where he heads one of the world’s first master’s programs for piano improvisation.

Marvin Balzer

Georg Thoma
Georg Thoma is a pianist, music theorist, piano improviser and piano teacher. He has been taught to play the violin, piano and organ since early childhood. After graduating from high school, he completed studies in instrumental piano pedagogy, music theory/aural training and artistic piano improvisation. He currently works as a full-time lecturer for music theory at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, as an academic assistant for music theory and aural training at the University of Music Freiburg and as a lecturer for piano improvisation at the University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart. An artistic focus for Georg Thoma is piano improvisation in a wide range of styles from baroque, classical and romantic to jazz and new music.

Day and festival passes

With the FESTIVALPASS (120 euros) gives you access to all 12 events of the festival, including the concerts with Omer Klein on 12.11. and the concert with Lucas Debargue on 13.11. With the festival pass you can also attend the workshops on improvisation on 15 and 16.11.

SINGLE TICKETS can only be booked for two events:
The concerts on November 12 (Omer Klein) and the concert on November 13 (Lucas Debargue/Jean-Baptiste Doulcet)

For all other event days DAY PASSES are available, which entitle the holder to admission to all events taking place on the respective day.

The FESTIVALPASS STUDY entitles students to attend all festival events, including the workshops.

Day and festival passes are transferable.
Refunds of day passes and festival passes are excluded.
All events are subject to availability. Admission is 30 minutes before the start of each event.

Prices

Festival pass: 120 euros
Festival pass for students: 35 euros
Concert with Omer Klein: 30/18/erm. 8 euros
Concert with Lucas Debargue: 35/20/erm. 8 euros
Day pass 14./15./16.11.: 40 euros each

Ticket booking

Tickets are available in the webshop of this website or by e-mail to karten@villa-seligmann.de.

The festival is made possible and supported by: