Andreas F. Staffel

The sensual and highly expressive music of Andreas F. Staffel plays with the boundaries and taboos of the most diverse genres. His unique sense of sound and language is characterised by a great openness and curiosity towards the new and unknown.

The artist's compositional work ranges from large-scale orchestral pieces to opera, film and theatre music to variable chamber music instrumentation. His music is regularly premiered by renowned ensembles, soloists and orchestras at international festivals. As a pianist and performer, the former master student of Oleg Maisenberg works with various chamber music formations, but also with DJs, film and theatre actors and Rockensembles. His Duo ad lib. combines composed music with live electronics, improvisation and video art. Many of his works are influenced by literature and visual art and were created in interdisciplinary collaboration.

Andreas is an internationally sought-after lecturer and has given masterclasses in Central and Southeast Asia as well as in North and Central America, Japan, South Korea and Portugal, among other places. As a music educator and curator, he created Studio Ohrpheo in 2009, a fascinating place for social and artistic encounters in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg. Since 2017, he has directed the EnCounterpoints Festival in Prenzlauer Berg.

Performances at festivals such as the following:

Acceuil Musicale, Paris (1996, 1997), Ackerstadtpalast,
Bishkek, Kirgisistan Konzerte und Masterclasses (2013) • BKA unerhörte Musik (2007, 2010, 2012),
Con Fuoco Konzertreihe, Zürich-Enge (1995) • Concours Henri Dutilleux, St. Pierre des Corps (2008) • Centro Cultural Sao Paolo Brazil (2016) • Contemporary Musicfestival in Haifa, Israel (2023),
Dresdener Bachtage 2016,
Euregio Musiktage, Portraitkonzert (1999) • Euriade Festival Heerlen, (2000, 2001),
Festival der Edna Millay Foundation New York-Austerlitz (2004) • Festival St. Julien, Languedoc (1999) • Freiburg, Konzert der Innenhöfe (2004) • Festival for Contemporary Music Daegu, Südkorea (2023),
Hellerau (Europäisches Zentrum der Künste Dresden),
Iberoamerikanisches Festival Havanna, In Front Festival (2001) • Intersonanzenfestival Brandenburg, Potsdam (2008-2013) • Introstichting Maastricht, NL (1999),
Klangwerkstatt Berlin, Kunstquartier Bethanien (2019),
Literaturm Festival Frankfurt (2004) • Lviv (Lemberg), Ukrainia, Festival Contrasts (2018),
Moskau, ZIL (2015) • Musicloft Köln,
Ningbo Art Festival in Südchina (2000) • Nagoya College of Music, Japan (2023),
Ohrenstrand Festival für Neue Musik, Berlin HBF (2011), Ostbelgienfestival (2003) • O´Culto da Ajuda, Lisboa (2017),
Ploiesti, Bukarest - Konzerttournee mit rumänischem Symphonieorchester (1999) • Prager Frühling (Prag 2009) • Pyramidale Berlin- Hellersdorf (2012) • Pałac Szustra, Warsaw (2019),
Weimarer Frühjahrstage für Neue Musik (2013),
Rathauskonzerte Potsdam (2007),
Teheran, Musical Instruments Museum (2015),
Wabe Berlin,
Zepernicker Randspiele,

Television appearances on WDR (1995, 1996) and in the south of China.

Compositions commissioned for

the Opera of the City of Frankfurt, the Aachen Symphony Orchestra, the Euriade Festival, the television stations BR, HR, WDR, the Hasenclever Literature Society, the RWTH's Institute for Water in Residential Areas, the Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation and the East Belgium Festival and so on.

CD Productions

Correspondance (improvisations with an organ and piano) Andreas Staffel, piano, and C. M. Frommen, organ, (Aeolusmusic) 1995
Andreas Staffel, Portrait CD (piano solo) (Aeolusmusic) 1996
Nachtstücke/Nocturnes (Aeolusmusic, Düsseldorf) 1999
Wassermusik/Water Music (Undamaris, Düsseldorf) 2001
Chamber Music 2004
Treibgut 2014-2016
Lisa Ströckens - Stephan Goldbach – LouLou und die Heerscharen der Verfluchten, 2017, CD recording with An R. (Brecht) by Andreas F. Staffel
Einheit und Differenz, 2020, with excerpts from String Quartet No. III by Andreas F. Staffel

Collaborations

Taewok Ahn (Saxophone), Pavlos Antoniadis (piano), Silke Aichhorn (harp), Apparat (DJ), Auditivvocal Dresden (choir), Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Berges (speaker), Duo Bögeholz Mossalini (bandoneon/guitar), Markus Bosch (conductor), DŸSE (rock band), Ensemble Correspondance, Sonic Art Saxophone Quartett, Ensemble E-Werk (4 electric guitars), Moritz Ernst (piano), Thomas Fehlmann (DJ Tresor), Yvonne Friedli (soprano), Jan Gerdes (piano), Martin und Cecilia Gelland (violin), Stephan Goldbach (double bass), Monika Gossmann (actress), Katia Guedes (soprano), Katharina Hanstedt (harp), Margarete Huber (soprano), Claudia Herr (soprano), Ashley Hribar (piano), Ensemble Junge Musik Berlin, Susanne Kessel (pianist), Andra Kokott (director), Ensemble Konvergence (Prague),Maulwerker (vocal ensemble), Modern Art Ensemble, Metaboles (string quartet, France), Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble (MCME), Wang Whoo Moon (cello), Ensemble Mosaik, Minguetquartett (string quartet), Musashi Baba (conductor), Andreas Neufeld (violin), Theo Nabicht (double bass clarinet), Ruben Mattia Santorsa (guitar), Hans Joachim Schädlich (writer), Daniel Seroussi (piano), Christine Simolka (baritone), Sinfonieorchester Aachen, Marlene Streeruwitz (writer), Veniamin Smekhov (Taganka Theater Moskau), Susanne Stock (accordion), Lisa Ströckens (soprano), Martin Tchiba (piano), Sergej Tchirkov (accordion, Moscow), Antje Thierbach (oboe), Neza Torka (accordion), Nasan Tur (visual artist), Rene Wohlhauser (baritone), Claudius von Wrochem (cello), Xenon Ensemble, Helmut Zapf (conductor)

Performances conducted by Marcus R. Bosch, J. Hulin, Musashi Baba, P. Sbarcea, W. Trommer and Helmut Zapf.
Literary-musical projects with the reciter Walter Liedtke (WDR3), Pedro Obiera, Karl Walter Sprungala (launching of the concert series 'Soirée musicale') and Prof. Dr. W. Berges.
Work together with the video artist Kai Gussek (music for the film "Water").

Grants and prizes

Scholarship holder of the Künstlerhaus Lukas, Ahrenshoop (2004)
Fellow of the Edna Millay Foundation, New York (2004)
Winner of the Edward T. Cone Foundation Fellow of the year (2004)
Finalist at the Concours International Henri Dutilleux (2008)
First prize for the short opera Sottovoce for singer and video at the operare Berlin competition (2011)
Third prize at the Weimar Spring Days for Music (2013)
Funding from inm 2016 for the project: Remix (in collaboration with Julius Holtz)
Funding from inm 2017 for Remix Letters (song cycle after Gottfried Benn)
Performance of Remix Letters in Lisbon (in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut)
Gema grant for the orchestral work Clairiére (Lichtung) 2020
Scholarship from the German Music Council for the orchestration of three piano etudes by Claude Debussy (2021)
Musikfond grant for the multimedia stage play: "Häuser-Zeilen-Umbrüche" based on own texts and poems (2022)

Teaching activity

Guest lecturer at the music academies in Tiansing, Ningbo, Hangzouh, Wengzouh, Tsingwangtao (China), Akademie Schloss Rheinsberg, Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan, with friendly support from the Foreign Office), Lisbon (with friendly support from the Goethe Institute)  as well as in Japan and South Korea (2023). Further teaching activities at the Johann-Sebastian-Bach Musikschule Potsdam and at the Musikstudio Ohrpheo Berlin.