Birgit Ulher

Birgit Ulher (* 1961 in Nuremberg ) is a musician in the field of new improvisation music . She lives as a freelance musician in Hamburg.

Live and act

Ulher studied painting and fine arts, which still have a great influence on her music. Since 1982 she has been living as a freelance musician in Hamburg. On the trumpet she developed a differentiated grammar of sounds beyond the conventional trumpet tone (jazzdimensions.de) and works as a freelance musician in the field of real time music , which should arise from the moment without topics or agreements. In 1997 she recorded the album Air Mail with Wolfgang Ritthoff , which Peter Niklas Wilson praised as an “impressive document” on the Jazz Podium : “a transparent microcosm of aural abbreviation, designed sparingly and carefully, without fear of pause or break” and “full of movement and Dynamics in detail ". She was a member of the European Improvisation Orchestra and the ensembles UNSK (with Martin Küchen , Lise-Lott Norelius, Raymond Strid ), the Trio PUT (with Ulrich Phillipp and Roger Turner ) and the Trio Nordzucker with Lars Scherzberg and Michael Maierhof .

Since 2006 she has been working with loudspeakers fed by radio sounds, which she uses as trumpet mutes. The trumpet is here both sender and receiver. She also works with other objects such as B. sheet metal and has thus developed her own playing techniques and preparations. In addition to material research, she is particularly interested in the relationship between silence and sound.

Her solo work includes both pieces with playback - Traces and splitting 21, a collaboration with Michael Maierhof - as well as pieces for sound installations - e.g. B. Reveille for the sound and light installation 'Wake Up' by Allora & Calzadilla 2007 in the Renaissance Society .

Lectures and workshops at Haifa University, SAIC - School of The Art Institut of Chicago, Hochschule für Musik Basel and Queen's University of Belfast, Galeria Mérida, Mexico

Cooperation and a. with Ernst Thoma , Ute Wassermann , Gino Robair , Leonel Kaplan, Christoph Schiller , Gregory Büttner, Lucio Capece, the starkly cloudy quartett (with Michael Maierhof, Heiner Metzger and Gregory Büttner) and Nordzucker (with Chris Heenan and Michael Maierhof). She also appeared in the solo project 'Radio Silence No More'. Concert activity in Europe, USA, Russia, South America, Australia and the Middle East.

Between 1993 and 2003 she organized the annual festival for improvised music Real Time Music Meeting in Hamburg. She is co-founder of the "Association for Current Music Hamburg"

Discographic notes

• Birgit Ulher / Wolfgang Ritthoff Air Mail (1997)
• Philipp / Ulher / Turner Umlaut (2000)
• Birgit Ulher / Martin Klapper / Jürgen Morgenstern Snapshots (2001)
• Birgit Ulher / Lou Mallozzi / Michael Zerang Landscape: Recognizable (2005)
• Nordzucker 500 gr (2005)
• Birgit Ulher / Heddy Boubaker Upsight Down (2007)
• Birgit Ulher / Mazen Kerbaj / Sharif Shenaoui 3: 1 (2008)
• Birgit Ulher / Ernesto Rodrigues / Carlos Santos Doppelganger (2008)
• Birgit Ulher (solo) Radio Silence No More (2009)
• Birgit Ulher / Heiner Metzger Blinkeln (2009)
• Birgit Ulher / Gino Robair Blips and Ifs (2009)
• Birgit Ulher / Lucio Capece Choices (2011)
• Birgit Ulher (solo) high pressure zone (2012)
• Birgit Ulher / Christoph Schiller Kolk (2012)
• Birgit Ulher / Gregory Büttner Araripepipra (2014)
• Birgit Ulher / Leonel Kaplan Stereo Trumpet (2015)
• Birgit Ulher / Ute Wassermann Radio Tweet (2015)
• Birgit Ulher / Felipe Araya Scoriacon (2016)
• Birgit Ulher (solo) Matter Matters (2017)
• Birgit Ulher / Christoph Schiller tulip layer glasses (2018)

Web links

• Web presence (with full discography)
• Portrait of Julian Cowley, The Wire (English)
• Triumph of the improvisation method (Peter Niklas Wilson in Neue Zeitschrift für Musik)
• Partial discography (discogs)