Tscho Theissing

Tscho Theissing (left) with Pago Libre (2008)

Johannes "Tscho" Theissing (born December 24, 1959 in Salzburg ) is an Austrian violinist and composer whose work ranges between classical and modern jazz .

Live and act

Theissing received his musical training in his hometown at the Mozarteum and at the Musikhochschule Graz, where he graduated with a concert diploma in 1987, and also studied musicology at the University of Graz . As early as 1985 he founded the Orchesterforum Graz with Heinrich von Kalnein and Christian Muthspiel , which stood out in the crossover area and recorded the album “From the Diary of Border Crossers”. He also played with Muthspiel, Alex Deutsch and Ewald Oberleitner in the group Fidelio & Blasius Freebop and was involved in the performance of the jazz opera “The Holy Grail of Jazz” by George Gruntz during the Styrian autumn of 1985 . He then founded the group The Birds of Europe in Vienna , which released the album of the same name in 1989. Since 1990 he has been a violinist in the orchestra of the Vienna Volksoper (previous violinist, 2nd violin). He also founded the string quartet "Motus Quartet", which was arrested in jazz. With John Wolf Brennan , Arkady Shilkloper and Georg Breinschmid (Tom Götze since 2014) he formed the ensemble Pago Libre , with whom he released various albums. In the Mussorgsky Dis-Covered project , he and the mezzo-soprano Elisabeth Kulman processed Mussorgsky's music in an unorthodox way.

Theissing was also involved in projects by Bobby McFerrin , Sheila Jordan , James Newton , Heiner Goebbels , Werner Pirchner , Alex Cline , Wolfgang Mitterer , Tom Cora , der Extremschrammeln and Vinko Globokar and performed the series and Klangforum Wien Neue Musik with the ensembles . He often accompanies Michael Heltau's performances with his ensemble and works with Karl Hodina .

For the Beethoven year 2020 Tscho Theissing wrote the chamber opera Genia or the smile of the machine for the Theater an der Wien based on a text by Kristine Tornquist .

Awards

• 1987: Appreciation award from the Federal Ministry for Education and the Arts

Discographic notes

• Motus Quartet: Crimson Flames (1992)
• Pago Libre (1996)
• Pago Libre squareDADA! (2008, with Agnes Heginger , Brennan, Shilkloper, Georg Breinschmid, Patrice Héral )

Lexigraphic entries

• Martin Kunzler : Jazz Lexicon. Volume 2: M – Z (= rororo-Sachbuch. Vol. 16513). 2nd Edition. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-499-16513-9 .
• Christian Fastl: Theissing, Tscho. In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 ; Print edition: Volume 5, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-7001-3067-8 ., P. 2400.

Web links

• Works by and about Tscho Theissing in the catalog of the German National Library