First Meeting // Duos: Zerang & Coudoux | Omelchuk & Herzog

Two duos will be presented this evening. One is a first meeting, the first musical encounter of the bustling Chicago percussionist Michael Zerang with the Cologne cellist Elisabeth Coudoux. Michael Zerang's sympathy for the cello meets a new generation of musicians here, who are also influenced by his ideas of contemporary music and freedom in the art of improvisation developed in Chicago.
In the second duo, on the other hand, you can hear the familiarity of a team that has been working together for a long time. Oxana Omelchuk, the award-winning composer, can be experienced here as a performer in duo with Constantin Herzog, one of Cologne's most refined bassists. The merging and interlocking of the sounds is in the foreground here. So to hear on Omelchuk's Portrait CD, released 2019 by Wergo.

Michael Zerang & Elisabeth Coudoux
Michael Zerang was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1958 and is a first generation American with Assyrian decency. He has been a practicing musician, composer, activist and producer since 1976 and concentrates intensively on improvised music, free jazz, contemporary composition, puppet theatre, experimental theatre and world music forms. As a drummer and composer, Michael has over ninety titles in his discography and has toured nationally and internationally in 35 countries since 1981. He works with and expands the pool of collaborators in many disciplines, including regularly with Hamid Drake, Blair Thomas, Peter Brötzmann, Joe McPhee, Jim Baker, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Kent Kessler, Axel Dörner, Johaness Bauer, Mars Williams, Clayton Thomas, Magda Mayas, Kathleen Baird & Taralie Peterson.

Elisabeth Coudoux is a cellist at the interface of different musical genres: free improvisation, experimental music, new composed music and jazz. Besides her own project (e.g. Emißatett for which she composes), she is a cellist in many ensembles and collaborates in interdisciplinary projects with dancers, visual artists and writers. She is a member of IMPAKT, a collective for free improvisation in Cologne.

Oxana Omelchuk & Constantin Herzog
Born in Weissrußland, Oxana Omelchuk completed her master's degree in composition with Prof. Johannes Fritsch and electronic composition with Prof. Michael Beil. World premieres at various festivals (including Romanischer Sommer Köln 2005 und 2010, 3. Art Wuppertal 2005, junge biennale Köln 2008 und 2010, Acht Brücken Köln 2011, 2013, Münchener Biennale 2012, Donaueschingen Musiktage 2012: Live-Discussion: LowTechHigh - Laptop im Konzertsaal, ensemble: europa (WDR) 2013). She has received commissions from the German Music Council, WDR, Kunststiftung NRW, ON Neue Musik Köln, Ensemble musikFabrik (2013), Festival Acht Brücken, Südwestrundfunk. UVM

Constantine Duke
Jazz double bass studies with Rudi Engel and Dieter Manderscheid. Classical double bass lessons with Prof. Michinori Bunya. Since 2013 classical double bass studies with Prof. Detmar Kurig, HfM Köln/Aachen. Workshops with Stefano Scodanibbio, Barry Guy, Barre Philips, Sidsel Endresen, Marc Ducret. Concert activity in the fields of improvised music, new music, jazz. CD releases on Unit Records, GOGO-Music, AO-NRW and Mitonke Records.