As a trained musician and miniature painter Somjit DasGupta has a rich musical repertoire and a wealth of aesthetic inspiration to draw from. He plays several instruments from the sarod family – mainly fretless string instruments with skins– in the tradition of his teacher Radhika MohanMaitra, and performs all over the world.
The musician and composer Werner Durand has been performing his own works for saxophone and homemade wind instruments since 1977 and has cooperated with numerous composers and musicians all over Europe and the USA. Since 1993 he has been working together with the Dhrupad singer Amelia Cuni, combining Indian music with new experimental approaches.
Friederike Heinze studied comparative musicology as well as comparative and Indo-European linguistics at the Freie Universität Berlin. She worked with this historical collection as part of the project "Erschließung und Digitalisierung der Tonaufnahmen der Preußischen Phonographischen Kommission 1915–1918" which was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
Barbara Jungfer is a German jazz guitarist. Between 1992 and 1998 she studied jazz guitar at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln. Since 1998 she has headed several bands in Berlin and played with Helmut Brandt (The Final Session), the NDR Pops Orchestra, the Berlin Big Band and Klaus Doldinger’s Passport amongst others. She has toured Italy, Luxemburg, Norway, Morocco, India, and with Peter O'Mara, Australia.
Lars-Christian Koch Director of the Department of Ethnomusicology, Media Technology and the Berlin Phonogram Archive of the Ethnologisches Museum. He is extracurricular professor of Ethnomusicology at the Universität zu Köln and honorary professor at the Berlin University of the Arts. His research focuses on the theory and practice of Indian, especially northern Indian raga music, organology, intercultural comparative music aesthetics, the interpretation of non-European music in the context of history, and music archaeology.
Ricarda Kopal, research assistant/curator of the Department of Ethnomusicology, Media Technology and the Berlin Phonogram Archive of the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin, previously research assistant for Ethnomusicology at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover as well as at the Universität zu Köln. Research interests and emphases: (Popular) music in/from Northern Europe, interactions between media-technological developments, music cultures and ethnomusicological research as well as an ethnomusicological analysis of "classical" music.
Marcus Thomas, composer and sound artist. He completed a degree in cultural studies and musicology at the University of Hildesheim before specializing in the subject of sound studies at the UdK Berlin. A central focus of his studies was to undertake an examination of sound, soundscape research, electroacoustical and new music, as well as contemporary music theatre productions. The experimental, creative utilization of sound and space and the search for new sounds and possibilities of sound production, make up the core of his work. His own creative work ranges from sound installations, concerts for specially adapted instruments, soundscape compositions, experimental sound design and sound direction, to artistic radio features, radio plays and workshops. He lives in Berlin and works as a freelance musician, performer and sound artist for diverse film, theatre, dance and opera projects. His own directorial work can be seen in the Musiktheater Kollektiv, "musiktheater bruit!."
The Department of Audio Communication, headed by Prof. Dr. Stefan Weinzierl at the TU Berlin, was responsible for the technology for the Listening Room in the Ethnologisches Museum. A technique involving spherical sound fields synthesis (Ambisonics panning) was used. More information can be found here.
As part of her dissertation work, the ethnologist and dancer Nicole Manon Lehmann spent time examining the historical and cultural backgrounds of north Indian dance in extensive fieldwork. She has acquired in-depth theoretical and practical knowledge of Kathak.
Nick Page of Nick Page Guitars is a maker of unique string instruments. He founded his custom and repair shop in 1995 in Cologne. His instruments are well-known for their singular design and the high quality craftsmanship with which aesthetic concepts are put into practice.
The Sharma family has been making musical instruments in Varanasi (Benares) for four generations. Radhey Shyam Sharma is amongst the most popular string instrument makers of India; his sitars are played by Ud. Shahid Parvez and Pt. Ravi Shankar. In contrast to many contemporary instrument makers Radhey Shyam Sharma makes all the components of his sitars in his own workshop, where he has a comprehensive stock of materials to draw on.
Ulrich Wegner, Ethnomusicologist. Teaches at the Institut für Musik und Musikwissenschaft (Institute for Music and Musicology) at the University of Hildesheim on ethnomusicological topics, jazz research and sound studies amongst. Wegner has published on music from the Middle East and East Africa as well as on the soundscapes of everyday life and their reception. A connection between academic research and artistic practice is an important concern to him. He teaches the East African Xylophone, and has contributed to projects for the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin pertaining to the musical instrument collections and the historical sound archive. Wegner has also created sound installations for the Ethnologisches Museum, the Humboldt-Box (both Berlin) and the Fagus-Werk (Alfeld/Leine).
Albrecht Wiedmann, an ethnomusicologist and sound technician, works in the Department of Ethnomusicology, Media Technology and Berlin Phonogram Archive of the Ethnologisches Museum. During the installation of the Listening Room he has been intensively engaged in exploring the possibilities of spatial sound reproduction, and is presenting one of his experiments here.