Josef Mücksch was born on January 1, 1987, in Leipzig, Germany. He first started taking guitar lessons from Bernhard Dolch at the Heinrich Schütz Conservatorium, Dresden. Since 2007 Josef Mücksch has been studying at the University of Music, Würzburg under the tutelage of Prof. Jürgen Ruck. After his graduation in 2012, he spent two years at the Academy of Music in Basel, Switzerland as an Erasmus scholarship holder and as a Master student, studying Contemporary Music with Stephan Schmidt and Jürg Henneberger. In 2015 he completed his Masters in Performance at the University of Music, Würzburg. Major musical influences have come from Xavier Diaz-Latorre, Marcin Dylla, Mike Svoboda and, during his additional studies in jazz guitar, from Michael Arlt and Bill Elgart. Concert highlights include appearances as a soloist as well as performances in ensembles and orchestras throughout Europe. Josef Mücksch has performed, amongst others, with Ensemble Modern, the Ascolta Ensemble, the Staatstheater Darmstadt and the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie. In 2009, Josef Mücksch founded the award-winning Duo Steimel-Mücksch together with Olivia Steimel (accordion). Specialising in the interpretation of contemporary music and in arrangements of early music for their own performance, the Duo Steimel-Mücksch won first prize at the International Accordion Competition in Castelfidardo (Italy, 2011). Further prizes followed at the International Accordion Competition, Klingenthal (2011), at the Competition for Interpretation of Contemporary Music (Karlsruhe, 2013) and at the chamber music competition FNAPEC Musiques d’Ensemble (Paris, 2014). The duo was also awarded a scholarship from the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation - Live Music Now. Between 2010 and 2012 Josef Mücksch was a lecturer at the Insitute of Musical Education in Würzburg. From September 2013 to date Mücksch has conducted a guitar class at the Institute of Music Erlangen (EMI) and since October 2014, a teaching assignment at the University of Music, Würzburg.
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Duo Steimel-Mücksch (Olivia Steimel, accordion and Josef Mücksch, guitar) was founded in 2009 while both members were studying at the Hochschule für Musik in Würzburg with Professors Jürgen Ruck and Stefan Hussong. They focus particularly on the interpretation of contemporary music and the development of new repertoire for this unusual instrumentation. This leads to close collaboration with composers such as Georg Katzer, Diego Ramos Rodríguez and Andreas Eduardo Frank, resulting in premiere performances of their works. The duo was the winner of the International Accordion Competition Castelfidardo (Italy, 2011), as well as a prizewinner at the chamber music competition FNAPEC Musiques d’Ensemble (Paris, 2014), the Karlsruher Competition for the interpretation of Contemporary Music (2013) and the International Accordion Competition Klingenthal (2011), as well as receiving an award from the Yehudi Menuhin Fund. They have appeared at noteworthy festivals and concert series (i.e. ZeitGenuss Karlsruhe, ZeitRäume Basel, Unerhörte Musik Berlin), as well as performing on radio, in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, Serbia and the Czech Republic.
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Olivia Steimel is a versatile German accordionist. Dedicated to contemporary music, she has collaborated with many composers, premiering and performing their works at international festivals (Darmstädter Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, ECLAT Stuttgart, ZeitGenuss Karlsruhe, SoundSCAPE Maccagno, Swiss Chamber Music Circle Andermatt, Happening Festival Calgary etc.), in radio broadcasts (in Canada, Portugal, Serbia, Germany, Switzerland and Slovenia), and on CD recordings. As a soloist she has performed with Kammerorchester Basel and as a guest with orchestras such as Würzburg Philharmonic, Ensemble Phoenix Basel, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and the International Ensemble Modern Academy. In 2012 and 2013 she was artist-in-residence at the Banff Centre in Canada. Olivia Steimel is also a member of the chamber groups Duo Steimel-Mücksch and Trio SÆITENWIND. She has been awarded several prizes at competitions, including FNAPEC Musiques d'Ensemble (Paris, 2014), Concours Nicati (Bern, 2013), Karlsruhe Competition for the Performance of Contemporary Music (Karlsruhe, 2013), International Accordion Competitions (Klingenthal & Castelfidardo, 2011) among others. She completed a diploma in pedagogy at the Würzburg Conservatory under the tutelage of Stefan Hussong (2012), a Master of Arts in Specialised Contemporary Performance at the Basel Conservatory (2014), and a soloist performance diploma at the Franz Liszt Conservatory Weimar, where she studied with Ivan Koval (2016). She was the recipient of a scholarship from the prestigious Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes for the duration of her various studies.
www.oliviasteimel.com |