Born in Detmold (Germany), she started playing piano when she was 5 years old and when she was 16 she started studying with her father Gregor Weichert. She studied in Hamburg, Paris and Freiburg with renowned professors such as Conrad Hansen, Vitaly Margulis and Yvonne Lefebure. She won several national and international competitions and she has performed as soloist with some of the most important German orchestras. Her repertory ranges from romantic music (from Brahms to Busoni) to XX century classical music, especially from Russia and Germany. She received the award “Discobole de l'Academie du Disque Français” for the recording of the complete work of Shostakovich. She has a particular interest in lesser known pieces from the last century and in jazz and ethnic music. She has recorded her own compositions “Hexentanz” and “Ragtime”. Since 1992 she is professor of piano at the Hamburg music academy and since 2000 she lives in Cadrezzate (Varese).

Dissonanzen Ensemble is a chamber group based in Naples whose activity is dedicated to contemporary music. The Ensemble has collaborated with many well-known soloists such as Michel Godard, Cristina Zavalloni, Enrico Baiano, Jim Pugliese, Stefano Scodanibbio and Alvin Curran, performing in festivals throughout Italy and Europe. Projects include “Hommage à Messiaen”, a tribute to the French composer, “Musica Porosa”, an evening of “intuitive music” realized in collaboration with the German trumpet-player Markus Stockhausen, and their own sound track for the movie “Assunta Spina” (1915) performed live at the Anthology Film Archives (New York, 2006). Again in New York Dissonanzen presented the “Good morning Scelsi” project together with the guitarist Marc Ribot at the Tonic, New York’s renowned avant-garde club . Dissonanzen Ensemble recently returned to New York for a concert at the Solomon Guggenheim Museum connected to the exhibition dedicated to Lucio Fontana. Dissonanzen has made many recordings, among which are tributes to Luigi Dallapiccola and Goffredo Petrassi.

Andreas "FUYU" Gutzwiller was born in Germany in 1940. After reading musicology at the University of Berlin, he continued his education at the Wesleyan University (USA) where he started studying shakuhachi with Araki Kodô V. He went on to study with Kawase Junsuke III (both at the Wesleyan University and in Tokyo), and in 1974 he gained his Ph.D. from the Wesleyan University with a thesis on the history of shakuhachi. This was followed by a Masters degree at the Kinko-school of shakuhachi. Gutzwiller has performed widely throughout Europe, and teaches at the Basel music Academy where from 1994, he became director of the non-western music department. His title “Fuyu” was given to him by Japanese musicians in recognition of his great skill as “master” of shakuhachi.

Khaled Jubran was born in Galilee in 1961. After studying and teaching at Jerusalem's Rubin Academy, he founded and headed the Arabic music department of the Palestinian National Conservatory of Music in Ramallah in 1994, as well as becoming a member of its Oriental Music Ensemble. In 2000, he founded the Urmawi Centre for Mashriq Music, named after the Abbassid musician. An independent institution, the centre brings together Palestinian musicians, teachers and students, in order to preserve the country’s musical heritage, and to produce new music as well as putting on performances throughout the country. Jubran is renowned worldwide as a virtuoso of Oud and Buzuq, and he is also a composer, a music theorist, and very active in music education.

Paolo Nori was born in Parma in 1963. After studying accountancy, he worked in Algeria, Iraq and France. Back in Italy, he graduated in Russian language and literature from Parma University, writing his thesis on Velimir Khlebnikov’s poetry. He has worked with Ermanno Cavazzoni, Daniele Benati, Gianni Celati and Ugo Cornia at the editorial office of “il Semplice”. He has published many works strongly influenced by Russian avant-garde, as well as by the literature of his native Emilia Romagna. His translation from Russian to Italian include an anthology of Daniil Charms' work, entitled “Disasters”, Lermontov ‘s “The hero of our times” and Gogol’s “Dead souls”. Among his numerous novels, published by the best-known Italian publishing houses are: “Pancetta” (Feltrinelli 2004), “I quattro cani di Pavlov” (Bompiani, 2006) and “La vergogna delle scarpe nuove” (Bompiani, 2007).

Rosemary Hardy enjoys a reputation as one of the best singers of our time; her extensive repertoire ranges from Renaissance music to avant-garde music of our own time. She was deeply involved in the Early Music revival of the 70’s, working with musicians such as Sir Roger Norrington, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and David Munrow, and performing all over the world with Alfred Deller. Appreciated as one of the greatest performer of contemporary music, she is renowned especially for her performances of Oliver Knussen’s and Gyorgy Kurtag’s operas. As soloist she worked with conductors such as Reinbert de Leeuw, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Sir Andrew Davis and Daniel Harding. Recently she worked as actor and singer for the well-known drama director Christoph Marthaler performing in Basel, Zurich, Bruxelles and Amsterdam.