Alpha, Ekkozone & Mathias Reumert
Biography Alpha, Ekkozone & Mathias Reumert
Alpha
consists of three classical musicians, who have all made their mark on European music life – Bolette Roed on recorder, Peter Navarro-Alonso, classical saxophone and David Hildebrandt, classical percussion.
Alpha’s musical concept is unique – A classical ensemble, commissioning pieces, improvising, playing folk music from all over the world, diving into electro acoustic music, electronica and medieval music as well as composing themselves. A stylistic span from the 14th century to newly written works, from Orthodox Georgian chorals to minimalistic techno.
Ekkozone
Danish percussionist, performer and conductor Mathias Reumert lives and breathes contemporary classical music. As an in-demand soloist, he explores brand new percussive territory while remaining a committed interpreter of yesterday’s masterworks by composers such as Xenakis, Stockhausen, Henze and Donatoni. As creator and leader of the highly acclaimed crossover ensemble Ekkozone, he explores the borderlands between classical, world and experimental music in performances at rock and jazz festivals. He premieres dozens of new works every year as a percussionist with Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen, and regularly composes music for dance groups such as Danish Dance Theatre.
While Reumert co-created and spent three years performing in the science fiction spectacle Ein Trommelspiel, concluding its run with performances at Moscow’s esteemed Meyerhold Theater, the ability to create visceral drama out of avant-garde music has been a hallmark throughout his career. “Reumert is extraordinary…a masterful exponent, someone with impressive technique and poetic interpretive skills, and a real dramatic, theatrical flair.” (Gapplegate Music Review, Feb. 2016). “Mathias Reumert is a true master percussionist as well as something of an entertainer” (Fanfare, March 2016). “A charismatic soloist with an out-of-this-world technical ability on his instruments” (the Danish magazine, Klassisk, Sept. 2016).
After having won 1st Prizes at three international competitions (Concours International de Vibraphone 2002; PASIC Solo Competition 2004; Gaudeamus Interpreters’ Competition 2007), Mathias Reumert made his debut on CD in Poul Ruders’ Percussion Concerto, Monodrama, conducted by Thomas Søndergård, a disc that received praise in a number of publications, including the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer. In addition to Poul Ruders, Reumert has collaborated with a long list of acclaimed composers, e.g. Jonathan Harvey, Roger Reynolds and Pierre Jodlowski and has often performed their major works for solo percussion.
Ekkozone was formed in 2013 and quickly became a household name at Copenhagen Jazzhouse. The ensemble enjoys a special connection with the music of Steve Reich and has performed Music for 18 Musicians several times, e.g. at Northern Europe’s largest music event, Roskilde Festival. Ekkozone has several CDs out on Dacapo Records and will release a CD and LP featuring works by Steve Reich on the American label, Mode, in April 2018.
The 2015 DVD, Solo, subtitled Percussion Meets Art Cinema, is a highlight in Reumert’s career as a soloist. It consists of seven major works for solo percussion and performance art, directed for the screen by Danish film director Christian Bonke. Solo has received stellar reviews from a unanimous press. According to Denmark’s largest nationwide newspaper, Politiken, it is “nothing less than groundbreaking” and “a tremendous feat”.
While a freshman at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Mathias Reumert joined PACE Percussion Trio. With its original, Electronica-inspired percussion music, PACE has excited audiences all over the world, performing at large events such as the opening of the FIFA World Cup in Soccer in Seoul.
In addition to PACE, Reumert is also a member of Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen and the recently formed Copenhagen Marimba Duo.
He studied with Gert Mortensen at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen and with Steven Schick at the University of California, San Diego. While a student, he was in groups such as accordionist James Crabb’s quintet and the California-based ensemble ‘red fish blue fish’.
Reumert was awarded the Danish Music Critics’ Prize in 2015.
