Spukhafte Fernwirkung
My artistic research concentrates on empathy in chamber music compared to self empathy in playing with oneself. I aim to explore the extent of which one person can become two when playing with oneself, paralleled to what extent two musicians can become one person or achieve one voice whilst playing together. Therefore, I will study the possibilities and limits of one’s internal musical communication and observe what I can learn from this form of dialogue in regards to playing chamber music, and vice versa.
For these experiments, I plan to work with contemporary composers who will compose specially commissioned pieces for this research topic. As I am a double instrumentalist (violin and piano), this would mean that these works should be composed for one musician playing these two instruments simultaneously. Therefore it will include live electronic as well as pre-recorded audio and/or new playing techniques.
Three years ago, I had already commissioned such a work due to the wish to present myself as a double instrumentalist in one piece. In fact, it later became the starting point of my artistic research. The piece is called Spukhafte Fernwirkung for violin, piano and loop station, which gives me the opportunity to play up to 5 voices at the same time and therefore make my wish come true; to play with myself on both instruments. I learned a lot about how important it is to preconceive what happens next in the music, and how the previous playing will effect the next. The composer himself writes about the piece as such: "The title is drawn from the famous quote by Albert Einstein, commenting the spooky phenomenon in quantum physics called entanglement. Just like two elementary particles can be entangled with each other, the musical building blocks communicate with a spooky action at a distance.”
Internal Supervisors and External Advisors: Markus Schirmer (KUG), Deniz Peters (KUG)
Samira Spiegel
Violin, Piano
Samira Spiegel is one of the most extraordinary talents of her generation. She plays violin and piano at the same level and impresses her audience since childhood with this talent.
With both instruments she can be proud of being prize winner at national and international competitions. With the piano she received the „Steinway-Förderpreis“ and was first prize winner at the „Thürmer-Klavierwettbewerb“ in Bochum. Besides she won the second prize at „Nürnberger Klavierwettbewerb“ and shortly thereafter many prizes at „Internationales Münchner Klavierpodium“. Also she received the Mishory-Prize for the best interpretation of a contemporary piece by Gilead Mishory. Samira Spiegel also won the first prize at Clamo international piano competition in Spain and was awarded a first prize at the online edition of „Danubia Talents – Wiener Klassik – Competition“ and twice a first prize at the online edition of „Franz Liszt Center Piano Competition“. Recently she won the first prize at the Premio Amadeus Piano Competition in Italy. Parallel to those events she was successful at violin competitions. She was third prize winner at „International Young Paganini Competition“ in Poland and won the first prize at „International Louis-Spohr- Competition“ in Kassel, Germany, where she also received the audience award of the competition. Together with her duo partner Nina Scheidmantel she was part of the „Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Foundation“ and received the „Fischer-Flach“ advancement award for chamber music. For her outstanding musical performances with both instruments violin and piano Samira Spiegel was awarded the promotion prize of the „Keck-Köppe-Förderstiftung“ in 2018.
Samira Spiegel gives many recitals in renowned concert series such as the „Kissinger Sommer“, „Würzburger Bachtage“ or „Arsonore Graz“. Besides in March 2022 she played her debut concert in the „Wiener Musikverein“.
In October 2021 her debut CD „Inspired by Bach“ with Genuin Classics was released and received excellent reviews in musical journals such as „Fono Forum“.
Apart from her solo career Samira Spiegel also works regularly as a concert master in the „Detmolder Kammerorchester“ and holds a lectureship for piano at the „Kirchenmusikhochschule Regensburg“.
Samira Spiegel finished her Bachelor of Music, Master of Music and her concert exam (violin) / postgraduate studies (piano) in both instruments with top grades. She studied violin with Conrad v. d. Goltz, Herwig Zack and Eckhard Fischer; piano with Bernd Glemser, Silke-Thora Matthies and Markus Schirmer. In October 2022 she will start with her artistic research at the Kunstuniversität Graz and her postgraduate studies for contemporary music violin at the same university in collaboration with the „Klangforum Wien“.