What ever you wanted to hear about Love ... Biographies

Angelika Bachmann | Violin | Vocals

As a musically gifted child, Angelika Bachmann was exempted from a regular school education by the Senate. Thus, from a very early age she was able to devote all her time to the violin. She performed as a soloist from the tender age of seven with orchestras such as the Hamburger Symphony Orchestra, made several television appearances and won numerous first prizes in the national competition “Jugend musiziert.” Her teachers included Prof. Michael Goldstein, Prof. Evelyn Distler, Prof. Petru Monteanu and Roland Greutter, first concertmaster at Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra. For many years Angelika was the recipient of a grant from the Oscar and Vera Ritter Foundation and a member of the jury in the Hamburg Instrumental Competition.

Besides music, Angelika studied German literature and philosophy. In 2007, together with publisher Breitkopf & Härtel, she produced her own under the title “Flexible Strings.” Since 1992 she has led the children’s orchestra “Die Coolen Streicher” (The Cool Strings), which she co-founded with Iris Siegfried, – an undertaking that won an award in 2004 from the then German Federal President Johannes Rau for the most innovative music project in Germany. Since 2002, Angelika has been committed to the Escuela Popular de Artes, a music school project in Achupallas, a disadvantaged area in the Chilean town Viña del Mar. Angelika is also the artistic director of the music initiative “The Young ClassX,” which she developed in collaboration with Alexander Birken of the Otto Group, and which has since reached out to over 10,000 Hamburg children, enabling them to sing in , play in orchestras or travel on the MusikMobil to listen in on symphony rehearsals, concerts or to visit instrument makers.

Since 2013, Angelika and Iris have been the artistic directors of the prestigious Hamburg Instrumental Competition which holds the annual children’s concert “Konzert der Kinder” in Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle, an event founded in 1983 by the composer and director Professor Walter Gelehrt especially for Angelika Bachmann.

Together with Iris Siegfried, she gives university lectures on stage performance to music majors. Alongside her musical endeavors, Angelika started writing her doctorate in 2014 in sociology on the subject of intervention in youth prisons. In 2011, Angelika Bachmann received the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany) from the German Federal President in Berlin as acknowledgement of her voluntary service to music education for children. In 2015 she was named honorary guard of the canal locks in the Alster lake - an award for sons and daughters of Hamburg who have earned the privilege to serve as ambassadors for their city throughout the world. Together with Salut Salon, she received the ECHO Klassik in the category „Classic Without Borders“ for their album „Carnival Fantasy“.

Iris Siegfried | Violin |Vocals

Iris Siegfried earned her musical laurels early in life when she won the prestigious “Jugend musiziert” competition. She later proved her talent as a singer with performances in various choirs and a-cappel- la groups. Along with music, Iris studied law and completed her final qualifying exam in 2000, later practicing as a lawyer specializing in competition and copyright law. She took a second degree as a cultural manager at the Hamburger Hochschule für Musik and Theatre where she returned as a lecturer in 2008. But the greatest thing in the world for Iris is making music: together with Angelika Bachmann, she formed the Salut Salon in 2002. Since 1992, the two violinists have also led the children’s orchestra “Die Coolen Streicher” (The Cool Strings) which they co-founded – an undertaking that won an award in 2004 from the then German Federal President Johannes Rau for the most innovative music project in Germany. Since 2002, Iris has been committed to the Escuela Popular de Artes, a music school in Achupallas, a disadvantaged area in the Chilean town Viña del Mar. Iris is the artistic director of the music initiative “The Young ClassX,” founded in 2008 by Salut Salon and the Otto Group, and which has since reached out to over 10,000 children in Hamburg, enabling them to sing in choirs, play in orchestras or travel on the “MusikMobil” to symphony rehearsals, concerts and instrument makers.

Since 2013, Iris Siegfried and Angelika Bachmann have been the artistic directors of the prestigious Hamburg Instrumental Competition, which organizes the annual children’s concert “Konzert der Kinder” in the Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle. Together with Angelika Bachmann, Iris gives university lectures on stage performance to music majors. In 2011, Iris Siegfried received the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany) from the German Federal President in Berlin as acknowledgement of her voluntary service to music education for children. In 2015 she was named honorary guard of the canal locks in the Alster lake - an award for sons and daughters of Hamburg who have earned the privilege to serve as ambassadors for their city throughout the world. Together with Salut Salon, she received the ECHO Klassik in the category „Classic Without Borders“ for their album „Carnival Fantasy“.

Sonja Lena Schmid | | Vocals

Sonja Lena was born 1981 in Tübingen and studied cello and in Hamburg, Amsterdam, the Hague and Lübeck and has won many awards and grants, such as Die Zeit (German newspaper) grant from the German foundation Musikleben, the Dutch state-sponsored Huygens grant, first prize in the Charles Hennen Concours International Chamber Music Competition (now named Orlando Competition) and a special prize in the international competition “Schubert and the Music of Modern Times.”

She is active in various chamber music projects and is a guest at many international festivals such as Warsaw Autumn, the International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the International Music Sessions Prussia Cove (England) or the Cervantino Festival (Mexico). With the Decoder Ensemble for modern music, to which she belongs since 2012, she organizes the short festival „BIG DATA WEEKEND“. The ensemble creates its own concert series called „Unterdeck“ in the Kaistudio of the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie.

Sonja is passionate about the connection between music and theatre: she has performed in numerous productions at the Thalia Theater (Hamburg), the Deutsche Schauspielhaus, and at the Biennale in Munich She has collaborated on productions for the Thalia Theater, the Deutsche Schauspielhaus and on independent productions such as with the children’s music theater „Teufels Kueche“, which gave guest performances at the Hamburger Staatsoper and the Festspielhaus Baden- Baden, landing a nomination for the „Junge Ohren“ prize.

Alongside Anne Von Twardowski and in collaboration with the Berlin DJs Gebrüder Teichmann, Sonja initiated the project “Rauschen” in 2014, which combines classical chamber music with live electronic sounds. Also together with Anne von Twardowski, Sonja gives performance training workshops as guest lecturer at the Hochschule der populären Künste (College of Popular Arts) in Berlin. In 2015 she was named honorary guard of the canal locks in the Alster lake - an award for sons and daughters of Hamburg who have earned the privilege to serve as ambassadors for their city throughout the world. Together with Salut Salon, she received the ECHO Klassik in the category „Classic Without Borders“ for their album „Carnival Fantasy“.

Anne-Monika von Twardowski | Piano | Vocals

Anne-Monika was born in 1982 in Durban, South Africa, and had her first piano lesson in Germany at the tender age of six. She pursued a degree in instrumental education and in musical arts als well as a master degree in piano performance at the Lübeck Academy of Music. Anne-Monika studied in Barcelona as an Erasmus exchange student in 2005/2006 at the Escola Superior de Música Catalunya. Her musical training was supplemented by master classes at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival.

Also in 2014, Anne-Monika set up the project “Rauschen” together with Sonja Lena Schmid, a project that combines classical chamber music with live electronic sounds in a state-of-the-art club atmosphere. They collaborated on this venture with the Berlin DJ duo „Gebrüder Teichmann“ and Gordian. Anne-Monika has a guest lecturing post at Berlin’s Hochschule der populären Künste (College of Popular Arts) and, together with Sonja Lena Schmid gives performance training workshops.

Since June 2012, she has also been involved as sponsor of the project “Schule mit Courage – Schule ohne Rassismus” (School with courage – School without racism) at the secondary school Theodor- Heuss-Schule in Pinneberg near Hamburg. In 2015 she was named honorary guard of the canal locks in the Alster lake - an award for sons and daughters of Hamburg who have earned the privilege to serve as ambassadors for their city throughout the world. Together with Salut Salon, she received the ECHO Klassik in the category „Classic Without Borders“ for their album „Carnival Fantasy“.

© Salut Salon 2017 | Photos: © GABO