Studied in Munich and received scholarships in Bamberg and Paris. He has been the conductor of Ju[mb]le, a youth ensemble for contemporary music in Bavaria, since 2014. In addition to his artistic activities, he has regularly curated various contemporary music projects since his student days - he was artistic co-director of the aDevantgarde Festival from 2010-2017 and has been in charge of the publication series ‘Neue Töne’ since 2016.

Hanna Fink is a musicologist, music theorist and cultural manager specialising in contemporary music. She teaches music theory at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen and is involved in projects on composition pedagogy and music education. She organises concerts and workshops of new music in Cologne and the Ruhr region and has been ensemble manager for the chamber music ensemble hand werk (Cologne) since 2017. She is currently Chairwoman of the Gesellschaft für Neue Musik Ruhr e.V. and the Cultural Advisory Board of the City of Essen. She writes specialist articles, writes for new music magazines and is responsible for the reconstruction of MusikTexte.  

Sophie Emilie Beha works in various contexts, including music, text, language, curation, improvisation and dramaturgy. She is an author and presenter for various public broadcasters and writes regularly for newspapers and various specialist magazines. Both on stage and in front of the camera, she presents podcasts, panel discussions, festivals and concert introductions. In Cologne, Beha curates concerts and festivals. In 2021 she was nominated for the German Jazz Journalism Award, and since 2022 her curatorial work has been supported by NICA artist development. She has been on the jury of the German Jazz Award since 2023.

He has premièred over 270 pieces, most of which are dedicated to him. His repertoire consists almost exclusively of the latest pieces, which often require a great deal of physical effort, use electronics or which no one else wants to play. He holds a doctorate, is a member of stock11 and Lange//Berweck//Lorenz, and lives in Berlin.

Julia Kadel is a multi-award-winning jazz pianist and composer with an international reputation. She has released four albums on leading labels such as Blue Note and MPS, played on renowned stages worldwide and impresses with her artistic depth, stylistic independence and interdisciplinary commitment - for example in award-winning cultural and community projects.

Polina Lapkovskaja is a musician, composer, performer and curator with classical training and international stage experience. After studying jazz and composition, she founded the band Pollyester and established herself as a sought-after theater composer. Her works have been shown at the Münchner Kammerspiele, the Ruhrtriennale and the Maxim Gorki Theater, among others. She collaborates with renowned directors and combines music with socio-political themes. Lapkovskaja initiates cross-genre projects, develops new music technologies and was awarded the City of Munich's Music Prize. She has also been active as a producer since 2023, including for Manuela, Django Django and Joe Mount (Metronomy).

Ariel William Orah is an Indonesian artist based in Berlin, specialising in socially engaged art and diaspora. Based in Germany for 12 years, he combines economics, sustainability and empathy in his practice, exploring social and climate injustice as well as identity and memory. His main media are sound and performance art, with works at Hamburger Bahnhof and CTM Festival Berlin, among others. He founded Soy Division in 2017 and is co-founder of the Mutating Kinship Lab and L-KW. In addition to his art, he is dedicated to curatorial and artistic research projects, especially performing arts and sound.

His works of electroacoustic music are performed at renowned international festivals for contemporary music - including the German contribution to the World Music Days for New Music (2011, 2017, 2019). They have been awarded national and international prizes. In 2023, Clemens von Reusner was nominated for the GEMA German Music Author Award, and in 2024 he received the DEGEM Thomas Seelig Fixed Media Award for his work. He is active as a curator, jury member (reviewer) at international festivals and composition competitions for electroacoustic music.

Studied guitar and composition at the Munich University of Music and Theatre. With the Monika Roscher Bigband: Echo Jazz, Förderpreis d. Landeshauptstadt München, Bayerischer Kunstförderpreis, Theatertreffen Berlin: Woyzeck and Das Große Heft (composition).

He has lived in Berlin since 2004, where he founded the independent cultural platform Digital in Berlin in 2008. He curates international music projects, including the MADEIRADiG Festival (since 2008) and the Kiezsalon concert series (since 2015), which is funded by the Berlin Senate Department from 2020 to 2027. Rosen was a jury member of the Capital Cultural Fund (2017-2020) and works as a DJ. He has worked for festivals in Norway, Portugal, Hungary and Germany, among others. His curatorial interests include cross-genre, interdisciplinary music formats and new forms of presentation.

Sarvenaz Safari studied composition and music theory in Graz and with Manfred Stahnke in Hamburg, with whom she published the book 1001 Mikrotöne in 2015. She completed her doctorate (Dr. phil.) in 2018 on human-machine relationships in music theater by Bernhard Lang. In addition to her compositional work, she has been teaching music theory and musicology since 2013, currently at the HfMT Leipzig and since 2023 at the Berlin University of the Arts. Her music is characterized by differentiated timbres, unusual instrumentation and programmatic themes. She lives and works in Berlin.

Composer for orchestra, ensemble, instrumental music, music theater and electronic music. Studied in Saarbrücken, Karlsruhe and Freiburg. Since 2024 doctorate at the Collège Doctoral Européen d'Interprétation et de Création Musicales GLAREAN. Work stays in Edenkoben, Bamberg and Rome. Board member of the German Composers' Association. Lecturer at the University of Music in Trossingen.

Moves in changing genres of pop culture, his work has been honoured with gold and platinum awards. Works as an A&R consultant for Universal Music/Vertigo. Involved with #verso (songwriters' association) as co-initiator of the international and cross-genre “Swop Camps”.

Echo Ho, a transmedia artist born in Beijing and based in Cologne, interweaves improvised music with real-time composition. She combines different media forms and integrates unusual poetic and narrative elements while drawing deeply from the philosophy of the Chinese instrument, the qin. With her long-running project SlowQin, she challenges traditional musical boundaries and interweaves diverse cultural, artistic, technical and philosophical concepts. Her works have been exhibited at venues such as the He Xiangning Art Museum and the ZKM. She is currently a PhD student at the Tangible Music Lab in Linz, Austria.

Felix Kubin is a composer, radio playwright and media artist. He began experimenting with sound on a 4-track device at the age of 12. Today his work ranges from futuristic pop to radio plays, orchestral compositions and lecture performances. He runs the label Gagarin Records and is co-founder of the festival "Papiripar" for Pop | Art | Rotation.

He has been releasing albums on international labels since 1993 and has performed worldwide, including at MoMA PS1, Sonar, CTM and Ars Electronica. Kubin is interested in contextual shifts between high and subculture. He has composed for NDR das neue werk, among others, and developed new formats for experimental radio.

Contemporary jazz, improvised music, contemporary music

2013-2019 Curator of the Serious Series in Berlin - series for jazz and improvised music

2016-2019 on the board of IG Jazz Berlin, managing director since 2020 Jury for the special programmes

Currently a consultant for jazz and international cultural relations at the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts. Until 2023 Head of the Cultural Department of the district town of Leonberg, previously Head of Cultural Education and Participation at the Cultural Department of Esslingen am Neckar. Until 2018, Arts & Culture Officer at BASF SE in Ludwigshafen. Between 2012 and 2016 Managing Director of the German Jazz Union.

Studied jazz, rock and pop percussion at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media and Communication and Cultural Management at Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen.

Leonie Reineke is an editor for New Music at Südwestrundfunk and a freelance author for the cultural programs of ARD and Deutschlandradio. She is a member of the New Music Project Advisory Board of the German Music Council and regularly offers courses on broadcasting work at music institutions, universities and art colleges. In 2015, 2016 and 2020, she planned and directed the “nano” festival for contemporary music in Essen. She has served on various juries, including the Fonds Experimentelles Musiktheater, the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music and the Berlin Cultural Administration. In 2017, she was awarded the Folkwang Prize in the field of musicology, and in 2018 she received the Reinhard Schulz Prize for contemporary music journalism.

Philipp Rumsch is a composer-performer and producer who innovatively dissolves genre and disciplinary boundaries. He combines experimental pop, contemporary classical and improvised music with technologies such as spatial audio, artificial intelligence and specially designed virtual instruments.

Philipp is known for his solo projects, his Philipp Rumsch Ensemble and the avant-pop project Wylid node. He composes for ensembles, theater and dance and produces, mixes and masters audio and interdisciplinary productions.

Philipp studied jazz piano and music performance in Leipzig and Copenhagen. He worked for Valgeir Sigurðsson, taught aural training at the HMT Leipzig and has been teaching music production at the HMTM Hannover since 2024.

As an accordionist, she is performing contemporary, improvised and electro-acoustic music worldwide and is particularly interested in intercultural and interdisciplinary projects. She lives in Montabaur in the Westerwald and enjoys organizing unconventional cultural formats in rural areas. Since November 2024 she works at the German Music Council as project coordinator for Podium Gegenwart.

Miriam Akkermann is a musicologist and sound artist and currently holds the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation Professorship at the Free University of Berlin. She researches music technology, digital musicology and computer music. Her work combines scientific analysis with artistic practice. She is currently investigating the influence of music on sleep in the “Lullabyte” project. Her work has been presented at festivals and exhibitions worldwide.

Moritz Simon Geist, a music producer from Dresden, has been creating electronic music with robots since 2012. His mechanical drum robot “MR-808” marked the beginning of his international career. Geist has performed at festivals such as the Venice Biennale and SXSW and has received several awards, including the German Pop Music Award 2022.

Nicola L. Hein is a sound artist, guitarist, composer and professor for Sound Arts & Creative Music Technology in Lübeck. He works at the interface of music, technology and aesthetics - with AI, augmented reality, sound installations and ambisonic projection. Performances in over 30 countries and over 30 recordings document his work.

In her works, the German-Austrian composer Brigitta Muntendorf explores socio-political and techno-social concepts through radical listening, environmental storytelling and social composing. Her work includes instrumental music, AR installations and transdigital theater, often in collaboration with partners such as d&b audio and Ars Electronica.

Ali Nikrang is a multidisciplinary artist and AI researcher working at the intersection of music and artificial intelligence. He teaches as a professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich and conducts research at the Ars Electronica Futurelab. As a classical musician and AI developer, he combines AI and music, for example through the composition tool Ricercar.

Yağmur Uçkunkaya works in the field of AI technology, specializing in the combination of AI, art and music. She studied Media Informatics at TU and FU Berlin, focusing on creative AI applications. During her time at the AI agency Birds on Mars, she developed Mouse on Mars, an AI singing tool that generates non-existent languages. She is currently studying Design and Computation and working on projects that explore emotional manipulation through technology. Her work has been presented at the Ars Electronica Festival, among others.

The German Society for Electroacoustic Music (DEGEM) promotes electroacoustic music and sound art on a national and international level. This includes the organisation of specialist conferences, courses, concerts and sound installations, international exchange and the release of publications and recordings, as well as a commitment to appropriate production conditions for electroacoustic music, suitable funding instruments and networking with other associations, interest groups, artists and institutions.

For 50 years, the German Jazz Union (formerly Union Deutscher Jazzmusiker e.V.) has seen itself as the voice of jazz musicians in Germany. In cooperation with international, national and regional jazz associations as well as jazz-related and interdisciplinary organisations, it campaigns for necessary improvements to the structural and financial framework conditions for performing and teaching jazz musicians. 

The German Composers' Association (DKV) is an association of composers of all genres and styles who are united by the idea of solidarity in representing the interests of all musical creatives and is committed to the interests of composers of all nationalities living and working in Germany in a variety of ways. The DKV represents the position of authors internationally and nationally vis-à-vis politicians and the public, as well as in shaping legislation on their social security.

The German Music Council (DMR) represents the interests of 15 million musicians in Germany and is the world's largest national umbrella organisation for music culture. It represents around 100 organisations and umbrella associations of professional and amateur music-making as well as the 16 state music councils. With its music policy work as a civil society actor, the association provides impetus for a vibrant musical life and is in constant dialogue with federal politics.

The Deutscher Tonkünstlerverband (DTKV), the oldest and largest professional association for musicians (founded in 1844), is organised nationwide with around 9,000 individual members and is the professional association for all music professions - composers, performers, music educators, etc. Membership of the Deutscher Tonkünstlerverband is a trade mark for the music professions.

In addition to representing interests vis-à-vis political, social and economic institutions and associations, the DTKV is primarily committed to improving the framework conditions for music and music education in Germany. It is committed to ensuring that the rights of freelance musicians in particular are protected and that musicians can make a living from their work.

The Society for New Music (GNM) was founded in 1922, banned by the National Socialists in 1933 and refounded in 1948. The purpose of the society is to promote new music, taking into account its individual and social function, its further development and the mediation between theory and practice. It currently has around 300 natural and 50 co-operative members. The GNM represents Germany at the iscm World New Music Days and appoints a jury for the German submissions.

The Initiative Musik is the central funding organisation of the Federal Government and the music industry for the German music industry. We strengthen the presentation and dissemination of music from Germany at home and abroad. Our programmes, projects and awards focus on supporting professional newcomers, musicians, live music clubs and music companies as well as expanding sustainable structures for rock, pop and jazz throughout Germany. 

Studied guitar and percussion at the Würzburg University of Music, 1982 Director of the Würzburg Hermann Zilcher Conservatory, since 2003 President of the German Music Council, since 2009 Honorary Professor at the Munich University of Music and Theatre.

Camille Buscot is a cultural scholar and has represented German jazz music in various associations and roles since 2016. Since 2022, she has served as Managing Director of IG Jazz Berlin, and since May 2024, she has held this position for the Deutsche Jazzunion e.V. She is also a board member of the Berlin Music Council.

Since June 2023, Caroline Scholz has been the Press and Public Relations Officer at the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. Prior to that, she held various leadership positions in cultural management, including at ensemble mosaik and Karsten Witt Music Management, as well as in project coordination for the Association of Music and Art Schools in Brandenburg and the University of Zurich.