International Guitar Festival Fribourg
September 23. - October 2, 2011

Espace Tinguely
Niki de Saint Phalle

Trio Rencontre

China, Lebanon, Switzerland

Lingling YU (Pipa)

Lingling YU was born in the south-western part of China, in the beautiful city of Hangzhou, the starting point of the Silk road. She took up music at the age of eight. She studied the violin, the erhu and the pipa and performed concerts. At the age of fourteen she devoted herself to the pipa and was awarded first prize in the entrance exam of the China Central Conservatory. As child prodigy, she was the subject of a cinema report that was part of the "Little Music Genius" cycle, as well as various other TV and press reports. She then entered the China National Conservatory. At the age of twenty-two she obtained her bachelor's degree in literature.

She was appointed as lecturer at Qing Hua University, where she taught until 1997. In 1988 she won the national competition of Chinese traditional music in Beijing. Together with her master Dehai LIU, the most important pipa player and composer, she travelled throughout China with her favourite instrument, teaching and giving public performances. Dehai LIU exerted a great influence on Lingling YU's musical evolution. She stayed in the Philippines where she taught and played concerts in various cities.

She studied with other famous pipa musicians such as LUO Jieli, WANG Fandi and SUN Weixi who gave Lingling YU the opportunity to broaden her knowledge, enrich her repertoire with a great variety of styles, and allowed her to find her own way, giving free range to her personality. Her performing style, combined with an exceptional mastery of all the techniques of her instrument, is powerful, clear, warm and creative, characterized by brightness and delicacy, an encounter between emotion and serenity, blending the two principles of the Chinese philosophy: the yin and the yang.

To explore the links between western and eastern music, she settled in Switzerland in 1998 and studied orchestration with Jean Balissat at the Conservatory of Lausanne.

She regularly gives concerts (as solist or with different chinese, european and world music ensembles) of chinese traditional and classical music, as well as contemporary music (John Cage, Manuel De Falla, John Adams, György Kurtag, Frangis Ali-Sade, Melissa Hui, Dehai Liu, Dun Tan, Yi Chen, Wenchen Qin, Chaoming Tung, Marc-André Rappaz, Biao Chen, Fernando Garnero Mahmoud Turkmani, Yu Tao) and improvisations in all regions of Switzerland, in major cities of Europe and beyond Europe. Her music has been broadcast on several radio stations (DRS - swiss radio, Radio Suisse Romande - Espace 2 , Radio France - France Musique and France Culture, Bayerischer Rundfunk) and on the Swiss and the Moroccan TV. Radio emissions have been dedicated to her in China, Switzerland, France, Germany and Canada.

In 1999 she published her first CD of traditional music for pipa solo, «The Swan» in Switzerland. Since October 2000 she studies harmony with Pierre Studer, contrepoint with Kurt Sturzenegger orchestration with Xavier Dayer, improvisation bei David Dolan and Marco Ferrari, and participates frequently the composition course of Eric Gaudibert and Nicolas Bolens at the Conservatory of Geneva.

2001 she founded the Ensemble ETC and in 2003 the ensembles YET Trio (improvisation, pipa, saxophon, contrabass) and Dragon Ensemble. The Rencontre Trio (pipa, guitar, arabic lute) and the DaoTrio (jazz-improvisation) were established in 2005. The Yu-Demenga-Molinari Trios (pipa, cello, clarinet) will perform for the first time in 2007.

Ms. YU also practises the traditional martial arts Tai Ji Quan and Mei Hua Zhuang, based on the taoist Yin Yang theory. In 2002 she set up a health center for chinese traditional medecine, the HeYi Centre in Lausanne.

Christoph Borter (Guitar)

The guitarist Christoph Borter sudied in Bern and Paris and graduated with distinction. He has won several prizes among them the first prize at the «Printemps de la Guitare» in Belgium. He has given recitals, both solo and with chamber music groups, in all the major Swiss cities as well as in France, Ireland, Belgium and the USA. He has performed as soloist with several orchestras (premiere of the Concerto for Guitar by Biao Chen) and recorded a CD of Spanish music.

Christoph Borter teaches at the Musikschule Konservatorium Bern and at the Hochschule der Künste Bern.

Christoph Borter organizes the «Gitarrenkonzerte Bern».

Mahmoud Turkmani (Oud and guitar)

Mahmoud Omar Turkmani, guitarist and composer, was born in Halba/Lebanon in 1964. He grew up in a family of musicians and music of different styles (folk, pop, classical music etc.) accompanied him throughout his childhood and adolescence. At the age of six he began to play the guitar and the oud (Arabic lute). From 1984 to 1989 Mahmoud Turkmani studied classical guitar and composition at the Moscow Academy for Music (Gneznikh; degree with honours). From 1994 to 1997 he continued studying with Stephan Schmidt at the Conservatory in Berne, Switzerland (title of a concert guitarist/«concert diploma» in 1997). Currently Mahmoud Turkmani teaches classical guitar and oud at the Conservatory in Berne. Apart from that, he is the founder of the guitar quartet «Ludus» which has issued a compact disc («Nuqta») with ENJA Records, Munich/Germany in December 1999. Further discs were released in 2002 («Fayka») and in 2004 («Zakira»). Mahmoud Turkmani performs as a soloist (solo, duo, trio etc.) in Swiss towns as well as in other European cities and in Arab countries (Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco etc.) Since 1994 Mahmoud Turkmani has composed works for well-known artists and ensembles such as Keyvan Chemirani, Barry Guy, Patricia Kopatchinskaya, Conrad Steinmann, Matthias Ziegler as well as the The Trio Aspekte, the Erato String Quartet, the Berne Symphony Orchestra, the Cairo Symphony Orchestra etc. At present the composer is working on an orchestral work for an Arab-European ensemble as well as on the project «Ya Sharr Mout».

Carlo Ciceri (composer)

Carlo Ciceri was born in La Spezia (Italy) in 1980. He graduated in piano (La Spezia), Musicology (Cremona) and Conducting for contemporary music with G. Bernasconi at the «Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana» in Lugano. He followed several composition courses and masterclasses (Ircam, Acanthes, Impuls Akademie) during which he met, among the others, B. Ferneyhough, B. Furrer, S. Sciarrino and K. Huber. He was awarded at the Ensemble Maderna Kompositionspreis and at the «Gianni Bergamo Classic Music Award». His works was performed by, among the others, Ensemble Catrall, Ex-novo Ensemble and ensemble recherche. He studies Composition with J.Baboni-Schilingi, N. Vassena and G. Verrando.

Huasong Qiao (composer)

Huasong Qiao was born in Inner Mongolia 1982 in China, He started to study piano and guitar at 13 years old. He started to study composition in 1998. Later he entered the composition department of Tianjin Conservatory of Music, and studied with professor Gao Yansheng and Krasatov (Oleksandr). He has been studying with professor Qin Wenchen since 2004 and entered the composition departement of Central Conservatory of Music for master's degree in 2006.

His works' concert was hosted in Tianjin in May, 2006:
«Seven Languages» (for flute, oboe, clarinet, violon, viola, cello and percussion)
«Qiu Hua Qing Feng» (for string quartet)
«Song of Falling leaves» (for flute and piano)
«Echo», symphony No. 1
«Ablare Sound and Silent Color» (for guqin and 4 cello)

He wrote the incidental music of 3D newsreel «Archaic China» by the commission of The Palace Museum in Beijing and Chinese National Geography in 2007. The newsreel will be played on a big screen in The Palace Museum.

Chung-Shih Hoh (composer)

Chung-Shih Hoh was born in Singapore, where he studied composition at the Raffle Junior College. Later, he graduated from London's King's College, where he obtained First-Class Honours in composition and analysis. Back in Singapore, he focussed on his musical training and studied traditional Chinese music. At the same time, he gained mastery of the quqin (Chinese 7-string cither) with Ji Ziqun. He pursued his composer studies at the University of Buffalo (USA) while becoming increasingly familiar with electronic music and computers in New York.

Chung Shih Hoh has collaborated with musicians from Asia, Europe and America, such as Nicholas Isherwood (FR), the Meridian Arts Ensemble (USA), Sigune von Osten (DE), Wuwei (Chine), Quake-chamber ensemble (USA), Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart (DE), EXAUDI vocal ensemble (GB), Slee Sinfonietta (USA), and Andy Laster (USA). He has also taken part in numerous festivals in the USA, Singapore, Europe and Mexico.

His work reflects an analysis of music writing, at the crossroads between international experimental avant-garde and popular traditional Chinese music.