Sat 25/4 20:00
Schallschatten: Birgit Ulher & Petr Vrba (DE/CZ) • Loré Lixenberg & Elia Moretti (GB/IT)

Two international duos in one evening. A sonic bestiary for two trumpets performed by German musician Birgit Ulher and Prague-based improviser Petr Vrba, and a walk through a musical landscape with British mezzo-soprano Loré Lixenberg and Italian percussionist Elia Moretti.

Schallschatten
Birgit Ulher – trumpet, radio, speaker, objects, video
Petr Vrba – trumpet, electronics

A unique audiovisual collaboration between two respected improvisers and composers who consistently push beyond the limits of their instruments. Extended playing techniques, preparations and work with electronics form the shared ground of this duo, which emerged after an exceptionally successful concert at the The NOW now festival in Sydney. The organizers suggested bringing the two musicians together on one stage – and the encounter grew into a long-term collaboration. In their instant compositions, Ulher and Vrba listen closely to one another and inspire each other toward new sonic trajectories. Together they explore the sound possibilities of their instruments and the shared space, creating an exploratory journey through unexpected sonic landscapes for the listener. Their debut album Schallschatten was released in 2021 by the Slovenian label Inexhaustible Editions.

“Two trumpets! And all kinds of sound effects – dreamed of, accidentally discovered, or desired after hundreds of hours of practice and research… A wonderful discovery! We are amazed by their extraordinary sonic bestiary and the almost unlimited range of their palette of rare or barely perceptible colors, constantly transforming.”
— Jean-Michel van Schouwburg

Birgit Ulher has long been dedicated to expanding the sonic possibilities of the trumpet. She works with multiphonics, layered tones and granular sound, and has developed her own extended techniques and preparations that significantly broaden the instrument’s tonal palette. Alongside this long-term exploration she is also deeply interested in the relationship between sound and silence. Since 2006 she has also worked with radio, using extended speakers powered by radio noise that she feeds into the mutes of her trumpet.

Petr Vrba works with extended techniques and preparations, often using a bass clarinet mouthpiece on the trumpet. He transforms traditional ways of playing the instrument and further modulates the sound using electronic devices (for example through granular synthesis). In recent years he has increasingly incorporated electronics, often controlled by body movement or by his own DIY constructions.

Loré Lixenberg & Elia Moretti
British vocalist Loré Lixenberg and Italian percussionist Elia Moretti treat music as a landscape to be traversed together rather than an object to be controlled. Breath, percussion, voice, electronics and chance meet like travelers who recognize each other only in passing. Beneath the surface flows a quiet restlessness — a suspicion that listening might still resist the speed and loneliness of our time. What remains is a shared interval: a fragile, luminous attention in which sound becomes not expression, but a way of being together.

The two musicians have collaborated since 2018 and, besides performing as a duo, are involved in performative projects such as Konferentse and Zahradníiiiii republika (Garden Republic), whose radio version won the prestigious Prix Italia last year. Their concert will be preceded by a several-day artistic residency at Divadlo 29.

Loré Lixenberg is a British mezzo-soprano, sound artist and performer whose work radically expands the possibilities of the voice across opera, experimental music, sound art and performance. She explores the voice as a physical, relational and imaginative medium, dissolving the boundaries between human, non-human and machine sound. Her practice moves between classical technique, extended vocal methods, improvisation, humor, electronics and multimedia structures. She is the founder and leader of The Voice Party, an original hybrid of political party and opera that ran in the UK general election in 2019.

Elia Moretti is a musician and researcher working at the intersection of sound, performance and expanded listening practices. Based in Prague, he moves between stage, text and studio, approaching listening as a transformative and political force — one that builds relationships, strengthens agency and expands imagination. As a musician he is primarily active on the improvisation and experimental music scene.

www.birgit-ulher.de
www.vrrrba.cz
www.inexhaustibleeditions.bandcamp.com
www.lorelixenberg.art

The concert is presented within the Jazzconnexion 2026 project with financial support from the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the Pardubice Region and the City of Pardubice.

 

Admission (pay what you want): 200 CZK / supporter 300 CZK
Ticket for ISIC and disability card holders: 150 CZK (available at the door)

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