Umsn’JIP

Anton Svetlichny (*1982)
Identity, 2010
for recorder & electronics

Shintaro Imai (*1974)
Subtle Oscillation, 2016
for voice, recorder & electronics (Spain Premiere)

Motoharu Kawashima (*1972)
Das Lachenmann IV, 2017
for voice & recorders

Mateu Malondra (*1977)
Sicut aedificationem vocale constructa sonum, 2017
for voice & recorders

Luis Codera Puzo (*1981)
oscillation ou interstice, 2012
texts by Irène Gayraud
for voice & recorders

Adam Roberts (*1986)
from: Dark Matter, 2015 (Spain Premiere)
texts by Rae Armantrout
for voice & recorders

Ulrike Mayer-Spohn (*1980)
from: AL-L_2025, 2025 (Spain Premiere)
texts by Amy Lowell
for voice & recorders

Javier Hagen (*1971)
from: Ambient Songs, 2025 (Spain Premiere)
texts by James Joyce
for voice, recorders & electronics

Anton Svetlichny (1982, Russia) is the author of wide variety of compositions ranged from small solo and chamber pieces to full scale musical theater works. He graduated from Rostov Conservatory, and further developed his skills under the guidance of such prominent contemporary music figures as Louis Andriessen, Beat Furrer, Pierluigi Billone, Franck Bedrossian, Raphael Cendo, Peter Ablinger and Martijn Padding. His music is constantly performed throughout Europe (from Germany, France, Netherlands and Switzerland to Italy, Greece, and Turkey), both Americas and Asia, being a part of such events as ISCM World Music Days, Summer Courses for New Music Darmstadt, Avignon Theater Festival, Gaudeamus Musiekweek etc. He had the luck to work with many brilliant musicians and collectives like UMS’nJIP (Switzerland), Platypus and Schallfeld ensembles (Austria), MotoSontrario (Italy), dissonArt (Greece), Synchromy (USA), MCME and Studio for New Music (Russia), Ensemble Nostri Temporis (Ukraine), Natalya Pshenichnikova (voice), Sergey Chirkov (accordion) and many others.

Adam Roberts’ music has been performed by ensembles such as the Arditti Quartet, the JACK Quartet, le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, the Callithumpian Consort, Earplay, fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center, the Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble, the Association for the Promotion of New Music, violist Garth Knox, UMS’nJIP, Guerilla Opera, and at festivals such as Wien Modern (Vienna), Tanglewood, the Biennale Musique en Scene (Lyon), and the 2009 ISCM World Music Days (Sweden). Awards for Roberts’ music include the Benjamin H. Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, the Bernard Rogers Prize (Eastman), the New York Bohemians Prize (Harvard), the André Chevillion-Yvonne Bonnaud Prize from the Orléans Piano Competition, the Earplay Donald Aird Award, the Christoph and Stefan Kaske Fellowship from the Wellesley Composers Conference, the Leonard Bernstein Fellowship from the Tanglewood Music Center, the Bldodgett Prize (Harvard) as well as other academic scholarships and awards. Commissions have come from the Callithumpian Consort, the Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble, pianist Nolan Pearson, the Tanglewood Music Center, Guerilla Opera, and others. Roberts’ music has been called “a powerful success,” “arresting,” and “amazingly lush,” (theBoston Musical Intelligencer), “an attractive mix of the familiar and exotic,” and “otherworldly” (Boston Classical Review), and “invigorating” with a “persistent melodic urge” (American Academy of Arts and Letters citation). Roberts obtained a Bachelor’s degree in composition from the Eastman School of Music in 2003 and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2010. Roberts also studied at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna from 2007-2008 on a Harvard University Sheldon Traveling Fellowship. Roberts’ primary teachers have included David Liptak, Augusta Read Thomas, Julian Anderson, and Chaya Czernowin, and he has also studied with Steven Stucky, Martin Bresnick, Bernard Rands, Joshua Fineberg, Magnus Lindberg, and Rand Steiger. In addition, Roberts has had lessons and masterclasses with composers such as Brian Ferneyhough, Helmut Lachenmann, John Adams, John Harbison, Lee Hyla, Alvin Lucier, and Jonathan Harvey. Roberts has taught at Harvard University and Istanbul Technical University’s Center for Advanced Studies in Music. Roberts’ first disc, “Leaf Metal,” was released on Tzadik Records in January, 2014.

Born in 1974, Shintaro Imai studied at the Kunitachi College of Music, Tokyo, and IRCAM, Paris. In 2002–2003 he was recipient of a grant from the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs, and guest composer at ZKM, Karlsruhe; and the following year served as artist-in-residence at DAAD Berlin, and guest composer at the Electronic Music Studio TU Berlin. From 2008–2011 he directed music of the Bauhaus Stage Projects, Dessau; and in 2012 served as tutor at the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music. He is currently associate professor and director of the Sonology Department of Kunitachi College of Music, Guest Professor at Osaka University of Art. His awards include: the Residence Prize at International Electroacoustic Music Competition of Bourges; the First Prize and Special Prize for Young Composer at MUSICA NOVA International Electroacoustic Music Competition in the Czech Republic; Prize at the EARPLAY Composers Competition in USA; and the First Prize at ZKM International Competition for Electroacoustic Music in Germany. His works have been performed at numerous international festivals including Inventionen, Ultraschall, Transmediale, MaerzMusik (solo show at Berghain, Berlin), Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music, Agora, ICMC, and ISCM World Music Days. In 2004 a portrait concert of his works was held at Berlinische Galerie, Berlin. In 2016 he was composer-in-residence at SinusTon festival in Magdeburg. Since 2019 he joins in Android Opera® projects of Keiichiro Shibuya, and develops programs for singing, improvisation and movements of humanoid robot.

Motoharu Kawashima was born in 1972. He graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts and its graduate school. His works are performed all around the world. He participates in many projects of modern music events, among them as a program advisor of the “Izumi Sinfonietta Osaka” hall. He also appears on Japanese TV in programs such as “Untitled Concert”. He is also a performer himself as well as the conductor of “Ensemble Kochi“. He won the Akiyoshidai International Composition Prize and made his debut in Akiyoshidai International 20th Century Classical Music Festival in 1992. He won the Best Notation Prize in Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music in 1994. Currently vice-president of The Japan Federation of Composers Inc.(JFC) and associate professor of Kunitachi College of Music and its graduate school. His scores are published by the Zen-On Music Company Ltd Limited Baerenreiter.

Luis Codera Puzo (Barcelona, 1981) is a composer, cultural manager, and performer of modular synthesizers and electric guitar. His music prioritizes clarity and the pursuit of ideas with a defined purpose, traits manifested in pieces like Code is poetry (premiered in 2020 by Quatuor Diotima) through unisons, repeated notes, and uniform writing, enabling the precise notation of typically invisible elements, such as instrumental vibrato. Referentiality and cultural codes in listening are also key aspects of works like Compression Music, for synthesizers and massively amplified ensemble, created with the support of the Leonardo Grants from the BBVA Foundation. This hour-long piece contrasts conceptions of sound, dynamics, acoustic space, and instrumental color between contemporary popular music and classical tradition. Codera Puzo has intensively explored the use and performance of modular synthesizers, creating various compositions, studies, and articles. His instrumental technique, centered on performativity and precise interaction with other musicians, has led him to compose works such as MUR#03 for modular synthesizer and orchestra, premiered by the OBC (Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya) in 2023.
His musical training began as self-taught; later, he studied piano, electric guitar, percussion, and trombone, and then focused on composition at ESMUC in Barcelona and the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe. Notable achievements in his career include the Composition Prize from the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung and his role as a guest composer at L’Auditori de Barcelona in 2017. His music has been performed worldwide by ensembles such as Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble intercontemporain, or ensemble recherche, among many others. He has released albums on Col legno and Neu Records. Aware of the risk of excessive self-focus in the artistic community, Luis Codera Puzo has dedicated a significant part of his trajectory to paying attention to others’ music, programming, and cultural management. He has undertaken key projects in the renewal of Barcelona’s new creation music scene, programming and advising on over 100 concerts and sound experiences, commissioning numerous new works. Notable projects include the foundation and direction of the ensemble CrossingLines and the OUT·SIDE cycle of unusual music in contemporary art centers, emphasizing coherence and the care of programming and dignified working conditions. Currently, Codera Puzo is management advisor of the FRAMES Percussion group, whom he has helped establish as a key ensemble in the Spanish contemporary music scene, recently awarded the Ensemble Prize from the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung. Codera Puzo has taught classes and given lectures at institutions such as the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, Musikene, Taller de Músics Escola Superior d’Estudis Musicals, ESMUC, the Centre Superior Conservatori del Liceu, the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid, and the Mallorca Summer Academy.

Mateu Malondra Flaquer [b. 1977: Palma, Illes Balears, Spain] develops, in his work, a considerable variety of musical and sonic processes, where multiplicity, modular fragmentation, the superimposition of differentiated compositional strategies, and the concatenation of musical elements configure the most characteristic features of his work. His musical training began with composition studies with David Padrós and Christian de Jong in Barcelona, and continued with a BAMus and an MMus in Composition at the Maastricht Conservatorium (ZUYD University) under the tutelage of Robert HP Platz, as well as a BAMus in Classical Guitar at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague with Enno Voorhorst. He broadened his knowledge with electroacoustic studies at the Centre Henri Pousseur in Liège with Patrick Delges and Jean-Marc Sullon, and enriched his perspective with masterclasses by figures such as Daniel De Adamo, Richard Barrett, Brian Ferneyhough, Beat Furrer, and Wolfgang Rihm. His academic research culminated in a doctorate at Kingston University-London, under the supervision of Paul Archbold and Oded Ben-Tal, awarded in 2021 with a thesis on researching on polyphonic structures, modularity and momente form. In the field of pedagogy, Mateu Malondra Flaquer currently serves as a Specialist Technical Professor at the Conservatori Superior de les Illes Balears (Conservatory of the Balearic Islands), where his extensive training and experience translate into specialized teaching for the formation of new music professionals. The subjects he teaches reflect his expertise in contemporary musical creation and the integration of technology, including Electroacoustic Composition, which guides students in the application of current compositional techniques and enhances the creative process with electronic means; Mix-Media Composition, which explores the fusion of technology with music, audiovisual composition, scenography, and sound space; Applied Music Technology IV, which fosters advanced knowledge of the latest technological tools; Repertoire with electronic media for saxophone, a unique subject that explores the timbral and expressive possibilities arising from the combination of a traditional instrument like the saxophone with the electroacoustic world; Creativity and Innovation for saxophonists, which stimulates original thinking and innovation capacity; and Cultural Management Projects, which offers tools for the ideation, planning, and evaluation of musical cultural projects. Previously, he directed the municipal music school of Calvià and taught classical guitar at the municipal music schools of Calvià and Artà. In public management, he served as director of the Institut d’Estudis Baleàrics (Institute of Balearic Studies) between 2019 and 2022. Currently, he plays a key role as artistic director, production manager, and coordinator of the ME_MMIX Festival and ME_MMIX_Produccions. His artistic activity as a composer is characterized by the formalization of musical and sonic processes, with an exploration of multiplicity, modular fragmentation, and the superimposition of compositional strategies. He has also worked in the composition of sound spaces for theater and scenography, creating immersive environments. His presence on the international circuit began in 2006 with commissions from renowned festivals and performers, such as the Festival Mixtur 2015, the Grup Instrumental BCN216, and the Festival Musica Sacra Maastricht 2006, among many others. He is currently working on new pieces for Lluïsa Espigolé, Xabier Casal, and Carlota Càceres, as well as on the monodrama Samurai with text by Rafel Gallego, and collaborates with Posada Producción on the design of the scenography and sound space for theatrical projects such as Laura and Volen Bicicletes. The quality and innovation of his work have been recognized in various international competitions, being a finalist in calls from the Arditti String Quartet 2010 and 2012 and the ICP competition, as well as the Music Village International call for new works. He won the first prize of the GTM-Conservatoria Symfonieorkest competition. Was selected for the Donaueschingen Musiktage-Next Generation, the Franco Donatoni International Meeting for Young Composers, the Concurs PluralEnsemble, and the Ecce and Riot Ensemble International call for new works, among other recognitions. His music has been performed by prestigious ensembles such as the Arditti String Quartet, BCN216, Ensemble dissonArt, Insomnio, Ensemble Exposé, Mdi Ensemble, Palomar Ensemble, Plural Ensemble, QuLacoza, Riot Ensemble, Vertixe Sonora, and UMS’nJIP, as well as by soloists and conductors of the stature of Rafel Caldentey, Neus Estarellas, Pilar Fontalba, Takao Hyakutome, Tatsuki Narita, Mark Knoop, Gerry Cornelius, and Beat Furrer. His work has resonated in festivals and concert halls such as the Cairo Contemporary Music Days, Dark Music Days, Donaueschinger Musiktage-Next Generation, Festival Musica Sacra Maastricht,Forum Wallis, Gaudeamus Muziekweek, IDAF Festival, IMD-47-Internationale Ferienkurse für neuen Musik-Open Space, Festival Mixtur Barcelona, Nact der neuen Musik Düsseldorf, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, NUNC2!, Perspectives XXI, Unerhörte Musik-Berlin, Sintése, SIRGA, Sounds New, L’Auditori-Barcelona, Auditori de Saragossa, Auditori CajaSol, És Baluard, Concertgebouw Brugge, Conzertzaal Tilburg, Theater ann het Vrijthof, MISE-EN Place, Muziekcentrum First Philips, Senate House, Studio Noru, Tokyo Opera City Recital Hall and Spectrum among other venues. His music has been broadcast by radio stations worldwide and performed in Egypt, Europe, Iceland, Japan, Mexico, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and the USA. Since 2012, his work has been published and distributed by BabelScores and Universal Edition.

Extraordinary diversity describes the composer and multi-instrumentalist Ulrike Mayer-Spohn who plays the recorder (with focus on contemporary music), as well as historical string instruments (fiddle and baroque violin). She studied composition and audio design with Erik Oña at the Studio of Electronic Music, Academy of Music, Basel, beginning to compose in 2007, and receiving commissions from the festival forum Valais and the international New Music Days, Shanghai. Her work has been performed by the Stuttgart Vocal soloists, Ensemble Phoenix Basel, Vertigo, DissonArt, L’Arsenale, cool a cappella (1st Prize world choir games 2008) and her own ensemble UMS’nJIP in Switzerland, France, Greece, Italy, Russia, Australia, the USA and China, premiered under the baton of Beat Furrer, Mark Foster, Tsung Yeh, Jürg Henneberger and Filippo Perocco and broadcast by the Swiss radio. She was awarded the 2nd Prize in the composition competition Culturescapes 2010, 2nd Prize in the composition competition at the Bern music festival 2011, the Scholarship Award for 2011 at the Music Village Mount Pelion in Greece and the Call for Scores Award L’Arsenale Treviso, Italy 2011. With the ensemble Ums’ n Jip she has undertaken research in the field of musical theater (chamber operas One, Two, Three, Four, Five), live electronic music and sound spacialization. She studied recorder with Ulrike Mauerhofer at the Musikhochschule Karlsruhe, with Conrad Steinmann and Corina Marti at the Schola Cantorum Basel before specializing in contemporary music and studying with Dorothea Winter at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. From 2009-11 she received a specialized master in contemporary performance at the HSM in Basel supervised by Jürg Henneberger, Marcus Weiss and Mike Svoboda and has taken masterclasses with Marion Verbruggen, Peter van Heyghen, Sebastien Marq and Gerd Lünenbürger. She studied baroque violin and viola with Martina Graulich and David Plantier and fiddle with Randal Cook in Basel. Ulrike Mayer-Spohn works with internationally leading composers and annually plays more than 20 world premieres dedicated to her, which she has recorded for the radio as well as VDE Gallo on CD. Together with the Swiss composer and singer Javier Hagen, she established the experimental new music duo UMS’nJIP for voice, recorder and electronics, which, alongside Ensemble Modern, Intercontemporain and Kronos is one of the most active ensembles worldwide and in 2011 won the prestigious MusiquePro scholarship. Since 1999, Ulrike Mayer-Spohn has also performed as a recorder player, violinist, violist and fiddle player in specialized early music ensembles such as the Amsterdam Barok Compagnie, Freitagsakademie, Collegium Musicum Stuttgart, La Chapelle Ancienne, Musica Poetica, Muscadin and La Morra and has performed in Germany, China, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy and Switzerland.

Composer and singer born 1971 in Barcelona, Javier Hagen raised between 6 languages in Wallis and the Mediterranean. Composition under the tutelage of Heiner Goebbels and Wolfgang Rihm, classical singing under Roland Hermann, Alain Billard, Nicolai Gedda, Hartmut Höll, Irwin Gage and Ernst Haefliger. Both tenor and countertenor, Javier Hagen has premiered more than 300 oeuvres at prestigious contemporary music festivals collaborating with some of the most distinguished 20th century composers such as Aribert Reimann, Mauricio Kagel, Peter Eötvös and leading concrete poetry and constructive art artists such as Eugen Gomringer, Mauricio Rosenmann, Rolf Schroeter, Günther Uecker. Guest at festivals for new music in Donaueschingen, New York, Hong Kong, Strasbourg, Karlsruhe, Zurich, Lucerne, Geneva, Prague, Adelaide, Shanghai, Riga, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Ulan Bator, Bologna, Milan, Amsterdam, Paris and Berlin. Numerous recordings for international radio and TV stations. Prize winner of international new music and composition competitions in 2001/4/8 in Basel, Lausanne and Düsseldorf. Hagen’s compositional oeuvre includes the instrumental, scenical and vocal genres as well as electroacoustic and installative works. His works are performed by Ensemble Phoenix, dissonArt Ensemble, Klangforum Wien, CEPROMUSIC, Basler Madrigalisten, Amar Quartett, Basler Vokalsolisten, Singfrauen Winterthur, Schweizer Jugendchor, Titus Engel, Michael Gohl, Eliana Burki, Grayson Masefield and many others at festivals all around Europe (Europa Cantat Mainz, Klagenfurt and Basel 2004/06/08, Centre Culturel Suisse Paris) as well as in Central America (America Cantat), Canada, China, Corea, Lithuania, Latvia, Israel and the USA. 2003 publication of his distorted folk songs “S´sch mr alles 1 Ding” by “musiques suisses” on CD. Together with Ulrike Mayer-Spohn, Hagen forms the duo UMS’nJIP, which is dedicated to new musical settings for recorder, voice and electronics, being one of the activest contemporary music ensembles worldwide. Jury member of national and international contemporary music and composition contests. Javier Hagen lives in Münster (Valais/Switzerland) and is the director of Swiss contemporary music festival Forum Wallis. He presides ISCM Switzerland (2014-24), IGNM-VS and is board member of swissfestivals association (2013-19). Lectures and masterclasses at the universities of Moscow, Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, Hongkong, Istanbul, Thessaloniki, Basel. Calls for expertises for the Hochschule der Künste HdK Berne, for Valais Government and for UNESCO (ICH). In 2007 Hagen was nominated “Valaisan of the Year”. In 2013 he is awarded the Prix Culturel du Canton du Valais. In 2021 and 2025 he was appointed by the Inamori Foundation to nominate candidates for the renowned Kyoto Music Prize 2022 and 2026.