Antonella Vitale
(Roma 21 Giugno 1964), cantante, autrice di testi, compositrice jazz. Ha iniziato i suoi studi musicali nel 1990 presso la Scuola Popolare di Musica di Testaccio dove ha studiato canto jazz con Giuppi Paone, e pianoforte con Andrea Beneventano e ha frequentato i laboratori di improvvisazione jazz tenuti da Nicola Stilo e Roberto Ottimi. Già nel 1993 ha lavorato come corista per diverse produzioni discografiche ed è stata cantante solista della “Big Band” ed ha partecipato al “Roma Europa Festival”, ed a “Ciampino Jazz” con il duo “Jazz Tandem”. Nel 1995 ha frequentato lo stage di Maria Pia de Vito e nel 1998 è stata premiata al “Concorso Nazionale Musicisti Città di Latina”. Da allora collabora con varie formazioni di Trio e Quartetto con i maggiori esponenti del jazz italiano e dal 2002 ha registrato una serie di CD come solista dove presenta anche le sue composizioni. Attualmente prosegue l’attività concertistica di cantante e compositrice ed inoltre ha un’intensa attività come insegnante di canto moderno. Fino al 2004 è stata docente presso la Mississippi Jazz School di Roma e dal 2005 insegna canto jazz presso l’Università della Musica a Roma. E’ la voce solista nell’“Orchestra Jazz” diretta da Gerardo di Lella. La Vitale è autrice di musiche per sonorizzazioni per l’etichetta “Primrose Music” e ha composto le musiche per i cortometraggi: “Zenzero” e “Poco più di due passi” per la regia di Pino di Persio. Ha anche scritto le musiche e i testi dei brani inclusi nei CD "The Look Of Love", “Amara”, “Tra la sabbia e il Mare Aperto”, "La Palma", e “Raindrops”.
Biggi Vinkeloe
(born 1956 in Germany, residence Sweden and California) is a jazz musician and composer. She plays alto saxophone and flute and has recorded more than 20 CD's, with mostly her own compositions, with European and American musicians. She studied jazz in France and Switzerland thanks to funds and grants. She also studied at the University Lyon II, and graduated with a Master’s degree in French Literature in 1974, along with degrees in sociology and German. In 1996, she graduated with a degree in Music Therapy at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. As music therapist, she has worked mostly with students in public schools. She has also co-founded a Rudolf Steiner School for autistic children and youth. In 1988 and 1989, she was part of the Workshop Orchestra of avant garde jazz legend and pianist Cecil Taylor in Berlin and at the Documenta Art Fair in Kassel. 1991 she relocated in Sweden, founded the Biggi Vinkeloe Trio with drummer Peeter Uuskyla. The trio recorded 6 CD's with different bass players. Vinkeloe has co-initiated many multimedia projects with visual artists, dancers, poets and musicians from around the world, such as; M.A.D. music, art, dance; United Nations; Over the Ocean; Echoes. Her work very often includes artists from different fields: She has recorded with heavy metal bassist Magnus Rosén and drummer Anders Johansson, worked with church organ player Karin Nelson and accordionist Marie Wärme, performed with Indian singer Sumathi Murthy and koto player Miya Masaoka; choreographers Gun Lund and Tommy Kitti; visual artists Jake Tilson, Andrew Cowie and Ebbe Pettersson. In 2011, she was invited by the German Goethe Institute to India for a project with students, Bangalore My Dear (field recordings, still and video pictures and live music). Since 2012, she has worked with Trio Fatal (Peeter Uuskyla on drums and François Lemonnier on trombone). In 2013, she initiated a project with very old music and very new music with Karin Nelson, François Lemonnier, mezzosoprano Maria Forsström and a young ladies choir.
Selected recordings: Suspension, CDB Trio, Rastascan Records; Elegans, Nuscope Records; Chaos Butterfly, Eld Records; Klang.Farbe.Melodie, 482 Records; Blue Rêve, Eld Records; Magzhen, Slask Records; Imagine a Place, Heptagon Records; Slowdrags and Interludes, LJ-records; Mr. Nefertiti, Canastero Records; Space Way Messenger, Disques Futura et Marge
Awards: Award from the city Kungälv 1995, Bohuslandstinget 1997, Region of Västra Götaland 2005, Adlerbertska Foundation 2005, Grants for specific projects several years, mostly in Sweden.
Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Biljana Vasiljević-Drašković
(Jagodina, 4th August, 1955), composer and theoretician teaching harmony, counterpoint and composition in the Mokranjać Music School in Belgrade has a special interest in the exploration of musical harmony and its application in the compositional process. She studied piano, trombone and composition with Mirjana Šistek, and composition with Enriko Josif at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. There are two phases in her compositional output: the first encompasses works created under the strong influence of Arnold Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School, based on the principles of serial music while in the second she switches series with melodies drawn from the folk singing that she heard at an early age. Her compositions have been performed in Belgrade – Musica Viva, 1987, Second memorial Emil Hajek, 1990, Serbian music for harpsichord, 1996, USA (Piano Music, New York, 1991, Israel Kol HaMusika, Jerusalem, 1998) and in England (Ritual Dance in Harpsichord Music, 2001). Her works include Furioso, for piano (1976), Variations, for two pianos (1977), Adagio, for strings (1978), Pokreti (Movements), for string quintet (1979), Milosti (Mercy), for mixed choir and symphony orchestra (1982-1986), Balada, for voice and flutes (1987), Vaskrsenje, for solo instruments (strings and voice) (1990), Milosti, for chamber ensemble (1991), Prevrnuta kolevka, for string instrument (2001), Žene u crnom, for electric guitar (1997-2007).
