Irina Karamarkovic (Vocals) aus dem Kosovo und Stefan Heckel (Piano, Akkordeon) aus Graz treten europaweit miteinander auf und spielen heuer das Herbstkonzert im kunstGarten. Zwei grandiose Menschen mit höchster Musikalität gestalten mit ihrer Musik einen sinnlichen Kommunikationsraum für Menschlichkeit und beschreiben die Bedingungen des Lebens: Berührend, eindrucksvoll, bewegend. Sie schaffen es über ihre Interpretation alte Lieder, Jazz und Volksmusik zu verbinden und in neuen Klangbildern darzustellen.
Irina Karamarkovic: Born in Pristina, I loved spending my childhood days in Prizren with my grandparents. I had/have a loving family which always was and still is very musical. I wasn't such an easygoing child. Very early on I started taking ballet and piano lessons, ballet not really being my thing. I studied flute for several years, constantly singing on a variety of children's festivals - I remember how incredibly happy I was winning the second prize on Akordi Kosova Music Festival at the age of seven, not knowing at that time that Albanians were supposed to win first prize, Serbs second and Turks third prize so that everybody could be happy - and that music did not have anything to do with all of this. :)
I learned to read very early and was mostly bored in school. I had success in reciting and writing, learning other languages and winning competitions (provincial reciting competitions and Zmaj literature competition were my personal favourites).
At the age of 12 I started to sing in different teenage bands and make loud music - back then my musical influences ranged from Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors and Janis Joplin to Snap and Soul To Soul. A bit later I discovered Nick Cave, Joy Division, Tom Waits, Laurie Anderson, Einstuerzende Neubauten, Primus, P.J.Harvey, The Stooges, Sonic Youth, Dead Can Dance and many others.
I also had short Iron Maiden and Metallica periods I can't deny. I used to sing in the band "Demode" with my friend, the drummer Ivan Cvetkovic (our band even won the Kursumlija Guitar Festival but they never gave us any prize - actually, the prize was supposed to be a qualification for Zajecar Guitar Festival, but this festival had already taken place a few months before Kursumlija - we were happy anyway and it didn`t bother us too much since we were already experienced in coping with the absurdities and injustices of the time and the place we lived in).
Then I spent much time doing studio work for and with a lot of musicians, joined many TV sessions and had numerous allergic reactions to the make-up the TV people in Pristina were using. I wrote lyrics for the compositions my mother did for other singers and made her pay me money for it. I worked in a cultural community of the town which I loved doing very much (for the cultural community I was a "one woman show" - I used to sing, recite, host shows, organize events and write), as well as I loved radio show hosting at the Radio N. I also acted in Phoenix Theater led by Nenad Todorovic. He taught me why and how to love the theater. I started working for NGOs as soon as I realized that something was wrong around me and I met a first refugee. I was one of the founders of the Post Pessimists movement, a group of young people from former Yugoslavia who worked together on cultural exchange projects, peace education, leadership skills, non violence communication, organizing concerts and art exhibitions, theater plays, international youth meetings, peace and democracy workshops, round tables and different local and global projects.
I had the luck to travel a lot and meet people who had a great influence on me. Ever since being a part of the Post Pessimists I have been able to differentiate between war profiteers and anti-war profiteers.
High school was a beautiful period (Department: Languages and Social Sciences) in some sort of a tunnel and after that I began Ethnology and Anthropology studies at the University in Belgrade, Philosophy Faculty - but that was a plan B anyway because I wanted to study jazz ever since I had heard a Karin Krog/Dexter Gordon recording called "Some Other Spring". Ninoslava Zlatkovic and Luan Osmani fed me with recordings and I listened carefully until I got infected - that was when I started to practice.
I remember that I used to buy Bulgarian copies of Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock records on the street market; the copies were extremely bad and had no credits listed, so I could never ever know for sure who exactly played the bass on a particular recording for example or simply know the titles of the compositions - but this didn't stop me from listening.
Sometimes I think that from transcribing all the lyrics I learned how to treat them. The music of Charles Mingus I got to know through Joni Mitchell`s "Mingus" recording and I can still recall my feelings of awe when I first heard Keith Jarrett`s trio.
I used to go to Belgrade on a regular basis in order to listen to concerts. And I moved straight to Graz because people told me that there was a good jazz school there and because it was not so far away from the place I used to call home, as Pristina offered me absolutely no possibilites for any further development and because studies in Graz were for free.
At the audition I decided to sing "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" when I saw Jay Clayton with an Eric Dolphy t-shirt, started studying with Mingus and finished my studies with a piece of work about Mingus. My vocal teachers were many, but I learned most from Mark Murphy, Sheila Jordan, Tom Lellis and the musicians I worked with.
Sevdalinka, Tango, Jazz
Stefan Heckel wurde am 31. Oktober 1969 in Graz geboren. Er wuchs in einer musikalischen Familie auf, der Vater war im Hauptberuf Techniker und aus Leidenschaft Chorleiter und Obmann des Steirischen Sängerbundes. Die Mutter spielte Klavier und Gitarre und sang im Chor. Stefan Heckel erhielt ab dem Alter von sechs Jahren Klavierunterricht. Seine ersten eigenständigen musikalischen Aktivitäten waren das Herunterhören und Nachspielen von Beatles-Schallplatten. Ab 14 Jahren spielte er mit Freunden in einer Funk- und Fusionband. Nach zwei Jahren Technikstudium entschloss er sich zum Musikerberuf, wurde an der Jazzabteilung der Musikhochschule Graz aufgenommen und schloss das Klavier-Jazz Studium 1996 mit Diplom (Mag.art.) ab. Es folgte ein einjähriges Studium an der Royal Academy of Music in London, wo er weitere zwei Jahre seinen Lebensmittelpunkt hatte. Nach der Rückkehr nach Österreich arbeitete er als Pianist mit dem serbischen Bassisten Nenad Vasilic und nahm zwei CDs mit ihm auf. Er gründete die Stefan Heckel Group mit dem englischen Saxophonisten Julian Argüelles, spielte auf zahlreichen Festivals und nahm drei CDs mit diesem Ensemble auf. Er übersiedelte nach Wien wo er die „Improvised Music Nights" gründete und über mehrere Jahre leitete. An der Kunstuniversität Graz arbeitet er seit 2000 als Senior Lecturer in den Fächern Gehörschulung, Improvisation, Jazztheorie und Arrangement. In den Jahren 2006 bis 2011 nahm er am Sounding Jerusalem Festival teil und gründete gemeinsam mit dem Cellisten Erich Oskar Huetter das Ensemble Mélange Oriental. Es folgten zahlreiche Auftritte (Festival Pablo Casals, Boswiler Sommer, Steirische Regionale, Bach-Festivals Riga) sowie die Produktion einer CD Mélange Oriental. Stefan Heckel erhielt Kompositionsaufträge von der Kulturhauptstadt Graz 2003, Styria Cantat (Kinderchor), Studio Percussion Graz und gewann den ersten Al Quds Kompositionspreis 2012. Er ist seit 2010 Mitglied der working group der PJP (Pop&Jazz Platform) der AEC (Association Européenne des Conservatoires) und seit 2012 ihr Vorsitzender. Er ist Träger des Harry Pepl Jazzpreises 2010. Stefan ist mit der Fagottistin Maria Gstättner verheiratet, hat drei Kinder Gabriel, Flora aund Laura und lebt in Wien. |