PAULA SANCHEZ/ KATHARINA WEBER - …and discovering fishes that have their own light
The young Argentinian cellist Paula Sanchez received classical cello lessons in her home country and studied at an art academy there. This was followed by studies in free improvisation at the Basel University of Music with Fred Frith and Alfred Zimmerlin. Katharina Weber met Paula there when she was an expert on her Master's degree.
As Paula went on to study Contemporary Arts Practice at the Bern University of the Arts, the two became friends and played together in various formations, including with Fred Frith and Christian Kobi.
Since completing her second Master's degree, Paula has been touring the world and has performed as a soloist in the world premiere of Fred Frith's opera TRUTH IS A FOUR-LETTER WORD in Paris.
The pianist and composer Katharina Weber, who retired from teaching at the Bern University of the Arts and the Bern Conservatory in 2023, is now devoting more time to composing and performing in free improvisation after hundreds of concerts in Switzerland and abroad as an interpreter of classical and contemporary works. Her latest major work, ‘Hommage à Frank Martin’, commissioned by the Bern Chamber Orchestra, was premiered in October 2024. She has also been using her voice in her improvisation concerts for around a year.
What the two musicians have in common is their love of the finest nuances of sound, both in tones and in noises, their spirited playing and their spontaneous interaction with each other, which does not deny the diversity of their playing, which is given by the character of their instruments, among other things.
