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Anna Carewe &
Oli Bott Duo Anna Carewe and Oli Bott present music without boundaries: Classical, Popular, Baroque, Contemporary, new compositions and improvisations. They break down the barriers between genres and epochs and tempt the public to relish in new sounds and to experience familiar ones from an unfamiliar perspective. Anna Carewe: Violoncello The duo played at festivals such as Beethovenfest Bonn
and Musikfest Stuttgart and in venues such as Philharmonie
Berlin and Concertgebouw Amsterdam. "An effortless leap through the centuries: the combination of vibes and cello harmonizes marvellously." Kölnische Rundschau "The enthusiastic audience heard a great concert, unique due to the exotic instrumentation, created by excellent musicians." Fränkischer Tag "The contrast between the cello's sonority and the vibaphone's sparkling lightness is utterly delightful. At times the cello provides the harmonies and the vibraphone the melodies; sometimes exactly the opposite is true - nothing is ever missing. This miniatur orchestra's twelve songs blur the boundaries between genres and eras and convince in every way. Outstanding *****" Münchner Merkur "Even well-worn hits such as Bach's "Air", Erik Satie's "Gnossienne No. 1" or the Beatles' "Michelle" reveal new facets due to the magical interaction of these duo partners, who react to each other not only with energy but also in finely-tuned improvisation. Carewe's varied and expressive tone, which even manages to illustrate the temprament of a psychotic camel, and Bott's rhythmically and harmonically engaging style make it possible. A perfect interweaving of violoncello and vibraphone." Jazz thing "Both know how to improvise, to transform and atmospherically embed the music. The flow and mood of pieces from the Renaissance to the present gain a whole new dimension without ever suggesting kitsch. Rhythmic urgency has rarely been presented as gently and subtly as with this duo. Timescapes offers soft music throughout - but an irresistible spell develops from the first note onwards." Jazzthetik "Exuberant and stylistically limitless - where Anna Carewe and Oli Bott are concerned, violoncello and vibraphone are simply a dream combination" Starkenburger Echo October 2019 |
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ANNA CAREWE The English cellist Anna Carewe grew up in a household where music was ever-present, whether it was Monteverdi, Haydn, Jacques Loussier, The Swingle Singers or The Beatles playing on the stereo or indeed the sounds of the latest contemporary music during the occasional rehearsal which her father, conductor John Carewe, held at home with his new music ensemble. Both Anna’s parents - her mother was singer Rosemary Phillips - were at the forefront of the avantgarde music scene, being early champions in the UK of the works of Boulez, as well as of many young composers who subsequently greatly influenced the British and international music scene. It is hardly surprising that this early exposure to such a wide range of music planted the seed of her subsequent artistic career. Anna Carewe studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Florence Hooton and David Strange before moving to Berlin, where her teacher Wolfgang Boettcher had a profound influence over her. For many years she followed in the footsteps of her parents and worked in some of Europe’s leading new music formations, such as the Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt, and brought new works for cello and piano to life with her duo partner, Philip Mayers. Her many years as principal cellist of the Ensemble Oriol (now the Kammerakademie Potsdam), which worked regularly with experts in performance practice, led to her interest in early music and to being a founding member of the Manon Quartet Berlin, which performed on both modern and historical instruments and guested at festivals such as Tanglewood and the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music. Anna’s mantra is that each musical arrival point should also act as a springboard into the unknown, something which continues to be the driving force behind the work with her duo with Oli Bott and also the Sheridan Ensemble, which she founded and of which she is musical director. Both groups present a multifaceted musical world and hope to inspire audiences to widen their listening horizons without prejudice. Looking at the world today, Anna feels that her work is even more important than it would have been all those decades ago when the seed was sown. |
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OLI BOTT Oli Bott studied vibraphone and composition at the Berklee College of Music in Boston with teachers such as Gary Burton and Bob Brookmeyer, graduating 'summa cum laude'. After completing his studies, he moved to Berlin where he now works as a freelance vibraphonist and composer. The Arts Council of Berlin has been a regular supporter, awarding him both scholarships as a vibraphonist and commissions as a composer for his own jazz orchestra, which he also conducts. Oli Bott has been awarded many prizes, including the 'NDR-Musikpreis' for bigband conductors, 1st prize at the Leipzig Improvisation Competition and the Wayne Shorter Award, USA. His concerts throughout Europe have been broadcast on TV and the radio. Oli loves to interpret good music of all styles and feels comfortable improvising his own stories on works of classical, jazz, rock and world music. His portfolio thus ranges from the Romanian rock band ZMEI3 to the collaboration with cellist Anna Carewe and the Sheridan Ensemble (cross-genre ensemble from baroque and classical to jazz, rock and improvisation) to his jazz trio with the fantasy stories CHRONICLES OF JAZZ, in which compositional giants from classical music, jazz and more come together, and his jazz quartet with his miniatures CONTENT, from which narratives are knitted in large improvisations. He played at festivals like WOMAD Festival, Electric Castle Festival, Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele, Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival, Niedersächsische Musiktage, Beethovenfest Bonn, WDR Jazz Festival Köln, Händel Festspiele Halle, Musikfest Stuttgart und Kurt Weill Fest Dessau. Since 2001 Oli has been teaching improvisation to classically trained musicians in Berlin and gives workshops for the education programme of the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Berlin University of Popular Arts, the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus and the Landesmusikakademie Berlin. In 2022, he was commissioned by the German Bundestag to compose a 60-minute homage to Haydn's work to mark the 100th anniversary of Germany's national anthem, which he produced with Anna Carewe, Markus Stockhausen, Oliver Potratz and Eric Schaefer and which is published on www.dasdeutschlandlied.de. www.olibott.com |
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