D U O M O S Ï K
MOSÏK, a word composed of German “Musik” (music) and French “mosaïque” (mosaic), is a project of clarinetist and saxophonist Susann Stephan and guitarist Roman Scholz, both of them currently based in the city of Halle (Saale) in Germany. Since 2005 their approach in DUO MOSÏK is to sensitively let connverge their musical influences from jazz, klezmer and classical music. In refreshing arrangements they try to fathom the spirit of the particular styles and to play with emerging tensions without ending up in a monotonous world music. It is their playing with reputed contrasts that specifically adds a dazzling fervor to this sonorous mosaic: lyrical moments blossom out, expressive passages emerge, virtuous runs are followed by soulful moments of joy – in a word: music becomes MOSÏK.
S U S A N N S T E P H A N
Born in 1979 in Zwickau (Saxony), she joined the children's choir of her city at the age of three, tried out the violin for one and the recorder for four years, when she finally began playing the clarinet at the age of eleven. In 1997 she won the first prize in the clarinet category at the German “Jugend jazzt” contest. At the age of 15 she began playing the saxophone which she played in the Youth Jazz Orchestras of Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt as well as in the Uni-Bigband of Halle for several years. From 2001 to 2005 she was a member of Vokalconsort Leipzig. Beyond this, she pursued electroacoustic projects with the Armenian composer Davit Drambyan. Since she started to play in DUO MOSÏK, she focuses mainly on the clarinet again. Among her teachers are Manfred Kebsch (†) and Gregoire Peters (Jazz-Institut Berlin)
R O M A N S C H O L Z
Born in 1982 in Gunzenhausen (Bavaria) he started playing the guitar when he was ten years old, soon after having inherited an instrument from his deceased uncle. Since he was hit by the “SWING” back in 2002, when Tony Gatlif's movie of the same name allumed the silver screens (he screened films in arthouse movie theaters by then), he concentrates his attention mainly to the music in the tradition of Django Reinhardt. The guitar consequently replaced his other instruments harmonica, violin and even drums, which he started playing at the age of four. Besides Biréli Lagrène, Stéphane Wrembel and the brothers Boulou & Elios Ferré, the main influence of his playing is most notably the Alsacian guitarist Tchavolo Schmitt. He seeks for further inspiration in tranditional music of different cultures of the world as well as in contemporary classical music.
Last Updated: September 7, 2009
DUO MOSÏK
JOHANN
Self Published
2008
Tracks
Django's Tiger; Bossa Dorado; Prelude #2; Montagne Sainte-
Geneviève; Silver Wedding; Bernie's Tune; Waves of the Danube; Odessa
Bulgar; St. Thomas/Tico Tico; Nuages.
Personnel
Duo Mosïk: Susann Stephan (clarinet); Roman Scholz (guitar, shaker)
Guest artists: Marcus Stadler (accordion, double bass); Wolfgang Singer
(violin); Peter Häseler (double bass)
About JOHANN:
"With its title, our debut album JOHANN hints at its probably most important
influence: Jean
(in German Johann) Baptiste Reinhardt, who became a legend as Django
Reinhardt — a
'John the Baptist' of European jazz.
The 11 tracks on this CD are connected by the approach of embedding
various musical
styles — from swinging gypsy jazz to musette waltzes and popular classical
music to
klezmer folklore — in the Django tradition, intending to plumb the stylistic
boundaries and
risking a glimpse over the rim of the same.
JOHANN is gypsy jam, world jazz or simply good MOSÏK which we hope you
will enjoy as
much as we did when recording it."
— Susann Stephan & Roman Scholz
Press info: http://www.mosik.info/downloads/Press_info_JOHANN.pdf
Full booklet:
http://www.mosik.info/downloads/Booklet_JOHANN.pdf
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Primary Instrument:
Band/ensemble/orchestra
Location:
Halle (Saale)
Willing to teach:
Intermediate to advanced students