Susanna Borsch

Recorder & Electronics

A recorder virtuoso familiar in both contemporary and early music, Susanna Borsch (Germany) is one of the few instrumentalists able to bridge both styles of music with complete ease. She began recorder lessons with Silke Kühner at the age of five, and in 1994 began studying at the Amsterdam Sweelinck Conservatorium with Walter van Hauwe, finishing her teaching diploma cum laude. The same year saw her begin postgraduate studies, specialising in the amalgamation of the recorder with live electronics. This project cumulated in the year 2000 with her final solo examination, featuring many new works written especially for her and this combination, by composers such as Mike Vaughan, Merlijn Twaalfhoven and Paul Leenhouts.

Background

After many years of taking part with great success in Germany’s Jugend Musiziert competition, she founded the recorder trio Les Doux Siffleurs, which in 1995 won top prizes at both The German National Music competition in Bonn and the International recorder symposium in Calw. Three years later, she won third prize in the solo competition at the same event, stunning audiences with a daring mixture of ancient and modern music. In 1998, she took a major part both as soloist and ensemble member in the ’2nd International Recorder Week’ at ‘de Ysbreker’, the internationally renowned modern music venue in Amsterdam. In 1999, she deputised at very short notice in the celebrated Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet, subsequently joining them on their USA tour the following year. In 2003 she founded with Peter Van Heyghen and Sebastien Marq, the eight-piece specialist recorder ensemble Mezzaluna; a formation committed to exploring the depth of renaissance vocal polyphony of the early 16th century, using instruments closely based on surviving originals from the same epoch.

New Music

Susanna Borsch is a founding member and manager of the Axyz Ensemble, a larger contemporary ensemble of diverse musicians and composers. This group was a natural offshoot from the Karnatic Lab, the influential Amsterdam music club responsible for re-writing the Dutch contemporary scene over the last few years. The Karnatic Lab, of which Susanna is a board member, is a loose formation of musicians in association with several contemporary composers working in the Karnatic, or southern Indian tradition. This initial impulse has in recent years, given way to a wider remit, encompassing many different styles of music written essentially using non-western techniques.

Performances

Susanna has played in many of the world’s great concert venues and participated in many festivals, including Laus Polyphoniae (Antwerp, Belgium), The Early Music Festival (Utrecht, The Netherlands), The Bach Festival (Leipzig, Germany), The XII Colloquium on Musical Informatics L’Aquila (Italy and Germany), The Suite Muziekweek and Hans Kox Festival (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), The Malvern Recorder Days (Malvern, UK) and the Erta Congress (Berlin, Germany). Furthermore she regularly gives lectures and masterclasses in Germany, Austria and England, and teaches privately.

Susanna Borsch joined ELECTRA in 2004.