Biography
Anna-Katharina Schau began playing the accordion at the age of six. Her interest in contemporary music as well as new playing techniques led her to the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media. In 2022, she completed her studies with a Master of Music degree under Goran Stevanovic. In addition to her studies, she attended master classes with Hugo Noth, Claudia Buder, Mie Miki, Veli Kujala and Andreas Borregaard.
Anna-Katharina Schau achieved recent competition successes at national and international competitions such as the 2nd prize at the International Accordion Competition in Pula/Croatia and the 3rd place at the German Accordion Music Prize in 2018. In 2021, she won the first prize and a special prize at the German Accordion Music Prize.
One of her greatest successes is winning the German Music Competition (“Deutscher Musikwettbewerb”) in 2021 together with the Trio Klangspektrum (clarinet, violoncello, and accordion), a trio for contemporary music. In the 2022/23 season, the young trio was part of the German Music Competition concert series.
Her artistic focus and passion is chamber music. Since 2016, she has been playing together with the clarinetist Paula Breland as the Duo Amabile, which was also supported by the concert promotion of the German Music Competition. Extensive funding from “Neustart Kultur” enabled the duo to realise a multimedia flow concert named “METAMORPHOSIS”, in which the musicians explored the connection between music and video mapping. In spring 2024, the debut CD “METAMORPHOSIS” was released by the label GENUIN Records, which was praised by numerous music critics, including rbb and SWR2.
Anna-Katharina Schau has performed with ensemble mosaic and ensemble unitedberlin, among others, and has worked with conductors such as H.K. Gruber, Daniel Cohen, Gerhard Jennemann. She was invited by numerous festivals such as Neuköllner Originaltöne, Intersonanzen Potsdam, Klangbrücken-Festival Hannover, Bellearte ffm, Klangwerkstatt Berlin and Vocal arte Frankfurt am Main.
Concerts with the Trio Klangspektrum and the Duo Amabile have also taken her to the Beethoven Fest Bonn, unerhörte Musik Berlin, Hörfest Detmold, Neuköllner Originaltöne, Altenberger Kultursommer, Göppinger Meisterkonzerte and Schleswig Holstein Musikfestival.
Another ambition of the accordionist’s artistic work is the collaboration with young composers. She has commissioned new works by Saemi Jeong, Michaela Catranis, Huijuan Ling, René Kuwan, Rachel C. Walker and many others.
Anna-Katharina Schau has received funding from the Hannover Region, the Förderkreis der HMTM Hannover, Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Hannover e.V. and Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Hamburg, the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung and Neustart Kultur.
In addition to her extensive artistic activities, the passionate musician Anna-Katharina Schau teaches at two Berlin music schools.
Duo Amabile
Inevitably drawn towards each other by the harmony of their instruments, the two musicians instantly connected in 2016. The unique combination of clarinet and accordion enables the musicians Paula Breland (clarinet) and Anna-Katharina Schau (accordion) to offer a colorful palette of sounds with soloists precision and chamber music fusion.
The wide range of their repertoire includes music from the Renaissance as well as contemporary compositions and world premieres, written exclusively for the Duo Amabile.
Trio [k l a ŋ ʃ p ɛ k t r ʊ m]
The trio Klangspektrum [k l a ŋ ʃ p ɛ k t r ʊ m] formed in 2020 and became prize winners of the German Music Competition just one year later. The three musicians are united by their common goal of delving deeper into the world of new music and their focus on experimental performance formats. The wide range of sound colours of the three instruments enables the young musicians Paula Breland (clarinet), Anna-Katharina Schau (accordion) and Jennifer Aßmus (violoncello) to develop their own distinctive tonal language. Although the instruments seem unrelated at first glance, the air, buttons and strings allow them to vibrate wonderfully together, so that they can sound as one and at the same time offer an inexhaustible spectrum of sound. The active artistic exploration of new playing techniques on the respective instruments, the exploration of new sounds as well as the creation of new works for this instrumentation in collaboration with composers form the focus of their work.
Biography
Anna-Katharina Schau began playing the accordion at the age of six. Her interest in contemporary music as well as new playing techniques led her to the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media. In 2022, she completed her studies with a Master of Music degree under Goran Stevanovic. In addition to her studies, she attended master classes with Hugo Noth, Claudia Buder, Mie Miki, Veli Kujala and Andreas Borregaard.
Anna-Katharina Schau achieved recent competition successes at national and international competitions such as the 2nd prize at the International Accordion Competition in Pula/Croatia and the 3rd place at the German Accordion Music Prize in 2018. In 2021, she won the first prize and a special prize at the German Accordion Music Prize.
One of her greatest successes is winning the German Music Competition (“Deutscher Musikwettbewerb”) in 2021 together with the Trio Klangspektrum (clarinet, violoncello, and accordion), a trio for contemporary music. In the 2022/23 season, the young trio was part of the German Music Competition concert series.
Her artistic focus and passion is chamber music. Since 2016, she has been playing together with the clarinetist Paula Breland as the Duo Amabile, which was also supported by the concert promotion of the German Music Competition. Extensive funding from “Neustart Kultur” enabled the duo to realise a multimedia flow concert named “Metamorphosis”, in which the musicians explored the connection between music and video mapping. In spring 2024, the debut CD “Metamorphosis” will be released by the label GENUIN Records.
Anna-Katharina Schau has performed with ensemble mosaic and ensemble unitedberlin, among others, and has worked with conductors such as H.K. Gruber. She was invited by numerous festivals such as Neuköllner Originaltöne, Intersonanzen Potsdam, Klangbrücken-Festival Hannover, Bellearte ffm, Klangwerkstatt Berlin and Vocal arte Frankfurt am Main.
Concerts with the Trio Klangspektrum and the Duo Amabile have also taken her to the Beethoven Fest Bonn, unerhörte Musik Berlin, Hörfest Detmold, Neuköllner Originaltöne, Altenberger Kultursommer, Göppinger Meisterkonzerte and Schleswig Holstein Musikfestival.
Another ambition of the accordionist’s artistic work is the collaboration with young composers. She has commissioned new works by Saemi Jeong, Michaela Catranis, Huijuan Ling, René Kuwan, Rachel C. Walker and many others.
Anna-Katharina Schau has received funding from the Hannover Region, the Förderkreis der HMTM Hannover, Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Hannover e.V. and Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Hamburg, the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung and Neustart Kultur.
In addition to her extensive artistic activities, the passionate musician Anna-Katharina Schau teaches at two Berlin music schools.
Duo Amabile
Inevitably drawn towards each other by the harmony of their instruments, the two musicians instantly connected in 2016. The unique combination of clarinet and accordion enables the musicians Paula Breland (clarinet) and Anna-Katharina Schau (accordion) to offer a colorful palette of sounds with soloists precision and chamber music fusion.
The wide range of their repertoire includes music from the Renaissance as well as contemporary compositions and world premieres, written exclusively for the Duo Amabile.
Trio
[k l a ŋ ʃ p ɛ k t r ʊ m]
The trio Klangspektrum [k l a ŋ ʃ p ɛ k t r ʊ m] formed in 2020 and became prize winners of the German Music Competition just one year later. The three musicians are united by their common goal of delving deeper into the world of new music and their focus on experimental performance formats. The wide range of sound colours of the three instruments enables the young musicians Paula Breland (clarinet), Anna-Katharina Schau (accordion) and Jennifer Aßmus (violoncello) to develop their own distinctive tonal language. Although the instruments seem unrelated at first glance, the air, buttons and strings allow them to vibrate wonderfully together, so that they can sound as one and at the same time offer an inexhaustible spectrum of sound. The active artistic exploration of new playing techniques on the respective instruments, the exploration of new sounds as well as the creation of new works for this instrumentation in collaboration with composers form the focus of their work.