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About

For the composer and pianist Hauschka, the essence of his work lies in constantly challenging himself to new musical experimentation.

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Music
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Music

Philanthropy 2023

Philanthropy

Philanthropy 2023

An occasion for celebration, reflection, carefully considered but jubilantly improvised, with its philosophically-inclined but approachable and compassionate. Employs a Turkish davul drum, as well as a variety of synthesizers. Featuring cellist Laura Wiek, violinist Karina Buschinger and Múm’s drummer Samuli Kosminen. HAUSCHKA unquestionably displays “a love of humankind” through compassion and openness. Re-imagines the potential of the prepared piano. Label: City Slang

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Upstream 2021

Upstream 2021

Together with filmmaker Rob Petit & writer Robert Macfarlane, Hauschka has created a dream-flight into wildness and winter through an eerie, hypnotic soundtrack of the Scottish highlands. The brooding, deep compositions form a beautiful and captivating album that stands alone as a truly transportive piece of work: close your eyes and travel. Limited edition vinyl LP. Label: Sonic Pieces

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A Different Forest 2019

Curious

A Different Forest 2019

On his Sony Classical debut “A Different Forest”, Volker Bertelmann aka Hauschka does away with his customary instrumental preparations and transmits the power of the bond between music and nature. Embracing the passion, poise, and power of pure piano, he delivers thirteen compositions that immediately illustrate his virtuosity, vulnerability, and vitality. Label: Sony Classical

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What If 2018

My Kids Live on Mars

What If 2018

“What If” finds Hauschka expanding his range by programming parts for player pianos, exploiting their speed, manipulating the resulting sounds, and building layers to emphasize a composition’s meter. Overflowing with haunting melodies, mysterious sounds, and complex patterns, the album redefines the very notion of piano music in an exceptional fashion. Label: City Slang

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A NDO C Y 2015

Hashima Island

A NDO C Y 2015

A NDO C Y is a masterpiece of Hauschka’s experimental approach towards the piano. Minimalist techno and modern composition – Side A features five tracks conceived during the Abandoned City sessions. On Side B, experimental folk icon Devendra Banhart distills “Agdam”, to barely-there, fractured clusters of solitary piano strikes and swelling synths. Label: Temporary Residence Ltd.

2.11.14 2015

Yufuin Part 1

2.11.14 2015

This limited edition vinyl LP documents two 20 minute improvisations, which were recorded in Japan in November 2014 and are very loosely based on Hauschka’s preceding album “Abandoned City”. The result is a captivating energetic stream of consciousness set to music. In parts this appears even more like a DJ set, you may dance! Label: City Slang

Abandoned City 2014

Elizabeth Bay

Abandoned City 2014

Hauschka’s compositions on “Abandoned City” awaken the loneliness and unattainable romance of timeless, unfamiliar places, with cinematic melodies full of resonant overtones, bright cheerful keyboard patterns and dark percussive touches. The tracks all bear the names of actual vacant cities which served as inspiration. Label: City Slang / Temporary Residence Ltd.

Salon des Amateurs Remixes 2012

Radar (Michael Mayer Remix)

Salon des Amateurs Remixes 2012

Following up Hauschka‘s groundbreaking “Salon Des Amateurs” release, comes this great collection of electronically-angled remixes commissioned from a selection of highly respected producers. Pitched between the dancefloor and the more experimental edges of electronica, the cast of remixers is largely drawn from fellow German artists, friends and FatCat allies. Label: FatCat

Silfra 2012

Krakow

Silfra 2012

“Silfra” is the culmination of a two-year exploratory improvisation project by Grammy Award-winning American violinist Hilary Hahn and prepared-piano master and innovator Volker Bertelmann (Hauschka). The music on this ambitious and free-spirited collection is a tribute to the Silfra rift in Iceland, an otherworldly landscape that inspired the two musicians to create a body of work that is evocative, hypnotic and truly breathtaking. Label: Deutsche Grammophon

Pan Tone 2011

Black 6

Pan Tone 2011

“Pan Tone” is a recording of a concert which Hauschka and Icelandic cellist Hildur Guðnadóttir performed in February 2010 at Kings Place in London, born out of the desire to create a series of compositions based on the idea of the ocean. The collaboration is a dynamic, full-bodied and strongly narrative outing – with a percussive drive underscoring the expected cello, piano and electroacoustics. Label: Sonic Pieces

Salon des Amateurs 2011

Radar

Salon des Amateurs 2011

Where his preceding album “Foreign Landscapes” saw Hauschka shifting from his acclaimed solo ‘prepared’ piano into full-scale orchestral compositions, “Salon des Amateurs” sees the artist utilising the percussive qualities of the treated piano for a unique take on techno and house music. Label: FatCat

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Foreign Landscapes 2010

Alexanderplatz

Foreign Landscapes 2010

Hauschka’s third album for FatCat’s 130701 imprint sees him stepping out from his established niche as a prepared piano player, boldly extending his repertoire, resetting his music within a rich orchestral score. Nine of the album’s twelve tracks feature a 12-piece string and wind ensemble from San Francisco’s Magik*Magik Orchestra, alongside Bertelmann’s own prepared piano. Label: FatCat

Small Pieces 2009

Small Pieces 2009

“Small pieces” is Hauschka’s seventh release since 2004 on which the German pianist and composer is focussing on minimal pieces utilizing only few or no preparations. Label: Secret Furry Hole

Snow Flakes & Car Wrecks 2009

Snow Flakes & Car Wrecks 2009

With “Snow Flakes and Car Wrecks”, Hauschka presents a beautiful extended EP of previously unreleased material, all of which was recorded during the “Ferndorf” sessions. Featuring seven new tracks (five on the vinyl edition), the EP is a follow-up to an album which has continued to draw widespread critical acclaim. Label: FatCat

Ferndorf 2008

Blue Bicycle

Ferndorf 2008

Where Hauschka’s previous album “Room To Expand” comprised mostly solo recordings of his prepared piano, “Ferndorf” is a far more expansive and fully-realised album, with many of the tracks also featuring a string duo, enabling an increased solidity. Whilst the recordings still retain the shivers and tics of the modified internal workings of the piano, these are less central and instead what’s foregrounded is the melodic / rhythmic push and pull, and a development towards more orchestrated music and notated compositions. Label: FatCat

Room to Expand 2007

Kleine Dinge

Room to Expand 2007

“Room to expand” by Volker Bertelmann aka Hauschka plays with different possibilities of the prepared piano – a playfully disruptive intervention into the preconceived idea of the piano as a pure-toned, perfected instrument waiting for a gifted virtuoso to play on it. Label: Fat Cat

The Prepared Piano 2005

Kein Wort

The Prepared Piano 2005

On his second album entitled “The Prepared Piano”, Hauschka is clamping vocal wedges of leather, felt or rubber between the piano strings, preparing the hammers with aluminium paper or rough films, placing crown corks on the strings, weaving guitar strings in, or pasting it off with gaffa. The resulting tracks are vivid, unconventional pieces made of playful research-enthusiasm. Label: Karaoke Kalk

Substantial 2004

Fragile

Substantial 2004

Hauschka’s first album “Substantial” comprises a variety of atmospheric and experimental piano pieces following a conceptual approach, whereby the starting point of each piece is improvisation. A natural, intuitive and passionate development of piano sounds with no objective in mind than the music itself. Label: Karaoke Kalk

Projects
Projects
Music
Projects

Silfra

Hilary Hahn & Hauschka

Silfra, named for the geographic feature near Reykjavik, Iceland, where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet, represents the breathtaking locale where the album was recorded but also signifies the unfamiliar terrain where these two distinct musical minds met to collaborate. Spending ten days at Greenhouse Studios in Reykjavik in May 2011, “we felt that we could go anywhere we wanted within the music if we created it in an environment that allowed us the freedom and independence to explore,” Hilary Hahn and Hauschka wrote in the album’s liner notes. That prepared piano and violin could sound so perfectly suited is surely indicative of the musical chemistry that their groundwork and setting created.

ViolinHilary Hahn
PianoHauschka

Pieces for String Quartet

Alma Quartet & Hauschka

Among his many collaborations is Hauschka‘s work with the Alma Quartet, an ensemble made up of musicians from Amsterdam’s two top orchestras, which he originally met in the Dutch capital’s legendary techno club Trouw. Commissioned by the Composition Commission Fund of The Royal Concertgebouw, Hauschka composed and arranged several pieces for the string quartet, with whom he debuted at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, followed by concerts at the Elbphilarmonie and Konzerthaus Berlin.

1st violinMarc Daniel van Biemen
2nd violinBenjamin Peled
violaJeroen Woudstra
celloClément Peigné

An Encounter of Improvised Music & Dance

Hauschka & Edivaldo Ernesto

Dancer Edivaldo Ernesto (Sasha Waltz & Guests) and Hauschka met on stage for the first time in 2013. In their performance, the duo enters into an artistic dialogue and performs without the security of composition and choreography. They present an improvised interplay of sound and movement – without the constraints of a fixed programme, and ready to welcome surprising discoveries, spontaneity and mutual inspiration.

Piano + ElectronicsHauschka
DanceEdivaldo Ernesto

ANNNA³. The Worlds of Infinite Shifts

Alexandra Waierstall & Hauschka

In Alexandra Waierstall’s choreography, three female dancers pass through various emotional and existential processes. They appear and disappear, rise up and succumb, cling and release. They summon forth physical landscapes replete with toppling stabilities. Actions and situations seem pre-ordained by fate. Scenarios arise on what might or should have been. The prepared piano, an elemental part of the stage set, creates sounds and moods, rhythms and tempos. Physicality itself becomes an object of reflection.

ChoreographyAlexandra Waierstall
CompositionVolker Bertelmann
DanceSita Ostheimer
Anna Pehrsson
Karolina Szymura

Totality in Parts

Lukas Timulak & Hauschka

In this creation, choreographer Lukáš Timulak and set designer Peter Bil’ak explore organisational principles of nature by looking closely at relationships between elements defined both by mathematical algorithms as well as seemingly free expression. Timulak scrutinises the inseparability of individual from group behaviour. Using minimalistic graphic eypression, the piece invites the public on a journey to study the outside world but also to get to know themselves better.

ChoreographyLukáš Timulak
Set DesignPeter Biľak
MusicVolker Bertelmann/Hauschka

Where There’s Form

Aszure Barton & Artists / Hauschka

Canadian choreographer Aszure Barton and her dancers embarked on a collaboration with Hauschka accompanied by cellist Insa Schirmer, performing a live score that explores an intensive dialogue between dance and music. This transatlantic collaboration takes place against the backdrop of increasing dystopian rhetoric worldwide, in which language serves to escalate, discredit and sabotage a real debate. Barton and Hauschka, however, reveal passionate, smart bodies and sounds, which demonstrate humanity’s capacity for coexistence.

ChoreographyAszure Barton
Composition and PianoHauschka
Light & StageNicole Pearce
DanceJonathan Emanuell Alsberry
Lara Barclay
William Briscoe
Ana Maria Lucaciu
Brett Perry
Alexander Andison
Jessica Muszynski
Jake Tribus
CelloInsa Schirmer
Concerts
Concerts
Projects
Concerts
Contact
Contact
Concerts
Contact

Management Ass.

HAUSCHKA

nina.ditscheid@hauschka-net.de

Booking

Ralf Diemert - von der haardt

ralf@vdhaardt.com

Film Agent Worldwide (without GAS)

Patty Macmillan — Allegro Talent Group

pattymac@allegrotalentgroup.com

Film Agent GAS / Stage & Orchestral Music

Annette Gentz — Music & Film Arts

ag@annettegentz.com
About
Scores
About

Volker Bertelmann is an internationally acclaimed pianist, composer and experimental musician.

Scores
Compositions
Scores

DUNE: Prophecy 2024

DUNE: Prophecy 2024

Set 10,000 years before the ascension of Paul Atreides, “Dune: Prophecy” follows two Harkonnen sisters as they combat forces that threaten the future of humankind, and establish the fabled sect that will become known as the Bene Gesserit. An HBO Originals.

Conclave 2024

Conclave 2024

Cardinal Lawrence is tasked with leading one of the world’s most secretive and ancient events, selecting a new Pope. Once the Catholic Church’s most powerful leaders have gathered from around the world and are locked together in the Vatican halls, Lawrence finds himself at the center of a conspiracy and discovers a secret that could shake the very foundation of The Church.
Directed by Edward Berger

The Count of Monte Cristo 2024

The Count of Monte Cristo 2024

Edmond Dantes becomes the target of a sinister plot and is arrested on his wedding day for a crime he did not commit. After 14 years in the island prison of Château d’If, he manages a daring escape. Now rich beyond his dreams, he assumes the identity of the Count of Monte-Cristo and exacts his revenge on the three men who betrayed him.
Directed by Alexandre de La Patellière, Matthieu Delaporte.

The Crow 2024

The Crow 2024

True love never dies.
Soulmates Eric and Shelly are brutally murdered when the demons of her dark past catch up with them. Given the chance to save his true love by sacrificing himself, Eric sets out to seek merciless revenge on their killers, traversing the worlds of the living and the dead to put the wrong things right. Directed by Rupert Sanders.

Hollywoodgate 2023

Hollywoodgate 2023

Immediately after the US pullout from Afghanistan, Taliban forces occupied the Hollywood Gate complex, which is claimed to be a former CIA base in Kabul. Directed by Ibrahim Nash’at.

One Life 2023

One Life 2023

Follows British humanitarian Nicholas Winton Anthony Hopkins), who helped save hundreds of Central European children from the Nazis on the eve of World War II. Directed by James Hawes

Jules 2023

Jules 2023

Milton (Sir Ben Kingsley), a small-town senior with a fading memory who leads a quiet life of routine in western Pennsylvania, until one late night. He finds an extraterrestrial spacecraft, crash landed in his backyard, destroying his bird bath and stranding its alien pilot. Milton invites the alien (Jade Quon) into his home, and the two begin to develop a rapport. Milton’s neighbors Sandy (Harriet Sansom Harris) and Joyce (Jane Curtin) discover the visitor whom they’ve nicknamed “Jules. Directed by Marc Turtletaub.

All Quiet on the Western Front 2022

Remains

All Quiet on the Western Front 2022

All Quiet on the Western Front tells the story of a young German soldier on the Western Front of World War I. Paul and his comrades experience first-hand how the initial euphoria of war turns into desperation and fear as they fight for their lives, and each other, in the trenches. The film from director Edward Berger is based on the world renowned bestseller of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque.

War Sailor 2022

War Sailor 2022

When Germany invades Norway in April 1940, life-long best friends Freddy (Kristoffer Joner; The Wave, All That Matters is Past) and Kvalen (Pål Sverre Hagen, from last year’s The Middle Man and the Oscar-nominated Kon-Tiki), are at sea. Effectively conscripted into the Allied effort, in director Gunnar Vikene’s powerful condemnation of war on terrifying display. Powerful epic War Sailor. Premiere at TIFF Film Festival.

Life after Life 2022

Life after Life 2022

The BBC TV show is based on the 2013’s novel Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. Ursula Todd, born in 1910, experiences an endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth again and again, returning with a strange sense of déjà vu. Volker Bertelmann created a puristic piano score for the new four-part drama, starring Thomasin McKenzie (Last Night in Soho) and Sian Clifford (Fleabag).

Against the Ice 2022

Against the Ice 2022

In 1909, Denmark’s Alabama Expedition led by Captain Ejnar Mikkelsen was attempting to disprove the United States’ claim to North Eastern Greenland, a claim that was rooted in the idea that Greenland was broken up into two different pieces of land. Leaving their crew behind with the ship, Mikkelsen sleds across the ice with his inexperienced crew member, Iver Iversen. The two men succeed in finding the proof that Greenland is one island, but returning to the ship takes longer and is much harder than expected.
World Premiere: Berlinale Film Festival 2022

Monte Verità 2021

Monte Verità 2021

1906: young mother Hanna wants nothing more than to break free from her bourgeois role and its social constraints. She flees to the Monte Verità sanatorium, where, surrounded by idyllic Ticino nature and courageously devoting herself to her art, she is soon faced with a wrenching decision. Can she return to her family without giving up on herself? Directed by Stefan Jäger. World Premiere: Locarno Film Festival 2021 ©tellfilm__Grischa Schmitz__DCM

Westwall 2021

Westwall 2021

Directed by Isabel Prahl and based on the novel by Benedikt Gollhardt, the mini-series Westwall follows police officer Julia (Emma Bading) who falls in love with a secretive young man and ends up entangled in a right-wing extremist conspiracy. German TV premiere: November 27, 2021 © 2021 ZDF / Krzysztof Wiktor

Stowaway 2021

Stowaway 2021

In Joe Penna’s sci-fi thriller, the crew of a spaceship (Toni Collette, Anna Kendrick, Daniel Dae Kim) takes off for a two-year mission to Mars and soon discovers an unwilling stowaway (Shamier Anderson). A return to Earth is out of the question and a race against time begins when a defect in the oxygen supply system becomes apparent. First release on Netflix April 2021

Wild Republic 2021

Er war's nicht

Wild Republic 2021

The eight-part high-end adventure series follows a group of young offenders who end up fending for themselves high in the Alps after a mysterious death disrupts the experiential educational program in which they are taking part. Directed by Lennart Ruff and Markus Goller. Exclusively on MagentaTV as of April 15, 2021, German free TV premiere spring 2022

Ammonite 2020

Ammonite-Fossils

Ammonite 2020

In Francis Lee’s drama Ammonite, set in the 1840s at the wild Southern English coastline of Lyme Regis, acclaimed self-taught palaeontologist Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) and a young woman (Saoirse Ronan) sent to convalesce by the sea develop an intense relationship, altering both of their lives irrevocably. Film music: Volker Bertelmann & Dustin O’Halloran. World Premiere: Toronto International Film Festival 2020

Your Honor 2020

Your Honor - End Credits

Your Honor 2020

Bryan Cranston stars as a New Orleans judge who is forced to confront his own deepest convictions when his son is involved in a hit and run that embroils an organized crime family. As a storm of vengeance, lies and deceit threatens to engulf the entire city, Michael Desiato faces a series of increasingly impossible choices and discovers just how far an honest man will go to save his son’s life. From the producers of The Good Wife and The Night Of.

HOME 2020

HOME 2020

In Franka Potente’s feature-length directorial debut, Marvin (Jake McLaughlin) is skateboarding home from prison in the tracksuit he was wearing when he was arrested as a teenager. He quickly finds out that, even after two decades, his small hometown has not forgotten the atrocity he committed, but he accepts the repercussions of his past, whatever the cost. Premiere: Rome International Film Festival 2020

The Old Guard 2020

The Old Guard 2020

Four undying warriors led by Andy (Charlize Theron) who’ve secretly protected humanity for centuries become targeted for their mysterious powers just as they discover a new immortal. Based on the acclaimed graphic novel by Greg Rucka and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, The Old Guard (co-composed with Dustin O’Halloran) is a gritty, grounded, action-packed story that shows living forever is harder than it looks.

Summerland 2020

Summerland 2020

Kent, England 1940. When an evacuee boy arrives out of the blue and is placed in the care of Alice, a cantankerous hermit, she resolves to be rid of him. Yet, as the young boy opens her heart, allowing her to unlock the secrets of her past, Alice begins to realise that sometimes imagination really can set you free. Directed by Jessica Swale

Downhill 2020

Rescue Me

Downhill 2020

The Nat Faxon and Jim Rash directed black comedy drama Downhill is a remake of Ruben Östlund’s 2014 film Force Majeure. Barely escaping an avalanche during a family ski vacation in the Alps, a married couple is thrown into disarray as they are forced to reevaluate their lives and how they feel about each other. World Premiere: Sundance Film Festival 2020

Als Hitler das Rosa Kaninchen Stahl 2019

Telefonat aus Deutschland

Als Hitler das Rosa Kaninchen Stahl 2019

Als Hitler das Rosa Kaninchen Stahl (When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit), directed by Academy Award winner Caroline Link, is an adaptation of British writer Judith Kerr’s 1971 award-winning semi-autobiographical novel of the same name about a young Jewish girl and her family’s escape from the Nazis through Switzerland and Paris in 1933, before settling in England in 1936.

A Christmas Carol 2019

Buying the Mill

A Christmas Carol 2019

Volker Bertelmann teamed up with Dustin O’Halloran to compose the score for the three-part British fantasy miniseries A Christmas Carol, the classic Christmas tale of the miser Ebenezer Scrooge based on the 1834 novella of the same name by Charles Dickens.

Dublin Murders 2019

Dublin Murders 2019

This crime series Dublin Murders, based on the novels by Tana French, is set during the height of the Celtic Tiger financial boom of the millennium and focusses on two murder investigations led by detectives Rob Reilly and Cassie Maddox. The victims are seemingly unrelated, but actually knitted together by powerful shared themes.

Upstream 2019

Upstream 2019

Upstream is the new film by Robert Macfarlane (writer) and Rob Petit (director), narrated by Oscar-nominated singer Julie Fowlis. Made over the course of three years and six expeditions, it is filmed entirely from the air and follows the upper course of the River Dee in Scotland, from its floodplains back to its source on the summit plateau of the Cairngorm mountains – the highest spring-site of any river in Britain.

Cunningham 2019

Cunningham 2019

Alla Kovgan’s documentary traces Merce Cunningham’s artistic evolution over three decades of risk and discovery (1944 -1972), from his early years as a struggling dancer in postwar New York to his emergence as one of the most visionary and influential choreographers worldwide. The 3D technology weaves together Merce’s philosophies and stories, creating a visceral journey into the choreographer’s world.

Gut Gegen Nordwind 2019

Gut Gegen Nordwind 2019

Actually, Emmi had just wanted to unsubscribe from a newspaper subscription. But because she makes a typo in the address bar, the email ends up in the mailbox of Leo – the beginning of a long online exchange. Vanessa Jopp’s romantic comedy starring Nora Tschirner and Alexander Fehling is an adaptation of Daniel Glattauer’s bestselling novel.

The Perfect Candidate 2019

The Perfect Candidate 2019

A determined young Saudi doctor’s surprise run for office in the local city elections sweeps up her family and community as they struggle to accept their town’s first female candidate. Director Haifaa Al Mansour delivers an amusing, sensitive and optimistic portrayal of a courageous woman caught between strict tradition and cautious emancipation in the patriarchal environment of her home country.

The Art of Racing in the Rain 2019

The Art of Racing in the Rain 2019

Based on the best-selling novel by Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain is a heartfelt tale narrated by a witty dog named Enzo (voiced by Kevin Costner). Through his bond with his owner, an aspiring Formula One race car driver, Enzo has gained tremendous insight into the human condition and understands that the techniques needed on the racetrack can also be used to successfully navigate the journey of life.

The Name of the Rose 2019

The Name of the Rose 2019

In 1327, an enlightened friar and his young apprentice investigate a series of mysterious deaths at an abbey risking the wrath of a powerful inquisitor. Giacomo Battiato’s directed the eight-part television series adaptation of Umberto Eco’s novel The Name of the Rose, starring John Turturro and Rupert Everett.

Ashes in the Snow 2018

Ashes in the Snow 2018

Ashes in the Snow is a Lithuanian-American World War II drama directed by Marius Markevicius, based on the New York Times best selling novel Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys. In 1941, a 16-year-old aspiring artist and her family are deported to Siberia amidst Stalin’s brutal dismantling of the Baltic region. One girl’s passion for art and her never-ending hope will break the silence of history.

Hotel Mumbai 2018

Hotel Mumbai 2018

Hotel Mumbai, directed by Anthony Maras, tells the story of the victims and survivors of the devastating attacks on Mumbai in 2008. A story which fearlessly tackles the defining global issues of our time. A story about ordinary people, people of all races, colours, creeds, binding together in a fight for survival. A story that celebrates humanity’s highest ideals – compassion, courage, resilience and an unwavering desire to live.

Was uns nicht umbringt 2018

Was uns nicht umbringt 2018

As a divorced father, with his ex-wife as best friend, peculiar patients and a new dog, psychotherapist Max doesn’t need another challenge. But when Sophie shows up late for her appointment, he falls in love with her. Wrestling with his conscience and his heart, torn between the patient and the woman he loves, he has no choice but to stick to the famous airplane rule: help yourself first before you can help others.

Patrick Melrose 2018

Patrick Melrose 2018

Based on the acclaimed novels written by Edward St. Aubyn, the five-part miniseries by Edward Berger starring Benedict Cumberbatch gleefully skewers the British upper class as it tracks the titular character‘s harrowing odyssey from a deeply traumatic childhood, through adult substance abuse and ultimately, towards recovery and redemption.

Adrift 2018

Adrift 2018

Adrift is based on the true story of Tami Oldham (Shailene Woodley) who, after being knocked unconscious by the most massive hurricane in the history of the Pacific Ocean, awakens to find her fiancé badly injured, their boat in ruins, and no means of communication or navigation. Tami must race against the clock to save herself and her partner. Adrift is the incredible true story of one couple’s journey of survival.

Different Kinds of Rain (1000 Arten Regen zu beschreiben) 2017

Different Kinds of Rain (1000 Arten Regen zu beschreiben) 2017

In Isabel Prahl’s film Different Kinds of Rain, Mike has locked himself in for weeks. He has consciously decided not to take part in the life outside anymore. His parents or sister cannot do anything about it. All they can do is stand in front of the locked door and prompt, plead, ask, lose it, despair, accuse, ignore, and hope. In the process, the door increasingly turns into a mirror of their own stories.

Gunpowder 2017

Escape Chase Tunnel

Gunpowder 2017

Directed by J Blakeson, Gunpowder, a three-part thriller based on the 17th century events that led to Guy Fawkes Day, stars Kit Harington as Robert Catesby, who was the driving force behind the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 London. The miniseries chronicles the evolution of the plot, the selection of collaborators to carry it out, the gathering of resources and the obstacles to its execution.

Exodus - Where I come from is Disappearing 2017

Endtitle

Exodus - Where I come from is Disappearing 2017

Directed by Hank Levine, Exodus is a feature length documentary that depicts the current scenario of global human dislocation, chiefly refugees. It tells intimate, dramatic stories of refugees from different parts of the world, who were followed over a period of 2 years.

Alphago 2016

Game 5

Alphago 2016

The ancient Chinese board game Go has long been considered the holy grail for artificial intelligence. Its simple rules but near-infinite number of outcomes make it exponentially more complex than chess. In 2016, Google’s DeepMind team announced that they would be taking on Lee Sedol: the world’s most elite Go champion. The match was set for a weeklong tournament in Seoul and there was more at stake than the million dollar prize.

Lion 2016

Opening Title

Lion 2016

Together with Dustin O’Halloran, Volker Bertelmann composed the Oscar nominated score for Lion, starring Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara, Dev Patel. Separated from his older brother at a train station, five-year-old Saroo Brierley found himself lost in the slums of Calcutta. Nearly 25 years later, living in Australia, he began a painstaking search for his birth home, using ingenuity, hazy memories, and Google Earth.

In Dubious Battle 2015

Newborn

In Dubious Battle 2015

James Franco’s drama based on the novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Steinbeck ist set in the orchards of California Valley. 900 migratory workers are paid a fraction of the wages they were promised. Led by activist Jim Nolan (Nat Wolff), they rise up against the landowners, and organize a major strike to unionize exploited apple pickers in the 1930s.

The Boy 2015

Firefly Tunnel

The Boy 2015

Ted and his father John are the proprietors of the Mt. Vista Motel, a crumbling resort buried in the mountains of the American West. Since Ted’s mother left, John has drifted into despondency. Unchecked by the bounds of parenting, Ted’s darker impulses begin to manifest. The arrival of a drifter captivates Ted and the two form a unique friendship – setting the stage for Ted’s final, unnerving metamorphosis.

Farewell, Herr Schwarz (Schnee von gestern) 2014

Cemetry

Farewell, Herr Schwarz (Schnee von gestern) 2014

Perhaps it is true that things can change in a day. That the outcome of a decision made by a brother and sister in 1945 can affect the course of whole lives, for decades to come. Yael Reuveny’s film Farewell, Herr Schwarz is an epic documentary about stories that can be inherited like the color of your eyes. A personal journey between Israel and Germany. 1 missed-meeting, 2 families, 3 generations.

Praia Do Futuro 2014

Praia Do Futuro 2014

Short after facing the failure of an attempt to rescue a drowning man, Donato meets Konrad, friend of the victim. Motivated by the circumstances, Donato decides to begin a new life in Berlin, but pieces of his past are coming after him. The Karim Aïnouz directed feature film with Wagner Moura and Clemens Schick in the lead, had its world premiere in the competition section of the 64th Berlin International Film Festival.

About
Compositions
Dates
Compositions

Cascades

MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra

The fundamental, melancholic feeling of being in a state of floating, somewhere indefinable between loss and departure, is the subject of Volker Bertelmann’s orchestral work Cascades, a triptych commssioned by mdr, Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, consisting of the movements Loss (for large mixed choir), From Ashes (for large orchestra) and Perspective (for large orchestra and mixed choir). World premiere: 20 January 2015, Gewandhaus Leipzig, conducted by Kristjan Järvi

Duration: 29 min

Drowning

MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra & múm

Commssioned by mdr, Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk and premiered with Germany’s oldest Radio Symphony Orchestra directed by Kristjan Järvi at Gewandhaus Leipzig, Drowning was composed and performed with the Icelandic band múm. The work consists of 7 interlinking parts: individual pieces weaved together in a thematic and atmospheric whole, each with a different orchestration.

I – In Daylight (múm)
II – In Rippling Ink (Volker Bertelmann)
III – In a Bathtub on a Hilltop (múm)
IV – In Your Flesh (Volker Bertelmann)
V – In Anonymous Waves (múm)
VI – In Hushed Decent (Volker Bertelmann)
VII – In Nightlight (múm)

Duration: 45 min

Prepared pianoHauschka
Electronics and various instrumentsmúm - Örvar Þóreyjarson Smárason / Gunnar Örn Tynes
Drum KitSamuli Kosminen

Materials

Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen

Commissioned by Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen, Volker Bertelmann’s composition for prepared piano, percussion, string ensemble and tape had its world premiere at Zeche Zollverein in January 2017 in a former coal mine with steel plant and was subsequently performed in Hellerau, Berlin, and Szczecin, Poland. The work reflects on phase transitions between solid, liquid and gaseous states of matter and is staged with live visuals by WARPED TYPE.

I Slag and Coke
II Phase Transition 1
III Octenol
IV Phase Transition 2
V Iron

Lost

for Nicolas Altstaedt

Inspired by Federico Fellini’s script for perhaps the most famous unmade film in Italian cinema, The Journey of G. Mastorna (1965/66), Volker Bertelmann composed Lost for cellist Nicolas Altstaedt – a 41 minute piece for string ensemble, solo cello and prepared piano. Co-commissioned by VivaCello Festival Liestal, Duisburger Philharmoniker and Kings Place London.

Flood and Drought

for Avi Avital

Commissioned by the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Volker Bertelmann composed the piece Flood and Drought, dealing with natural catastrophes that reveal human powerlessness. This 20 minute piece for mandolin and string quartet was first performed at SHMF in summer 2017 by mandolinist Avi Avital and the vision string quartet.

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Management Ass.

Nina Ditscheid — Volker Bertelmann

nina.ditscheid@hauschka-net.de

Film Agent Worldwide (without GAS)

Patty Macmillan — Allegro Talent Group

pattymac@allegrotalentgroup.com

Film Agent GAS / Stage & Orchestral Music

Annette Gentz — Music & Film Arts

ag@annettegentz.com

Booking

Ralf Diemert - von der haardt

ralf@vdhaardt.com
Dates