Lucia Mense Biography
Lucia Mense - Recorder and (sometimes) Traverse Flute
For years now Lucia Mense has been fascinated by the direct, the natural as well as the variable qualities of the sound of the recorder. The colorful palette and the speech-like articulation - not unlike the art of singing - in connection with the potential velocity of gesture, comprise the departure point for her interpretations.
The presence of the recorder in the music history until 1800, as well as in contemporary times, enables her to be artistically active in both Early- as well as New Music.
She began her studies with Günther Höller at the Musikhochschule Köln and, in addition to completing her major exams, was granted a diploma in instrumental pedagogy. Parallel to that she studied traverse flute with Laurence Dean at the Folkwang-Hochschule Essen/ Duisburg. Her studies thereafter with Walter van Hauwe in Amsterdam at Sweelinck-Konservatorium Amsterdam led to an intensive immersion with contemporary music; she passed her exams with distinction. Later she studied in Milan with Pedro Memelsdorff at the Civica Scuola di Musica. During this time she focused her attention on the performance of music from the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
Feeling "at home" in the styles of the Renaissance and Baroque, she has been invited as soloist to several music festivals, as well as reputed concert series, and she has frequently participated in performances of chamber music, opera and oratorio. She has collaborated extensively with lutenist Sören Leupold as well as the harpsichordist Alexander Puliaev.
Lucia Mense has toured extensively in Germany, as well as other European Countries, the Baltics, Russia, the United States and China. She has appeared at diverse Early Music Festivals, including Herne, Stockstadt and Vilnius, as well as the Schleswig-Holstein-Festival and the Musikprotokoll Steirischer Herbst/ Graz.
In recent years Lucia Mense has increasingly devoted her energies to the performance of music of the Middle Ages. Her extensive research has yielded in the direct applications to programming, both in the solo as well as chamber music genres. Further, she has given several master classes and seminars dedicated to Medieval performance practice, mostly involving repertoire relevant to the instrument.
Over the past few years she has performed as flutist with the Ensemble Ars Choralis Coeln under the direction of the renowned singer, Maria Jonas. Ars Choralis Coeln consists of a woman's schola, fidel, flute, harp and bells. In regular collaboration with young singers, it's main focus is to present Gregorianic chorals and early Medieval music. Present programms are featuring the music of Hildegard of Bingen (i.e. "Ordo virtutum"), italian laude, the Liederbuch of Anna von Köln and music composed for Elizabeth of Thurinigia. www.maria-jonas.de/de/arschoraliscoeln, www.maria-jonas.de/de/alaaurea
In the area of New Music, Lucia Mense is interested in reaching beyond the boundaries of her instrument. In improvisation, as well as in collaboration with composers, she has been successful in extending the expressive possibilities of the recorder through hitherto unexplored techniques. By making extensive use of the special character of her instrument she has been able to explore striking new instrumental combinations.
This situation has lead to the premiere of several works both by younger as well as established composers and has resulted in invitations to festivals such as Blokflute&Electronics in the Ijsbreker/Amsterdam, Jazz-Festival Moers, Musikprotokoll in Steirischer Herbst/Graz, Waterford New Music Week/Ireland and New Music from Germany in Villa Aurora/Los Angeles. Lucia Mense has made recorded contributions till now to several portrait CDs, among them Clarence Barlow, Phill Niblock and most importantly to a Berio Portrait featuring the complete"Sequenza", recently released on Mode Records.
Her exploration of the electronic music realm led to the creation of her solo-programme entitled "Electronic Counterpoint”. Consisting of music for recorder and live-electronics, this programme is constantly expanding and developing. Finally, she has collaborated extensively with the American-born guitarist Seth Josel and presents a duo-programme with the renowned percussionist Dirk Rothbrust.
The realm of improvisation presents Lucia Mense with the welcome chance
to further experiment with sounds, structures and seldom-heard instrumental
combinations. Particularly striking among recent engagements was an improvisation
project involving musicians from Taiwan, two of which performed on Pipa and
Gu-Zheng.
A tour through China with the ensemble dialog - musicians from China,
Switzerland and Germany with pipa, recorder, cello and percussion- can
be witnessed at www.vimeo.com/7591482.
In 2005 "multimode" was founded - an ensemble for experimental
music - with Bettina Wenzel, vocalist and Tiziana Bertoncini, violinist.
Lucia Mense has recorded extensively for Radio in Europe, among the stations are WDR, DLR, ORF, Radio Bremen, SWR, HR and Euroradio.
She has been invited by presenters as well as universities and music schools throughout Germany, Holland, the US and Nicaragua to teach courses dealing with diverse topics in both Early and New Music.
