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Colombe Arnulf-Kempcke

Education: academic studies of music and in the good wine of Burgundy

Passion: conducting big symphony orchestras | astrology | balkan dances

Always searching for: new sounds | peace in the world


long & boring version:

Colombe Arnulf-Kempcke studied flute and piano, majoring also in composition, classical harmony and orchestration (with Guillaume Connesson) at CRR Aubervilliers and other places throughout France.
At the moment, she is flute teacher in Versailles and teaching at project DEMOS (Philharmonie de Paris). Colombe is giving particular lessons as piano teacher for little, little bigger and not so little students.
In the last few years she has conducted different orchestras in France with her own pieces (yesssss!!) and others such as Dvorak’s New World Symphony and Arturo Marquez’ Danzon n°2. Which makes her very proud!
In addition, she is learning to perfect in conducting with Julien Leroy.

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Fritz Kotrba

Education: None | At least none that would have turned into money.

Passion: hammocks, beach chairs, couches together with preferably alkohol containing drinks | background music: Miles Davis – Sketches from Spain

Always searching for: the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow


long & boring version:

Fritz Kotrba was born at the first half of the last century. So he finds himself living as a trickster in a world that is truly not his own.
When he was threatened by brutal stagnation, the friendly network of AnselmaMusic came to rescue him.
Now he is busy producing daily violence and irony free artwork suitable for toddlers…

 

Sadly and unexpectedly we lost Fritz in November of 2018.
Rest in peace, we love you Fritz – your artwork lives on!

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Hiroyo Masumura

Education: Creating colours out of black and white keys

Passion: breeding little plants for little appartments plants | fabricating little japanese treats | photography

Always searching for: interesting music and new pieces | beautiful parks and shoes that fit


long & boring version:

Hiroyo Masumura loves the piano. So much that she is around festivals playing chamber music and giving solo recitals all over the place.
She played at Klavierwoche Gasteig in Munich, in the Arnold-Schönberg-Center Vienna and at The Edinburgh Festival, Scotland.
Hiroyo has a strong passion for teaching as well. As a piano teacher at the Vienna State Music School she writes new stuff for her students – music that they adore and that fires them up.

Hiroyo is a prize winner at piano composition competitions such as Wendl & Lung Vienna and PTNA (The Piano Teachers’ National Association of Japan).
She is the winner of Wiener Pianisten Wettbewerb, the Steinway Förderpreis Munich and the Japanese Competition for Classical Music ピティナ・ピアノコンペティション PTNA Piano Competition (PTNA: Piano Teachers’ National Association of Japan).

As pianist and répétiteur Hiroyo also conducted several music theater productions. Which gave her lots of experience in improvising.
In music – and in general… ;o)

She graduated with distinction and highest scores in piano (performing diploma) in Kanagawa (Japan), Munich and Vienna.
Hiroyo started her career at home in the living room giving improvisation concerts together with her sister.
Her first compositions were accompaniments for famous japanese popsongs that she played by ear.

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Astrid Seemann

Education: Doctor of veterinary medicine

Passions: animals – alive and painted

Always seacrhing for: new challenges and old wisdom


long & boring version:

Astrid Seemann was born with many funny ideas in her head and tries to bring them to paper with colourful pencils ever since. She loves painting and also dogs, cats, guinea pigs and cows. So she became a veterinary.

Astrid Seeman is a passionate bass player, but luckily she likes bassoonists too. They also make nice sounds and good mood as well.
In the picture you see her with Ylvi and Nelli, Models for “On a Sailboat”.

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Gilbert Hirtz

Education: students are the greatest teachers!

Passions: being curious of everything | traveling to Greenland, Usbekistan, Oman, Lesotho | mountain climbing on Kilimanjaro, Großglockner, Alpamayo chico, Kang Yatze | assisting in the unfolding of my students full potential

Always searching for: new insights about teaching | bassoons that can be adapted to students hand and body sizes | inspirating through books | recreation in nature


long & boring version:

After operating with cool refrigerating machines and air conditioning grills, Gilbert Hirtz picked up his bassoon and studied music to be a warmhearted teacher. As a real all-rounder he likewise feels at home with the oboe, saxophone, clarinet and flute.

He is not a person of many words. So he let his students talk for him (who usually win the first prices in nationwide competitions) and the music he composes and arranges. Internationally he is best know for the only available method for the tenor clef “The Key to Tenor Clef”. Not many words in it, but lots of music…

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Karin Holzschuster

Education: tooting and strumming

Passions: studying google maps for hours and finally ending up somewhere else | left and right must be for amateurs | browsing and browsing and browsing – and bying nothing | eating gummy bears in the red sunset at the blue ocean

Always searching for: the perfect handbag | a break-resistant shopping ally | the ideal place for happiness | mango pudding


long & boring version:

Karin Holzschuster is a proven expert in teaching bassoon and guitar – not only does she take on one by one student, but also teaches a whole company of students at the same time. She conducts a guitar-orchestra with 35 guitarists and before concerts she does not hesitate to check if all 210 strings are perfectly in tune…

Karin Holzschuster studied bassoon and music pedagogy (majoring in guitar) in the Graz Music University. Already before graduating she was appointed in two renowned music schools. She experienced that teaching guitar was comfy due to a huge amount of lovely books and heaps of nice music. Teaching bassoon was oh-so-Weissenborn.

To make her lessons a wellspring of motivation and fun, Karin Holzschuster started composing tunes, etudes, and little concert pieces for her students. Her music includes sweet melodies, fancy rhythms and also a pedagogic thread, which supports students to become great bassoonists one day. Today Karin Holzschuster´s books are internationally renowned as first class teaching literature.

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Oliver Ottitsch

Education: from cardboard boxer to boxing cartoonist

Passions: being even more famous | everything that does not make too much work

Always searching for: more


long & boring version:

Oliver Ottitsch was born 1983 around noon. He never used to be an early bird. Pressed and plagued by his own long lasting insignificance to his own surprise he became a shooting star in the cartoon heaven. Today he is a successful guy known by everbody and his mother, even Wikipedia. His cartoons are shown in the Subway of Vienna to make waiting funny.

His original artwork is published by renown German magazines such as Stern, Titanic, Eulenspiegel, Nebelspalter and Bananenblatt. In 2013 he won the Cartoon prize Pas de deux / Paarlauf of the Goethe-Institut and a special prize by the German Ambassy in Paris. He is also a prize winner of the German’s Mathematicians Society. They like to laugh as well here and there.

In Anselma’s bassoon sheet music books he delights green horns and old rabbits and motivates bassoonists left, right and center with his humorous artworks.

 

www.OliverOttitsch.com

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Anselma Veit

Education: academic studies of music – lots of it…

Passions: fancy harmonies | reading books under trees | encouraging people | philosophizing with friends | going beyond personal limits

Always searching for: the ultimate improvisation | great people | clues and tricks for composing


long & boring version:

Anselma Veit is a prominent figure in bassoon circles and publishes stunning instructional music since 2009. With her work she influences the way music is taught and makes a strong impact on generations to come. As a highly sought-after bassoonist, Anselma has played with the Volksoper Wien, the Augsburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Trier Philharmonic Orchestra, the Stadttheater Baden bei Wien, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and at the Vienna State Opera Orchestra.

Anselma has written many commissioned pieces for private individuals and rennomated organisations such as the Australasian Double Reed Society, Anciuti Music Festival Italy and Jeunesses Musicales Suisse.

 

In 2012, the International Double Reed Society (IDRS) introduced her sheet-music books internationally to a worldwide audience by featuring them under the title “The Return of User Friendly Bassoon Tunes” . She has been portrayed in the famous “Fou the basson” French Magazine. Her bassoon expertise was showcased by the German Stretta Music Journal to guide young music lovers to their instrument of choice. In 2023, she was featured again by the International Double Reed Society (IDRS) as a leading artist personality of our time.

As a curator she was part of the panel at the 1. International Tango Bassoon Competition alongside Sophie Dervaux, Wiener Philharmoniker, Mathieu Lussier, Université de Montréal, Frank Morelli, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, New York and Marc Trénel, Orchestre de Paris.

Anselmas Music has been nominated for the prestigious Business Export-Grant by the European Union and Anselma’s artistic work is sponsored by Moosmann Fagotte. Her sheet music and compositions for oboe and bassoon are  part of the nationwide French Music curriculum every year since 2015 and recommended by the Confédération Musicale de France (CMF).

 

Anselma Veit studied violin, bassoon (performing artist) and piano (piano teacher) at the Music Universities Graz and Vienna, The Mozarteum Salzburg. As a guest student she studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris and took Postgraduate Masterclasses in New York City. She made further studies in jazz-composition (piano and arrangement) with Monika Lang. Anselma graduated in all studies with distinction and highest scores.

Born in Styria, Austria, to an international family, Anselma Veit started playing the bassoon at the age of 20 and won her first orchestral position four years later. She qualified for getting grants from the Mozarteum Salzburg, from the European Union (Erasmus Stipendium) and twice from the Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada.

 

  • Sie performed with prominent figures  like Valery Gergiev, Dennis Russel Davies, Philipp Jordan, Sir Simon Rattle, Philippe Entremont, Manfred Honeck, Rudolf Bibl, Aleksey Igudesman, Benjamin Schmid, Peter Leonard and Sir Colin Davies.
  • Concert tours brought her to famous traditional venues like The Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt, Berlin, Berlin, Germany, Bolshoi Zal, St. Petersburg, Russia, to the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington DC, USA, to the Goldener Saal of Wiener Musikverein, the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Japan, the all wooden Sibelius Hall in Lahti, Finland, the stunning Franz Luszt Academy in Budapest and to the Shanghai Grand Theater, China.

 

For many years she has been teaching the bassoon in the Music School of the City of Vienna. Anselma’s students are regularly prize winners in national kids and youth competitions. She successfully prepared young musicians to studying the bassoon as a pro at the University for Music. Being a teacher she noticed a need for some fresh air in the student literature. So she started composing and testing new methods. Xerox copies of her works were on high demand. To make these new books available for a bigger audience, not just locally, she started a publishing company.

Currently, besides her artistic work and being a publishing director Anselma Veit is the head of Musikschule 1010 – Privatschule in Vienna. On YouTube you find many of her compositions recorded by bassoon music lovers, beginners to bassoonstars like Nikolaus Maler (Koblenz, D), Lola Decours (Rotterdam, NL), Scott Pool (Texas, USA).