Haus für Poesie

Iva Bittová (born 1958 in Bruntál, Czech Republic) is among many other things a writer, singer, actor and violinist. Her stage appearances are a whirling trip taking in jazz, folk, New Music and sound poetry. Bittová combines her instrumental and vocal art with her own texts an such different sources as Moravian folk music and Gertrude Stein’s complex work.  
Coming from a musical family, Bittová took ballet and violin lessons from an early age. She later went on to study acting, singing, violin and composition. Even as a child she played various roles in Czech film and television productions. She performs regularly in Europe, the USA and Japan. She is a successful soloist, but has also worked with Hamid Drake, Marc Ribot, David Krakauer, Don Byron, David Moss, Bill Frisell and others. As well as pursuing her text and music career, Bittová continues to work as an actor. In 2004 she played Zena in the film Želary, which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Iva Bittová lived for several years in Lelekovice, a village near Brno. In 2007 she moved to the USA, where she now lives in the north of upstate New York. She has released more than 20 CDs since the late 1980s.    
Publications (CD selection):  
Moravian Gems (Cube-Metier, 2007 )
Vladimír Godár (Mater: ECM, 2007), CD Susumu Yokota (Skintone, 2006)
DVD: Superchameleon (Indies, 2006)  

Sainkho Namtchylak (born 1957 in Tuva, an autonomous republic in Southern Siberia) learnt the traditional overtone singing of the Turkic peoples from her grandmother. Aged 20 she moved to Moscow, where she made contact with the Moscow avant-garde scene and established herself as a singer while still a music student. Since the 1990s she has devoted herself to the synthesis of traditional Siberian music with Western musical styles such as jazz and pop, as well as to collaborations in the fields of music, theatre and film. In recent years she has increased her engagement with the creative possibilities of electronic music. For her album “Naked Spirit” (1998) she won the “Album Of The Year – World Music” prize.

Amy X Neuburg studied singing, electronic music and linguistics. As a singer she has toured internationally with Robert Ashley’s contemporary opera ensemble. She sang the main part of Simone Weill in the opera “Decreation: Fight Cherries” by Anne Carson and Guillermo Galindo, has performed pieces by Marc Blitzstein as well as songs and short operas by Jeffrey Lependorf. “Neuburg wields a phenomenal voice in which one gleans hints of the dominant art singers of our day: [Meredith] Monk, Björk, Kate Bush's passion, Laurie Anderson's intimate brilliance...“, wrote New York Press of her.