Members
Daniel Agi
Flute
Daniel Agi's fascination with the sheer inexhaustible wealth of forms of playing and aesthetics, as well as ever new challenges, are the reasons for his passion for contemporary music.
Daniel studied with Hans-Martin Müller and Robert Aitken in Cologne and Freiburg and earned a Master's degree at the International Ensemble Modern Academy.
He can be heard regularly with ensembles such as hand werk, of which he is a founding member, and the Hannover-based Das Neue Ensemble.
He is also at home playing classical repertoire as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician and often appears as a guest with the Duisburg and Düsseldorf Philharmonic Orchestras and the Ensemble musikFabrik.
As a teacher, Daniel Agi has passed on his knowledge in workshops at Harvard University, the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, Singapore and the Musikhochschule Dresden.
Heni Hyunjung Kim
Clarinet
Heni Hyunjung Kim, born in Seoul South Korea, studied at the Musikhochschule Köln (Wuppertal) (Diploma) and on the Master of New Music and Professional Performance programmes at the Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen. In 2016/17 she was a scholarship holder at the International Ensemble Modern Academy Frankfurt.
Since 2012 she has been intensively involved with contemporary music and has performed nationally and internationally at various festivals and projects, including Manifeste2018 in Paris, Wittener Musiktage, Time of Music Festival in Viitasaari, Gaudeamus Muziekweek in Utrecht, International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt, KunstFestSpiele in Hanover, 'NOW' Festival in Essen, International New Music Festival in Yeongnam and in Naju in South Korea. She has given workshops on contemporary techniques on the clarinet for young composers in South Korea. In 2013 she received the Interpretation Prize at the Stockhausen Courses in Kürten with "Mikrophonie I" as a member of the Folkwang Modern Ensemble.
Her work is characterised by collaborations with composers such as Helmut Lachenmann, Dieter Schnebel, Gerhard Stäbler, Günter Steinke, Johannes Schöllhorn, Heiner Goebbels, Kunsu Shim and Gordon Kampe.
Heni regularly performs in various formations: as a founding member of the contemporary ensemble S201, with the Ensemble Consord, in solo concerts as well as part of interdisciplinary collaborations.
Jae A Shin
Violin
Jae A Shin studied New Music at the Folkwang UdK Essen with Barbara Maurer and Günter Steinke and was at the International Ensemble Modern Academy in Frankfurt 2020/21. During this time she produced two CDs with Ensemble Modern - 40 miniatures for the anniversary "Beschrenkt" and "A House of Call - My Imaginary Notebook" by H. Goebbels. She has performed at numerous festivals, such as the NOW! Festival Essen, the Berliner Festspiele, Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, impuls Festival Graz, Wien Modern, Daegu International Contemporary Music Festival in Korea and at the same time as a soloist in Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and Korea. In the field of New Music she has collaborated with many composers and artists such as Manos Tsangaris, François Sarhan, Mark Andre and Günter Steinke, premiering many works and playing live music at various exhibitions. She can currently be seen as a guest violinist at Staatstheater Mainz, Schauspielhaus Bochum and also as a composer at Schauspiel Köln.
Niklas Seidl
Violoncello
Niklas Seidl is an artist specialising in cello and composition.
He is a member of ensemble mosaik (Berlin), hand werk (Cologne) and leise dröhnung (Frankfurt).
As a guest he performed with Klangforum Wien, Ensemble musikFabrik, the Stuttgarter Vocalsolisten, Ensemble ascolta, SCHOLA Heidelberg, the Regensburger Domspatzen, mam, the HR-Symphonieorchester among others.
His instrumental compositions have been performed at Eclat Festival, Wien Modern, Lucerne Festival, Acht Brücken Köln, at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, at Schloss Solitude as well as on Deutschlandfunk Köln by ensembles such as ensemble ascolta, musikFabrik, Thürmchen Ensemble, mosaik, hand werk, Exaudi London, La Musica Schiffosa, Schlagquartett Köln, IEMA Frankfurt, Ning Ensemble, Ensemble Garage, Jetpack Bellerive, Ensemble Apparat and mam. His work has been on the radio in the form of portrait programmes (BR; HR, DLF, Dradio Kultur).
Among others, he received the Bernd-Alois-Zimmermann-Stipendium 2012, a Scholarship at Künstlerhof Schreyahn 2014, a Scholarship of Kunststiftung NRW, of the Academy of Arts as well as the Sebastian-Koch-Preis Vienna in 2018.
He was also an ultimate frisbee player in the Faroe Islands national team from 1998-2012.
Together with the artist Paulette Penje, he created various film works in the duo KOMBÜSE and in the entertainment series with Paul Hübner.
He lives in Cologne and Berlin and photographs things.
Thibaut Surugue
Piano
Thibaut Surugue received his Bachelor degree in Paris in the studio of Hortense Cartier-Bresson, his master’s degree and "Concertmusicus" with great distinction at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel in the studio of Jan Michiels and graduated with highest honours from the Master of New Piano Music from the class of Prof. Pierre-Laurent Aimard in Cologne (Germany). He was also a scholarship holder of the International Ensemble Modern Academy, Frankfurt. He holds several degrees and diplomas in musicology (University of Paris La Sorbonne) and music theory. In 2021 he received the Scholarship of Land NRW, Germany and is winner of numerous international piano competitions. His extensive activity in the field of contemporary music has led him to work with Ensemble Musikfabrik, Ensemble Modern, 2e2m (Paris). As a soloist or with an ensemble, he has played for productions of WDR and Deutschlandfunk. His studio recordings also include piano works by Debussy, Bartók, Brahms, Mozart, Haydn and Fauré, and more recently by Georg Kröll and Francisco C. Goldschmidt for WDR. Thibaut teaches new piano music at Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen.
Moritz Koch
Percussion
Moritz Koch (*1997) regularly works with internationally known ensembles such as MusikFabrik, Ensemble Modern, NoTabu and many others. He earned his Bachelor degree 2019 at HfK Bremen with Olaf Tzschoppe and his master’s degree with Rainer Römer. He received his concert exam at HfMT Cologne with great distinction. Until 2023 he was a scholarship holder at Tonali Hamburg. In 2020/21 he was a scholarship holder at the International Ensemble Modern Academy Frankfurt.
His concert activities range from jazz drummer to opera productions with, among others, HR-Sinfonieorchester, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the Wiesbaden State Theater and the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra. For several years he has focused on contemporary music and ensemble playing as well as working with contemporary composers. Concert tours in this area have taken him to Argentina, Thailand, China, Brazil, Israel, Poland, Denmark, Greece, the Netherlands, Austria and Germany, among others. He also produced CD recordings for NEOS and Kreuzberg Records.
Hanna Fink
administration
Hanna Fink (*1991) studied art history and musicology at the University of Cologne (BA) and postgraduate studies in integrative music theory (MM) at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen. In addition to writing individual specialist articles and journalistic output as a member of the editorial team of NOIES and MusikTexte, she plays the piano and organ and is a trained and active church musician. She has a teaching position for music theory at the Folkwang University of the Arts and is active in the field of composition pedagogy and in various music outreach projects, including for the Philharmonie Essen. For several years she has been organising and hosting local as well as national concert and workshop formats for contemporary music. With a short interruption, she has been working for hand werk since 2018. She is currently also the chairperson of the Gesellschaft für Neue Musik Ruhr, based in Essen, as well as the cultural advisory board of the city of Essen.