Biography
Barbara Buchholz studied music at the University of Bielefeld. In the 80s, she toured as bass player with the
women’s orchestra Reichlich Weiblich. Later, the recipient of numerous music awards played and sang with
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projects crossing the boundaries of art, music, poetry, dance; recorded for the WDR; followed an invitation
of the Goethe Institute to teach in Tansania. As a composer and performer, Barbara Buchholz has worked for
a wide range of theatres; as artistic director she conceived and produced Tap It Deep – a unique blend of
midified tap dance and new jazz – as well as Human Interactivity – a collaboration with the Russian
computer painter Olga Kumeger, among others. Barbara Buchholz’ current musical endeavours focus on the
Thereminvox, an instrument played without touch, as well as the MIDI Theremin, an innovation commissioned
by the artist herself: using a combination of MIDI signals and a sampler, the MIDI Theremin lets her trigger
loops and samples by hand gestures in the air.
Multiple invitations by the
Russian Office of Cultural Affairs plus a number of
stipends have allowed Barbara Buchholz to deepen
her studies of these "antenna instruments" at the
Theremincenter in Moscow. As master student of
Lydia Kavina, a descendent of Theremin’s originator
Lev Thermen, she picks up the once interrupted
tradition of this instrument and finds new ways
and applications in the vicinity of New Music.
In the age of digital media, Barbara Buchholz’
work explores the options of making electronics
a dimension of human communication.
The combination of Thereminvox and
Midi Theremin is a bridge from the oldest to the
very latest technology.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.