Biliana Voutchkova invites string players connected to past and future editions of her DARA String Festival, taking place in Berlin since 2019. The festival presents a wide range of innovative, genre-bending music for string instruments, ranging from early contemporary to experimental and freely improvised music. DARA transcends genre boundaries, bringing together renowned international artists from diverse musical backgrounds in a series of encounters to stimulate new thoughts and ideas towards the advancement of individual and collective artistic endeavors. The program includes a solo set by Voutchkova and a guided improvisation ensemble set. 

Isidora Edwards cello
Miya Masaoka koto, electronics
Katinka Kleijn cello, electronics
Joanna Mattrey viola
Biliana Voutchkova violin, voice

A livestream will be available free of charge at 8pm on the day of the performance and archived for future viewing. Watch below or on YouTube.

Biliana Voutchkova is a dynamic, thoroughly engaged interdisciplinary artist, violinist, composer-performer, improvisor and curator with highly individual, unconventional artistic language. Through the prism of listening, her early training in classical music and the years of development as contemporary artist-performer, she explores states of spontaneity and intuitive resonance embodied in her multifaceted activities. Her work spans the widest possible range of sound, vision, movement and includes concert performances of improvisation, contemporary composition and original site specific work, exhibitions, long durational / multidisciplinary performances, audiovisual works and installation formats with focus on the interconnection between inner world and sound space.

Biliana works internationally as a soloist and in collaboration with many renowned artists and ensembles. She is the founder and curator of the DARA String Festival, faculty at the Academy of Arts Bern/HKB, SHAPE+ Platform artist for 2022/2023, co-founder and member of Voutchkova/ Thieke duo, Jane in Ether and the L a n d S t a g e s Collective, and a recent recipient of the Berlin Residency Stipends at Cité des Arts / Paris, Villa Aurora / Los Angeles, the Composition Stipend from the Berliner Senate, grands from INM/Berlin, Musikfonds, the National Culture Fund/Bulgaria and the Trust for Mutual Understanding/New York.