Curriculum Vitae
Louisa Marxen, born 1982 in Luxembourg, started her musical education age 7 at the Conservatoire de Luxembourg. Attending the class of Emmanuel Séjourné, she graduated with a Prix Supérieur in percussion. She then completed a degree in instrumental studies with a focus on performance and teaching at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt/Main. In 2011, she finalized her studies with a master degree in performance and contemporary music working with Jürg Henneberger and Christian Dierstein.
Her interest in contemporary music quickly developed during her time in Frankfurt, attending the class of Rainer Römer, percussionist at the Ensemble Modern. In addition to assimilating the classical percussion repertoire, she has always been eager to collaborate with young and upcoming composers. She now also develops her own projects, such as her solo performance of 2018, in which she commissioned four composers to create new work. Besides exploiting the variety of percussion instruments, she likes to experiment with new devices and unusual sound. Together with composer Carola Bauckholt they created a solo for vacuum cleaner, executed with a lot of humour and scenic sensibility.
Louisa particularly enjoys the interaction with other artists, often working in tight collaboration with actors, dancers and visual artists. She also performed in the children’s programme “Musek erzielt” directed by Dan Tanson at the Philharmonie in Luxembourg.
Louisa has toured all over Europe, Asia and Russia and worked with many eminent contemporary artists and composers: Carola Bauckholt, Isabel Mundry, Georg Friedrich Haas, Fritz Hauser and Joachim Schloemer. As a guest artist she performed at numerous festivals for new music: Lucerne Festival, Tage für Neue Musik Zürich, Schwetzinger Festspiele, Ferienkurse für neue Musik Darmstadt, Eesti Muusika Päevad in Tallinn, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Piano+ ZKM Karlsruhe, etc.
She is a founding member of Eunoia Quintett and member of the board of the Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik IGNM Basel. Since 2014, she moderates Klanggespräche, an educational project for adults in contemporary music, lead by the Volkshochschule Basel and Gare du Nord. She also teaches percussion at various music schools in Switzerland.
Louisa lives in Basel with her partner and son.
Repertory (Selection)
Solo
- Georges Aperghis (*1945), Le Corps à Corps (1978)
- Carola Bauckholt (*1959), Vakuum Lieder (2017) ¹
- Christopher Deane (*1957), Mourning Dove Sonnet (1983)
- Franco Donatoni (1927-2000), Omar (1985)
- Morton Feldman (1926-1987), King of Denmark (1964)
- Iñigo Giner Miranda (*1980), Trajectory studies (2017) ¹
- Vinko Globokar (*1934), Toucher (1973)
- Dialog über Erde (1994)
- Fritz Hauser (*1953), Shong (2017) ¹
- Leonardo Idrobo (*1977), Basement 54 (2020) ¹
- Camille Kerger (*1957), Obsessions (2016) ¹
- François-Bernard Mâche (*1935), Phénix (1982)
- Thierry de Mey (*1956), Silence must be! (2002)
- Paik Nam June (1932-2006), One for Violin (1962)
- Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948), Ursonate 1.Satz (1922/32)
- Mike Svoboda (*1960), Cartesian Rainbow (2017) ¹
- Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001), Rebonds (1987/89)
Ensemble
- Béla Bartók (1881-1945), Sonate für 2 Klaviere und Schlagzeug (1937)
- Carola Bauckholt (*1959), Schraubdichtung (1989/90)
- Geräuschtöne (2002)
- Hirn & Ei (2010)
- The Vacuum Pack (2015)²
- John Cage (1912-1992), Living Room Music (1940)
- Forever and Sunsmell (1942)
- Variations 1 (1958)
- Music for Seven (1984/87)
- Luc Ferrari (1929-2005), Jeu du hasard et de la détermination (1989/99)
- Andreas Eduardo Frank (*1987) Judgeheads (2018) ²
- Gérard Grisey (1946-1998) Tempus Ex Machina (1979),
- Stèle (1995)
- Quarte chants pour franchir le seuil (1996/98)
- Robin Hoffmann (*1970), E-Musik (2018)²
- Nikolaus A. Huber (*1939), Töne suchen einen Autor (1989)
- Lob des Granits (1999)
- Philippe Hurel (*1955), Tombeau in memoriam Gérard Grisey (1999)
- Dmitri Kourliandski (*1976), The Vacuum Pack (2015) ²
- Matthias S. Krüger (*1980), Cloches (2012) ²
- Helmut Lachenmann (*1935), Trio fluido (1966)
- „…zwei Gefühle…“ (1991/92)
- Sakura. Variationen über ein japanisches Volkslied (2000)
- Chikako Morishita (*1981), Etude 5 (2019) ²
- Roland Moser (*1943), Zwölf Vokale zur Heimkehr mit Heine (2014) ²
- Isabel Mundry (*1963), Textile Nacht (2014) ²
- Steve Reich (*1936), Drumming (1971)
- Clapping Music (1972)
- Music for Pieces of Wood (1973)
- Six Marimbas (1986)
- Nagoya Marimbas (1994)
- City Life (1995)
- Rolf Riehm (*1937), Pasolini in Ostia (2013)
- François Sarhan (*1972), One Shot Train (2017) ²
¹ commissioned by myself
² commissioned by Eunoia Quintett