UMS 'N JIP ['umsnjip] is actually one of the most innovative and outstanding Swiss contemporary music ensembles. Founded in 2007 by Ulrike Mayer-Spohn [UMS] and Javier Hagen [JIP] it is yet, together with Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Kronos Quartet and Ensemble Recherche, one of the activest contemporary music ensembles worldwide performing around 70 concerts and commissioning around 10-15 works per year. UMS 'N JIP works on both new musical and scenical settings for voice, recorders and electronics reflecting live vs. digital performance as well as European vs. non-European music. Since their studies (composing, audio design & musical performance) in Holland, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, UMS and JIP have been both invited to prestigious contemporary music and theatre festivals (Avignon, TKF Zürich, TKF Lausanne, Shanghai, Donaueschingen, Hong Kong, New York, Karlsruhe, Berlin, Basel, Bern, Paris, Strasbourg, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Adelaide, Riga) where they premiered as soloists and a duo more than 200 oeuvres collaborating with world famous composers such as Goebbels, Rihm, Kagel, Reimann, Eötvös, Deqing Wen and Guo Wenjing. UMS 'N JIP relates to emotionally touching as well as technically virtuoso, conceptionally perfect and sexy performances. UMS 'n JIP is coached by Irvine Arditti.

UMS 'n JIP PERFORMING ARTS ASSOCIATION.

The UMS 'n JIP Association is a non-profit organization based in Brig/Switzerland. The mission of UMS 'n JIP is to continually re-imagine the contemporary (classical) music experience. UMS 'n JIP fulfills its mission through commissioning, performing, composing, presenting, recording and publishing contemporary music, and collaborating with, mentoring and encouraging other artists. UMS 'n JIP commissions about half a dozen new works each season and performs more than 60 concerts a year, touring for several weeks annually. Performances often include educational activities in conjunction with Swiss contemporary music festival forum wallis / forum valais and touring engagements in both rural communities as well as large urban centers. UMS 'n JIP continually strives to reach, challenge, and expand audiences that rarely have the opportunity to attend performances of contemporary music. The ensemble also maintains a commitment to education by participating in concert discussions, benefit performances, classroom visits, open rehearsals, master classes, coaching sessions, and performances in schools which reach diverse groups including elementary, secondary, and university age students. UMS 'n JIP has a management office in Brig/Switzerland. The administrative staff handles all of UMS 'n JIP's business, such as booking, travel, promotion, production, and fund raising. The organization is funded by individuals, foundations, and government sources, including: Etat du Valais, Loterie Romande, Stanley Thomas Johnson Stiftung, Artephila Stiftung, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Migros Kulturprozent, among others. To donate to UMS 'n JIP Association and help to commission composers and perform new work, click here.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS.

Does the UMS 'n JIP Performing Arts Association accept charitable donations?
As a non-profit charitable organization, UMS 'n JIP relies on financial contributions from individuals, foundations, corporations and, government agencies. Click here to find out how you can donate.

Do you accept unsolicited compositions?
UMS 'n JIP does accept unsolicited compositions, but note that any material submitted will not be returned. Although scores are acceptable, recordings are much preferred. Please send your package to our office address. Because of the volume of submissions, we cannot acknowledge receipt of your package. Please include your contact information, so that we can reach you if there is interest in adding your work to the repertoire.

Can you send me sheet music for a piece in the UMS 'n JIP repertoire?
We are not music publishers, and are therefore not allowed to send out copies of music in our library for other groups' use. Please contact the publisher of the piece you're interested in for scores and parts.

When will UMS 'n JIP be performing in my area?
Click here for the current performance schedule.

How do I get information about booking UMS 'n JIP?
Please e-mail details to UMS 'n JIP's Production Office.

UMS 'n JIP's CHRONOLOGY.

2007. UMS 'n JIP's startup was "riviu 99.7" compiling pieces by Cage, Lehmann, Kagel, Schnebel and Aperghis at "schauwerk-blackbox" being part of the Schweizer Tonkünstlerfest 2007 in Theaterhaus Gessnerallee Zürich (7/07). During the innovative festival forum : : valais 4 world premieres by Beat Gysin, Andreas Zurbriggen and UMS 'n JIP have been recorded by Radio Suisse Romande Espace 2 and been highly acclaimed by various Swiss musical feuilletons (9/07). Together with world famous Japanese actor and poet Ron Obe UMS 'n JIP premiered 4 works by Maria Porten in Zürich and Basel (Ferne Schritte.Nähe, 9/07).

2008. For Swiss dance company Interface, UMS 'n JIP participates in the soundtrack "La Légende Dorée" – a ballet being on tour worldwide from 2008-11 (3/08). Collaborating with Swiss Radio UMS 'n JIP records "lebelight" by Swiss female composer Maria Porten for Swiss label VDE-Gallo - "Es war einst ein Paradies" (6/08). At Theatre Interface in Sion UMS 'n JIP's first full scenical program "1 (ONE)" with pieces by Thorsten Töpp and Maria Porten and both composers UMS and JIP themselves is successfully premiered (10/08).

2009. Its "China Project" with commissions for Chinese composers Du Yun, Tao Yu, Deqing Wen, Huang Ruo as well as with Yulong Mao´s famous traditional Chinese Music trio will be on tour in both Switzerland and China (Shanghai New Music Days) from January-October 2009. "1 (ONE)" has been invited to the Festival off d'Avignon, France, Théâtre Gilgamesh, where it is going to be performed daily from 8.-31.7. 2009. At the Fête Suisse des Musiciens in Lausanne, UMS 'n JIP will premiere "Mora-Mori" by female Corean composer Junghae Lee (9/09). Its second chamber opera "2 (TWO)" compiling electropop works of both UMS and JIP has been premiered at Theatre Interface in Sion and Zeughaus Kultur Brig in December 2009.

2010 UMS 'n JIP will be on tour in Switzerland (spring) and East Asia (autumn). Premieres by Maria Porten collaborating with Paul W. Taylor and Werner Bärtschi are scheduled for spring and winter 2010. Tonhalle Zürich debut in march. In July, UMS 'n JIP returns to Avignon (Palais Royal) with 3 different programs: China Project, Swiss Project and electropop opera TWO. In september 2010 UMS 'n JIP will premiere their third scenical program "3 (THREE)" in Sierre, Sion and Brig. In 2010 UMS 'n JIP offers commissions to Guo Wenjing, Chen Yeungping, Liu Jian, Roland Dahinden and Maria Porten.

2011 will bring a Switzerland tour with "THREE", "The Russia Project" (Dec 2011 in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Rostov), an Avignon Festival residence (Jul 2011), UMS 'n JIP's fourth chamber opera FOUR with a Switzerland and France tour, invitations by Forum Neue Musik Luzern, (ONE Feb 2011), Contemporary Music Festival Oggi Musica (TWO Oct 2011), as well as world premieres by Swiss composers Max E. Keller, Pierre-André Bovey, Markus Hofer, Maria Porten (collaborating with Carmina Quartet and Gian Manuel Rau), all of them recorded by Swiss Radio DRS2, in Feb 2011 UMS 'n JIP premiered Painted Skin, a mini opera by New York based Chinese composer Huang Ruo. UMS's works won prizes at Musikfestival Bern and Music Village Mount Pelion Greece where they were premiered by conductors Beat Furrer and Mark Foster. UMS 'n JIP wins the renommated MusiquePro grant 2011-13 and becomes coached by Irvine Arditti. Further collaborations with South African composer Pierre-Henri Wicomb and Alain Michon (France).

UMS (BIOGRAPHY).

While still attending school Ulrike Mayer-Spohn completed her studies for playing organ and choral conducting in Stuttgart and, as a junior student, she studied the recorder at the Karlsruhe Music Academy under Ulrike Mauerhofer. She then continued her education at the Schola Contorum Basiliensis in Switzerland under Conrad Steinmann and Corina Marti (recorder) and Dorothea Winter at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag. Masterclasses with Marion Verbruggen, Peter van Heyghen, Sebastien Marq and Gerd Lünenbürger complete her education. Baroque violin and viola she studied with Martina Graulich and David Plantier, fiddle with Randal Cook in Basel, composition and audiodesign with Erik Oña at the “Studio für Elektronische Musik” and the Hochschule für Musik in Basel. Ulrike Mayer-Spohn works together with composers as Beat Gysin, Boris Yoffe, Gabriel Pareyon, Andreas Zurbriggen, Paul Newland. Numerous premieres of works dedicated to her she premiered and recorded for Swiss Radio. Together with the Swiss composer and singer Javier Hagen, Ulrike Mayer-Spohn formed in 2007 the duo UMS 'n JIP, which is dedicated to new musical settings for recorder, voice and electronics. She works regularly as recorderplayer, violinist or fiddleplayer in specialized ensembles for early music as Amsterdam Barok Compagnie, Freitagsakademie, Collegium Musicum Stuttgart, La Chapelle Ancienne, Musica Poetica, Muscadin and La Morra. www.ulrikems.info

JIP (BIOGRAPHY).

Composer and singer born in Barcelona, raised between 6 languages in Wallis and the Mediterranean. Composition under the tutelage of Heiner Goebbels and Wolfgang Rihm, vocal training as tenor and countertenor under Roland Hermann, Alain Billard and Nicolai Gedda. 4 octave vocal range. As a singer Javier Hagen worked with composers like Aribert Reimann, Mauricio Kagel, Pierre Mariétan, Peter Eötvös and concrete poetry and constructive art artists such as Eugen Gomringer, Mauricio Rosenmann, Rolf Schroeter, Günther Uecker. Guest at festivals for new and early music in Donaueschingen, Strasbourg, Karlsruhe, Lucerne, Zurich, Geneva, Prague, Bologna, Milan, Amsterdam, Paris and Berlin. Numerous recordings for both German and Swiss Radio and TV stations. Over 100 world premieres including the operas 'air à l'en verre' by Daniel Mouthon 1997, 'eismeer' by Christoph Schiller 2004, 'poem ohne held' by Regina Irman 2005, 'esther de racine' by Boris Yoffe 2006, 'Marienglas' by Beat Gysin 2010, 'Wolf Cub Village (Suite)' by Guo Wenjing 2009, 'Pataffio' by Mathias Steinauer 2011, and 'Les Musiciens de Brème' by Deqing Wen 2011. Prize winner of international new music and composition competitions in 2001, 2004 and 2008 in Düsseldorf, Basel and Lausanne. 2003 publication of his ver-rückten Volkslieder "S´sch mr alles 1 Ding" by "musiques suisses" on CD. Hagen's compositional oeuvre includes the instrumental, scenical and vocal genres as well as electroacoustic and installative works. His vocal works receive particular appreciation and are performed at festivals all around Europe (Europa Cantat) as well as in Central America (America Cantat), Canada, Israel and the U.S. Together with Ulrike Mayer-Spohn, Hagen formed in 2007 the duo UMS ´n JIP, which is dedicated to new musical settings for recorder, voice and electronics. Javier Hagen lives in Brig (Valais/Switzerland) and is the director of Swiss contemporary music festival forum : : valais as well as of the AlpenChorFestival. He is regularly been called as an expert for experimental music theatre by Aperghis' class at the HdK Berne. Jury member of national and international contemporary music and composition contests. 2007 nomination as "Valaisan of the Year". www.javierhagen.ch