Aşkım Beethoven – Beethoven, my love

Steffen Tast was born in 1965 in Berlin.

After studying violin at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin in 1987, he became a member of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB). In the same year, his interest in contemporary music led him to the chamber ensemble “Kammerensemble Neue Musik” Berlin (KNM).

In recent years, he has been appearing increasingly as a conductor. Initially, the focus was on working with KNM Berlin. This was followed by invitations as a conductor with the Ensemble Oriol, the Kammerakademie Potsdam, the Ensemble Modern, and the Ensemble Ascolta Stuttgart. Since 2005 he has been regularly conducting chamber orchestra concerts with members of the RSB and their orchestra academy, and also symphony concerts as part of the family- and school student concerts of the orchestra since 2014. In his home village of Klein Leppin in north-western Brandenburg, he was one of the initiators of the project “Dorf macht Oper” (“Village makes opera”) in 2005 and has since been its musical director.

Steffen Tast is involved as mentor in the orchestra academy of the RSB.

The Olivinn Ensemble creates a unique combination of sounds – with elements from traditional Turkish and Anatolian folk songs, as well as from classical European and more contemporary works. The quartet adopts an approach which allows new art forms to develop by removing the categorisation into specific genres, whilst not allowing their roots to fade or be abandoned. The composer and pianist, Sinem Altan, who was educated in Berlin and has won a number of prizes for her work, is responsible for the musical arrangement, while the vocalist, Begüm Tüzemen, who comes from Istanbul, lends her interpretation with her vocals that are marked by a wide stylistic range; the multi-instrumentalist Özgür Ersoy, who comes from East Anatolia, and Berlinbased percussionist Axel Meier, with his colourful rhythms, complete the ensemble’s line up. In 2011, the Olivinn Ensemble won the Young Ears Special Prize for Outstanding Arrangement of Innovative Concepts in an Intercultural Context with the fairy tale concert “Keloglan and the Band of Thieves”. Their first concerts included those for the Radialsystem V in Berlin, the Nikolaisaal Potsdam, and Leipzig Trade Fair and on the occasion of the Kiel Week celebrations.

Isbael Stegner studied violin in Mannheim and Berlin and is a violinist with the Kammerakademie Potsdam. Inspired by music projects for her own children, she also completed a degree in music education at the Detmold University of Music and Performing Arts and has since worked passionately as a freelance music educator. In addition to the Rapauke series of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, she organises projects for the Kammerakademie and the Nikolaisaal in Potsdam and the Ensemble Aventure in Freiburg. She holds a teaching position at the Freiburg University of Music.
Communicating with the audience as equals, motivating fellow musicians, thinking creatively and reflecting the diversity of society: These are the principles that guide her in her work as a mediator.