Tutti i Contrabbassi!

Marvin Wagner, born in Munich in 1993, received his first double bass lessons from Erich Hehenberger at the age of eight. After graduating from high school in 2012, he began his artistic studies in Prof. Dorin Marc’s class in the autumn of the same year. During his training, he became a member of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester. He was able to gain professional experience in various orchestras with the help of temporary contracts, for example as deputy principal double bass at the Nuremberg State Opera and as a tutti player with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 2017, he continued his studies at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin with Prof Janne Saksala. He supplemented his training with masterclasses under Prof Paradzik and Prof Mctier.

Marvin Wagner is 1st prize winner of the 8th International Johann Matthias Sperger Competition for Double Bass 2014 and has performed as a soloist with the Bad Reichenhall Philharmonic Orchestra, the West Bohemian Symphony Orchestra Marienbad, the Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestra and the Rheinische Philharmonie State Orchestra, among others.

Marvin Wagner has repeatedly received a scholarship from the Peter Pirazzi Foundation and was a scholarship holder of the German National Academic Foundation.

He has been Deputy Principal Double Bass with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin since the beginning of 2019.

Iris Ahrens was born in Bremen in 1967. She began her musical education at a very early age, specializing in piano and chamber music in Georg Espitalier’s folk music group. There she got to know the production work in the recording studio.

Her double bass lessons began at the age of 11. During her music studies, Iris Ahrens initially majored in piano and double bass. After a short time, she decided to deepen her double bass studies. At the age of just 20, she took up her first position in the Bremen State Orchestra. Iris Ahrens then studied at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin with Klaus Stoll. During her studies, the musician was an active member of the ensemble for new music “attacca berlin”.

This was followed by an internship at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and a one-year contract with the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra. Iris Ahrens has been a member of the double bass section of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin since 1994.

Nhassim Gazale was born in 1983 in Concepción (Chile) and began his first double bass lessons at the age of fourteen.

He was a member of the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra as well as the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, before starting to work with the orchestra of his hometown.

In 2009, he was successfully accepted at the Hochschule für Musik „Hanns Eisler“ in Berlin, where he began studying with Prof. Esko Laine. In 2013, he switched to the class of Prof. Janne Saksala.

He spent a year as an academy member with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and became a permanent member of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin starting in the 2011/12 season. In December 2014, he moved to the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra.