Wulfin Lieske
Composition
As the son of a singer and a cellist, Wulfin Lieske quickly found his own approach to music through guitar, improvisation and early composition. After early international competition successes, he followed an appointment to the Musikhochschule Hamburg after his studies in Cologne. His artistic partners include Gidon Kremer, Astor Piazzolla, the Hilliard Ensemble, didgeridoo virtuoso William Barton and clarinettist Diego Anibál Montes. More than twenty solo albums have been released with international success on EMI Classics, Warner, Oehms Classics, Challenge Records and many other labels.
Wulfin Lieske composed the oratorio "Über den Wassern" for the World Exhibition 2000 in Hanover. This was followed in 2013 by the world premiere of his requiem "Dreamtime" with the WDR Symphony Orchestra at the Kölner Philharmonie. He subsequently wrote the clarinet concerto "Angel's Ride", the violin concerto "Resurrection", the cello concerto "Farewell Elegy" and "Hémispères for piano and orchestra". In addition to a number of song cycles he composed in 2015 "In Luce for high soprano, guitar, choir and string orchestra", as well as "Hymn to Peace" to mark the seventy years of peace in Europe. In 2019 Wulfin´s incidental music for Milan Sládek's "The Magic Four" premiered at the National Theatre in Bratislava. His compositional output includes solo works for guitar and piano, vocal and chamber music and, above all, concertos for soloists with orchestra.
In 2022 he wrote his first opera "Domino: Die Verwandlung der Thérèse" (Domino: The Metamorphosis of Thérèse), based on a novel by Émile Zola.
Sancia Fischbein
Libretto
Sancia Fischbein decided to study law in Cologne after school until she followed her true calling. She is now studying for a Master's degree in Literary Writing and Editing in Hildesheim. A deeper understanding of the interfaces between the arts brought her into contact with opera for the first time in 2022. As a librettist, she realised the opera "Domino: Die Verwandlung der Thérèse" together with Wulfin Lieske and Stephen Ibbotson.
Through her experiences as a musician and visual artist, she has an interdisciplinary view of the most diverse perspectives of artistic creation. A great interest in human conflicts and the subjectivity of perspectives is visible in many of her works. Social tensions in impact and contrast to individual fates are also a recurring theme. To date, Sancia Fischbein has published in various literary and online journals as well as in the anthologies Hyper and Landpartie of Edition Pächterhaus and as co-author of "Rebel Books", published by Hanser Verlag in 2021.
Sancia Fischbein has appeared several times as a performer at spoken word performances, readings, literary competitions and poetry slams.
Julian Reinartz
Gaming
Since 31 July 2022, the creative team has been expanded to include Julian Reinartz as a gaming specialist. After completing his Bachelor of Science in Game Design at the Media Design Hochschule in Düsseldorf, he became founder and managing director of Frame 6 and produced games and visualisations for companies such as Ubisoft, Astragon, Mercedes and RWE. After transforming Frame 6 into the renowned Holocafe, a VR space, Julian moved to Headup, now part of the global Thunderful Group. His new focus shifted from game, level design and operations to the role of event manager as well as project manager for the game Tinkertown
Julian's knowledge of the games industry enables the team to better understand and incorporate important aspects of the games world into the project. His input enables an adequate and contemporary use of virtual and digital possibilities beyond a purely decorative aspect. He also contributes important contacts from the field of video game development for the acquisition of sponsors and project partners.
Stephen Ibbotson
Dramaturgy
During his long and international career as an opera singer, Stephen Ibbotson developed the vision of a music-theatrical opera from Zola's novel Thérèse Raquin. In his search for a suitable team for this project he met Wulfin Lieske and Sancia Fischbein and asked them to join him in this venture.
Stephen Ibbotson has many years of stage experience at many opera houses, including the Australian Opera, the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe and the Staatstheater Stuttgart. He has worked with renowned conductors such as Kirill Petrenko and Richard Bonynge and directors such as Christof Nel, Christine Mielitz and George Delnon. His repertoire includes Italian, French and German works from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Of particular significance for past collaborations for opera have been his performances of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes in the opera of the same name, Alwa in Alban Berg's Lulu and Sergei in Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.
Throughout his career, he has constantly expanded his knowledge of opera and its related forms through academic study. He applied his knowledge in numerous music theatre educational projects, either adapting and staging well-known works for young audiences or conceiving, setting and performing his own works. From this experience Stephen Ibbotson developed a deep understanding and great expertise in the operatic genre, especially in the context of dramaturgy, staging and conception of new works.
Stephen is a coordinator and dramaturgical expert for the creative team. He was also the literary and musical editor for the first opera "Domino: Die Verwandlung der Thérèse". Additionally, he is responsible for acquiring sponsors and applying for government and European grants for further projects.