Axel Porath

Born in Hagen, Axel Porath studied viola with Hermann Voss and Gunter Teuffel at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart, string quartet with the Melos Quartet and with Jörg-Wolfgang Jahn in Karlsruhe.

Since 2002 he has been a member of the Ensemble Musikfabrik and performs worldwide at all major festivals for contemporary music as a soloist and chamber musician, e.g. at the Lincoln Center Festival New York, Berliner Festwochen, Festival d’automne à Paris, Venice Biennale. Axel Porath has worked with many composers, e.g. Mauricio Kagel, Helmut Lachenmann, György Kurtág, Wolfgang Rihm, Peter Eötvös, Rebecca Saunders, Liza Lim. Toshio Hosokawa, Enno Poppe and Martin Smolka have dedicated solo works to him.

He also performs as a chamber musician in duo with Margit Kern (accordion) and with various improvisation and jazz musicians, including Carla Bley, Matthias Schriefl, Simon Nabatov, Theresia Philipp, Jens Düppe. As a solo violist he has appeared with the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian Chamber Orchestra and Heidelberg Symphony Orchestra. He has performed as a soloist with the RIAS Chamber Choir, the Baden-Baden Philharmonic, the Neue Rheinische Kammerorchester Cologne and Capella Amsterdam, and has been involved in numerous CD, radio and television productions.

“Meeting and working with Helmut Lachenmann sparked my interest not only in his work but in new music in general. I am always excited by the fascinating sound-worlds of new music, its broad stylistic range, and the creativity and flexibility it demands of the performer, especially in direct collaboration with composers.”