Bio
Sylvi Kretzschmar works internationally in the fields of performance art, documentary theater, electro-acoustic live music and composition. She combines live art and concert – as a solo artist and in collaborations: as artistic director of SIRENEN (Vienna), MEGAPHONCHOR (Hamburg), as part of the duo SKILLS (Berlin/Vienna) and member of the band and activist collective SCHWABINGGRAD BALLETT (Hamburg). She has worked with FUNDUSTHEATER/THATRE OF RESEARCH (Hamburg), SPLITTER ORCHESTER (Berlin), Sibylle Peters and GEHEIMAGENTUR (Hamburg), Rahel Kraft (Basel), PONI (Brussels) and the band DEICHKIND (Hamburg) among others. Sylvi Kretzschmar passionately shares her artistic methods in teaching and workshops. Since 2023 she is artistic director of the „Theaterwerkstatt Sound und Musik“ at DSCHUNGEL WIEN – Theaterhaus für Junges Publikum. She is a mother and bonus mother. Sylvi Kretzschmar lives and works in Vienna.
Statement
(Personally conducted) interviews are almost always the starting point for my work between live art and concert. Interview passages become songs, rap flows, poetic fragments with a literary and dramatic quality, musical tracks, speech sculptures and spoken word music. My performances are echoes of concrete previous encounters.
Education
Sylvi Kretzschmar is a graduate of Applied Theater Studies in Giessen (Germany) and completed her doctorate in the postgraduate programme „Assemblies and Participation: Urban Publics and Performance” (Hafen City University Hamburg, Germany). Her choreographic and compositional work with megaphone choirs is one facet of her exploration of voice amplification. Sylvi Kretzschmars dissertation titled “Public Address Systems – Techniques of voice amplification as choreographies of political assemblies” (2022) combines artistic research with media history.
Press
BEGRENZTE GESÄNGE (2024)
‘For the Megaphone Choir, Kretzschmar collects everyday language. With all its filler words, pauses for thought and breath, stumbles, drastic formulations and apt word pictures, a libretto is created which, when spoken collectively, reinforces the repressed knowledge of everyday life and makes it heard with force and dignity.
Songs reminiscent of the underground hits of the black New York disco punk band ESG. On top of the rhythmic skeleton, there are sparse layers of electronic and locally produced mechanical patterns, construction work as Sisyphean labour, demonstratively pointless activity that builds up from scraping and creaking to tribal rhythms, fuelled by combative shouts.’
Christoph Schäfer, DÉRIVE /ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR STADTFORSCHUNG: Der Megafonchor und das ausbleibende Wunder von Hamburg (N° 98 Jan-März 2025)
ASSEMBLY IF THE SLEEPLESS (2024)
‘What does insomnia sound like? How do you set to music the endless spirals of thought that so easily engulf you when you can’t sleep? Clara Frühstück, Sylvi Kretzschmar and Maya Osojnik address precisely these questions in their evening programme, which combines musical theatre, concert and performance. For their interdisciplinary evening, the three musicians and performers have set to music interview responses from people who have become entangled in precisely these loops and have thus been robbed of their sleep. In the process, private and political concerns collide… Recommendation.’
BÜHNE MAGAZIN Wokeness taken literally: Assembly of the Sleepless (17 June 2024)
SOUNDCHECK SCHOOL (2022)
‘Soundcheck School impresses with its wealth of ideas, humour and an unusual creative approach that rearranges the fields of music, sounds and voices in a completely new way for young and older audiences alike.’
Stiekele, Annette, HAMBURGER ABENDBLATT: CHILDREN’S THEATRE HAMBURG Unusual sound performance at the Fundus Theatre (24 September 2022)
SIRENS (2021)
‘Once upon a time, their beguiling song lured sailors to their doom. But contemporary sirens also have ulterior motives: ‘… Sylvi Kretzschmar’s Sirens project deals with problems, desires and needs that have arisen or come to the fore as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. A sound composition and special choreography make the situation of all those who provide care work audible. The quotes used come from interviews. The megaphone, which is often used as a means of agitation, gives invisible care work a loud voice. The functions of the voice amplifier, such as echo or loop effects, play a special role in this.’
Scheyerer, Nicole DER STANDARD (21 June 2021)
ARIEN AUS STEIN (SKILLS feat. Bakary Trawally, 2020)
‘between performance, electronic, often rhythmic and equally often noisy sound art and contemporary choreography’
‘a kaleidoscope of sounds and voices that also gives a voice to users and residents of the location who were interviewed beforehand’
‘In times when the transformation of urban spaces and their absorption by commercial logic is becoming increasingly apparent, works such as ’Arien aus Stein‘ also serve as a contribution to a living archive that thwarts the plans of perhaps the greatest ally of gentrification – oblivion.’
AFRICAN PAPER (21 September 2020)
CV
2025 Scholarship Performance for the year 2025 MA7 Performing Arts City of Vienna
2023 BmKÖS Austria scholarship for dance and performance
2022 Completion of the artistic-scientific doctorate on the subject of voice amplification as choreography of political assemblies at Hafen City University Hamburg; obtaining the academic degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Dr. phil)
2011-2014 Scholarship for Artistic Research “Assembly and Participation. Urban Public Spheres and Performative Arts” (Hafen City University, K3 Center for Choreography/Tanzplan Hamburg, Forschungstheater/Theater of Research Hamburg) 2008 Scholarship holder at K3 Center for Choreography/ Tanzplan Hamburg
1998-2004 Diploma studies in Applied Theater Studies in Gießen (D)
1996 A-levels
Artistic works (selection)
2024
BEGRENZTE GESÄNGE: Konzert-Performance am Platz der leeren Versprechungen (artistic direction and performance); funded by Program Art in Public Space/ Ministry of Culture and Media Hamburg
ASSEMBLY OF THE SLEEPLESS (concert / live art / music theater) by Clara Frühstück, Sylvi Kretzschmar and Maja Osojnik; Theater am Werk Vienna
MEGA VERSTÄRKER (concert / live art), Dschungel Vienna, Burgtheaterstudios Vienna, Klima Biennale Vienna
2023
Artistic Director (together with Liz Rech and Teresa Monfared) “With Care: Action Lab between Theater, Audiences and Care Work”/ Artist Lab of the Fonds Darstellende Künste Deutschland
Composition and artistic direction “Mothering Move(s)” – lecture-concert and exhibition Kampnagel Hamburg
Artistic Director “BEYOND RE: production: Mothering In The Performing Arts” together with Liz Rech
2022
Composition and choreography for SLET – AGAINST THE WIND Stadium choreography with 100 young people (as a contemporary examination of the historical mass choreographies of Yugoslavia) Opening Novi Sad – European Capital of Culture 2022
Composition for the production SOUNDCHECK SCHOOL Fundustheater/Theatre of Research Hamburg. Premiere February 2022 / Hamburg
2021
SIRENEN (performance / sound choreography / composition) A women’s choir “armed” with megaphones sets interviews with care workers to music. KÖR Kunst im öffentlichen Raum Wien, City of Vienna, BMKÖS Austria.
Concert performance VERSTÄRKER/ Kultursommer Vienna
2020
ARIEN AUS STEIN (SKILLS) Concert-Performance/Performative Monument, Kampnagel Hamburg
2019
ENTHUSIASM (SKILLS) Composition and choreography for SPLITTER ORCHESTER (Berlin)
2018-2019
WELCOME TO HELL (SKILLS) documentary concert performance about the G20 protests in Hamburg Performances: Kampnagel Hamburg, WUK performing arts Vienna, Schauspielhaus Vienna, Support DIE GOLDENEN ZITRONEN Tour 2019
2016
FIELD (SKILLS) concert-performance Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, Kampnagel Hamburg
2015
PIONIER GEIST (SKILLS) concert-performance Kampnagel Hamburg, Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, Pumpenhaus Münster
2014
ESSO HÄUSER ECHO – EIN NACHRUF (Performance/ Political Speech/ Requiem)Performances at Kampnagel in Hamburg, at Spielbudenplatz Hamburg, Opening Politik im Freien Theater Festival Freiburg. Documentations of the performance were exhibited: Vienna Secession (as part of SALON PUBLIC HAPPINESS/ UTOPIAN PULSE (2014), Württemberggischer Kunstverein Stuttgart (2015), in the exhibition TOUCH THE REALITY (Kunstraum Niederösterreich), Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien and worldwide as part of the arch+ exhibition AN ATLAS OF COMMONING (2018-2022)
2013
DER AUFBAU (SKILLS) concert-performance, Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, Kampnagel Hamburg, Pumpenhaus Münster
2012
JENSEITS DER EUROZONE (SCHWABINGGRAD BALLETT) Frankfurter Kunstverein PLATZ DER UNBILLIGEN LÖSUNGEN (Camp/ Performance by SCHWABINGGRAD BALLETT, International Summer Festival Kampnagel Hamburg)
2011
GOLD GOLD Solo/ concert-performance Kampnagel, Hamburg
Artistic director Laboratory Winteracadamy 5/ Theater an der Parkaue Berlin
2010
Performance and Choreography DEICHKIND IN MÜLL Diskurs-Operette, Kampnagel Hamburg/ Donaufestival Krems
2009
»When one cannot read the original language, one rapidly loses oneself in translations (veils, fringes or clothing…)« Collaboration with Katrin Mayer for the exhibition INDICATED BY SIGNS, Kunstverein Bonn
Artist-Residency »l’appartment 22« Rabat and Fez/ Morocco
2008
Solo performance LAUTSPRECHER/SPEAKER, Concert for voice, microphone and a single loudspeaker based on interviews with people who hear voices, K3 Center for Choreography/Tanzplan Hamburg
2004-2007
Member of the performance collective PONI (Brussels)
Teaching
since 2023 Artistic Director of the Theaterwerkstatt Sound und Musik at DSCHUNGEL WIEN – Theaterhaus für Junges Publikum
2023 and 2014-2016 Lectureship at Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen in the subject “Creativity and Performance”
2022 Lectureship at the Institute for Performative Practice, Art and Education at the HbK Braunschweig
Publications
Publications
Miko-Kretzschmar, Sylvi (2023) : PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEME – Techniques of voice amplification as choreographies of political assemblies. Available here
Kretzschmar, Sylvi (2021) MOURNING MACHINE: OBITUARY FOR A VANISHED PLACE. In: Radical Housing: Art, Struggle, Care. Edited by Ana Vilenica Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam.
Kretzschmar, Sylvi/Wildner, Kathrin (2016) AMPLIFICATION AND ASSEMBLY. In geheimagentur/Martin Jörg Schäfer/Vassilis S. Tsianos (eds.) The Art of Being Many, Bielefeld (pp. 169-181).
Kretzschmar, Sylvi (2015) VOR ORT LAUTSPRECHEN. Choreographies of amplification in urban space. In: Marianne Bäcker/Mechthild Schütte (eds.) Tanz Raum Urbanität, Leipzig, (pp.197-208).
Kretzschmar Sylvi (2014) VERSTÄRKUNG – Public Address Systems as Choreographies of Political Assemblies. In: Valerié Burri/Kerstin Evert/Sibylle Peters/Esther Pilkington/Gesa Ziemer (eds.) Versammlung und Teilhabe, Bielefeld (pp. 143-171).
Discography
SKILLS Welcome to Hell. 7″ vinyl record (2019)
Arrivati / Schwabinggrad Ballett: Beyond Welcome (Buback, 2016)