Charlotte Hug
Charlotte Hug the viola-performer, visual artist and composer was born in 1965
in Zurich, Switzerland. She is trained as a classical musician as well as a
visual artist. She studied viola and composition in Bern and finished with the
SMPV diploma. Further studies with Paul Silverthoren at the Royal Academy of
Music in London. She also studied ‘scenic design’ at the Hochschule
für Gestaltung in Zürich. She has received several prizes such as
a scholarship for a residency in London in 2000 as well as in Kunstlabor Baden
in 2002, and she also was commissioned in 2001 by Pro Helvetia, a piece exploring
the concept of a ‘Raum Partitur’. In 1999 she won the Schweizerischer
Tonkünstlerverein Competition which led to the production of the audio
and CD Rom ‘Mauerraum Wandraum”. This was premiered by the ‘Swiss
Radio International Selection’.
Charlotte Hug performs solo her own works or in collaboration with other artists
on international festivals in Europe such as Tage für neue Musik Zürich,
Freedom of the City (London), Festival International in Tempo Real (Madrid).
She is working in the large field of composition, improvisation, electroacoustic
music, performance, installation, film music, theater music and interdisciplinary
projects. She is collaborating with several artists such as Fine Kwiatkowski,
Andrea Neumann, Maggie Nicols, Caroline Kraabel, Phil Durrant, John Edwards,
John Butcher, Ivar Grydeland, Pat Thomas, Evan Parker, Phil Wachsman, Ingar
Zach,. She is also a member of the London Improvisers Orchestra.
Artistic statement
Charlotte Hug chooses environments without boundaries for her music performances
in unusual places with unexpected acoustical qualities as well as visual, historical,
emotional ones. These contexts are also very important to her. Her acts have
been performed in the Ice gallery of the Rhone Glacier at the 2125 meters above
sea level, in a soundproof torture chamber of the S&M Club, the underground
labyrinth of the old house of detention in Farringdon, London. She develops
her improvisation work through a process of interplay between visualisation
of the music and visual impulse set into music. She now experiments this through
the ‘Raum Partitur’ where movements of the body open different ‘sonic’
views. She is also interested in developing new ways of playing and approaching
her instrument, especially the personally developed ‘softbow technic’.
She is much interested in working with electronics that influences the instrumental
process of playing.
Charlotte appears on the following SOFA-releases
- Philipp Wachsmann / Charlotte Hug / Ivar Grydeland / Ingar Zach
«Wazahugy» (viola, electronics)