About

photo by Detlef Baltrock

Interview EMBARK!
A feature magazine by
Madeleine Schwinge
and re:future LaB

Ruth Wiesenfeld‘s artistic language wanders between musical composition, performance and visual art. Her body of works consists of scores in conventional as well as experimental forms of notation, sculptural objects, installations and videos. In July 2020 Ruth launched the research project TOWARDS SOUND , a network, archive and series of events rendering sonic imagination tangible.

The film SPYR, created together with Christoph Lemmen, won the Prix Vidéoformes 2016 / Conseil Départemental du Puy-de-Dôme. For the innovative use of sound in the short film “Pfffhp tt!”, Ruth Wiesenfeld and Deborah Phillips have been awarded the LEO of the International Filmfest Braunschweig 2012. Her works have been presented in Venues and Festivals such as Academy of the Arts Berlin, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Radialsystem Berlin, Paradiso in Amsterdam, International Sound Art Festival Berlin, HilbertRaum Berlin, Teatro Comunale in Ferrara, Royal College of Music in London, Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, Festspielhaus Hellerau, Centre Chorégraphique national de Tours and Kunstfest Weimar.

In recent years Ruth worked with ensembles such as the string quartet of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, Ensemble Courage, the vocal ensemble La Dolce Maniera and the 16-voice soloist ensemble PHØNIX16 under the direction of Timo Kreuser (Guest Composer 2013/2104) as well as with various soloists and conductors (Robyn Schulkowsky, Luigi Gaggero, Hilary Jeffery, Julia Bentley, Steffen Schreyer, Mike Flemming amongst others).

Sasha Waltz created a choreography to Wiesenfeld‘s string quartet Hautfelder, which became part of the productions DIALOGE 09 (Neues Museum) and Métamorphoses by Sasha Waltz & Guests. In 2012 Ruth directed the a cappella opera The Silent String (choreographed and produced by Magda Korsinsky). She has been creating soundscapes for various projects by the company shifts - art in movement (Rouen/Berlin).

Ruth studied composition with James Fulkerson (Amsterdam) and Frank Denyer (PhD from Dartington College of Arts in 2008). She also holds a BA in contemporary dance and choreography from the European Dance Development Center in Arnhem (Netherlands). With her husband, the visual artist Daniel Wiesenfeld and their two children Ruth lives in Berlin, where she has been a lecturer at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler since 2001. Her scores are published by Verlag Neue Musik Berlin. Haus Villigst, Stiftung Kulturfonds of the Berlin Senate, Dartington International Summer School, Musikfonds, meacenia Stiftung for women in arts and science,Fonds Darstellende Künste and Akademie der Künste have supported her work.