Literature & Music: MUTABOR & BATO

Kalif Storch. Illustration Carl Offterdinger (Wilhelm Hauff: Mährchen für Söhne und Töchter gebildeter Stände, Rieger‘sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 1869

BATO, a young, versatile duo from Vienna, who feels just as connected to the music of the Baroque as new songs of the popular scene, accompanies Irmi Horn as he reads the Hauff fairy tale:

THE CALIPH STORCH.

Wilhelm Hauff (b. November 1802 in Stuttgart, Duchy of Württemberg; † 18. November1827 in Stuttgart, Kingdom of Württemberg was a German writer of Romanticism.

Hauff died at the age of 25 of typhus disease, which he took on a trip to Tyrol, where he researched Andreas Hofer.

Duo BATO

Five composers and songwriters from different eras will be presented. With their interpretations, the singer and recorder Antonia Weber and the guitarist Sebastian Weiss, fresh and unbiased, give music from all genres their very personal touch.

Antonia Weber was born in Graz, Styria in 1997. During her training at the Johann-JosephFux Conservatory, she was awarded several first prizes in the youth competition “Prima la musica”. In 2013, Antonia received the gifted scholarship of the city of Graz.

After graduating from school, Antonia was accepted into the class of Rahel Stoellger at the MDW in Vienna. Since autumn 2021, she has also been studying classical singing with Peter Thunhart.

In addition to their professors at the university, musicians such as Dorothee Oberlinger, Daniel Brüggen, Agnes Dorwarth and Roman Zaslavsky had a great influence on Antonia’s musical development.

Antonia’s blockbuster career highlights include invitations from well-known organizers such as the Wiener Konzerthaus or the Congress Innsbruck, as well as the opening of the “Old Music” cycle of the Jeunesse Wien for the 2023/24 season. Since autumn 2022, Antonia has also been involved in several productions at the Vienna Volksoper.

Antonia’s vocal work is characterized by intensive concerts in various vocal ensembles and their duo BATO, as well as the solo collaboration with choirs such as the New Vienna Voices or the Chorus Alea. In the summer of 2024 she was also part of the concert choir of the Opera im Steinbruch.

Since September 2021, Antonia has been teaching recorder, piano and singing at Studio Allegria Vienna. She takes great pleasure in accompanying young people in discovering the diversity and beauty of music for themselves.

Sebastian Elias Weiss was born in Graz in 1998 and, after an unsuccessful taster attempt, began to teach himself to play the world of classical guitar at the age of 13 with the help of songbooks and the music collection of his parents. Through different paths and influenced by fellow musicians and private teachers – he landed years later in the field of jazz and improvised music and also studied this at the Gustav Mahler Private University for Music with Professor Agostino Di Giorgio and Professor Thomas Wallisch-Schauer. In addition to the university, he learned in private lessons and workshops, among others from Lage Lund, Charles Altura, Jason Brown, John Escrete, Peter Rom and Primus Sitter.

After completing his bachelor’s degree, he now lives in Vienna, where his musical work, shaped by the local free scene, is increasingly leaning towards modern improvised music and avant-garde.

He uses his central band projects (Pj and the Cs, Sebastian Elias Weiss Quartet) and his duo SquarEars as platforms for his creative expression and his compositional activity. With the duo BATO, which places a special focus on the works of female composers, he arranges and interprets works from different styles. Furthermore, he writes for the regular cooperation with the Noreia string quartet pieces in the field of new music in the ensemble electric guitar and string quartet. The artist also performs alone and has most recently composed and performed music for the play “Das bin Ich also – Auszüge aus Tagebücher von Franz Kafka” under the direction of Michael Watzenig.

He had the opportunity to help out as a substitute in internationally renowned acts, including the “Upper Austrian Jazz Orchestra” and “Joris Dudli Å› Funk Researchers” and to gain experience.

Sebastian Elias’ vision is to echo all facets of our zeitgeist through the pure expressive power of his music and his playing and thus to offer listeners an opportunity to reflect on it and deal with it. In a world full of dystopian and melancholic elements, clear rays of hope and optimism always shimmer through the nebulae wall of melancholy.