Emerging Ensembles: smash.duo at DECIBELS

SMASH.duo is a unique ensemble that breaks stereotypes about classical music by blending it with pop, electronic, and jazz influences, creating energetic, pop-concert-like experiences for new music. Ensemble musicians - Chloë Abbott (trumpet) and Moritz Koch (percussion) are using creative staging and boundary-pushing music to challenge the boundaries of different fields of art as well. 

Both musicians specialise in the performance and interpretation of new and contemporary music. Chloë Abbott regularly collaborates with internationally acclaimed ensembles, including MusikFabrik, Apartment House, Asko|Schönberg. She has been a contemporary music leader of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra and made history as the first female trumpeter to perform the role of “Michael” in Stockhausen’s Licht at the 2019 Holland Festival.  Moritz Koch is a percussionist who regularly collaborates with internationally renowned ensembles and theatres, including MusikFabrik, Ensemble Modern, and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. He also appears as a soloist in productions by composers including Enno Poppe, Sarah Nemtsov and Nicolaus A. Huber, among others.

For the festival "deciBels" they are creating a unique programme combining their repertoire pieces - Abbot, Koch, Marino, Atria and Shariatzadeh with premieres by young composers - students from Latvian Music Academy - Dāvis Vilks and Dāvids Balodis.

More info soon!