Foto: Leopold Kühne

Ivan Beaufils

Ivan Beaufils is a singer, pianist, and choirmaster based in Vienna. He already gained stage experience as a child performing at the Vienna State Opera, where he appeared in such productions as Carmen, Tosca, La Bohème, and Macbeth, as well as in children’s operas like Pollicino. Since 2018 he has majored in voice with Elke Nagl, in piano with Elisabeth Aigner-Monarth, and in choir direction with Johannes Hiemetsberger and Jordi Casals at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. In 2023 he took over as musical director of the Vienna Subchor.
In an encounter of tradition and experiment, Beaufils questions stereotypical expectations and invites his audience to experience music from novel perspectives. As a countertenor he acts between conflicting poles to break up the conventions of classical music and open up new dimensions. In his role as music pedagogue he creates social and creative contexts facilitating vibrant moments of spontaneity and intuitive expression through transdisciplinary and improvisational elements. His special focus is on working with groups, as well as improvisation and experimental music.

Foto: Johanna Daab

Iris Dankemeyer

Iris Dankemeyer studied sociology and social psychology in Hanover and philosophy and New High German in Berlin. After graduation in 2008 she initially worked as an independent author focusing on music and cultural criticism. Between 2013 and 2017, Dankemeyer did her doctorate in philosophy at the Free University of Berlin. She subsequently taught in Halle (Saale) in her function as research assistant and as interim professor in Hamburg.
Her book Die Erotik des Ohrs. Musikalische Erfahrung und Emanzipation nach Adorno was published by Edition Tiamat in 2020.
She cohosts the project space West Germany in Berlin. In her free time, Iris Dankemeyer practices the craft of magic and plays table tennis.

Foto: Valentina Belej Son

Alja Klemenc

Alja Klemenc, a Slovenian conductor from Cerknica, is currently pursuing her master’s degree in conducting at the Gustav Mahler Private University of Music in Klagenfurt and her postgraduate studies in contemporary repertoire at the Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana in Lugano.
As an assistant conductor she had the opportunity to participate in the performance of Helmut Lachenmann’s My Melodies with the Slovenian Philharmonic and in the production of Johann Strauss’s operetta Die Fledermaus with the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra. In the season 2024/25 she was invited to collaborate with the Slovenian Philharmonic, when she performed the work Voie by Vinko Globokar with orchestra and choir and conducted works by Slovenian composers for the family subscription program.
Klemenc enhanced her musicianship in international master classes with such renowned conductors as Colin Metters, Douglas Bostock, Michalis Economou, Georg Mark, Günter Neuhold, and others.
In 2022, Alja established the Alma Mahler Musikverein and ensemble of the same name, which devotes itself to the performance of classical and contemporary music in fresh, innovative formats. The Alma Mahler Musikverein strives to continue the gifted musician’s legacy by creating innovative and educational projects that integrate painting, literature, and architecture with music.

Foto: Thomas Lux

Martin Mettin

Martin Mettin is a philosopher whose focus is on aesthetics, ethics, and educational and social philosophy. He is a lecturer and researcher at the Humanistische Hochschule Berlin and in the winter term of 2024/25 stepped in as replacement for the professorship of cultural studies at the Wismar University of Applied Sciences. In his current research he looks into concepts of humankind in contemporary art. After his studies at the Free University of Berlin, research visits took him to the New School for Social Research and the Universitat de València. In 2019 he earned a doctorate in philosophy at the Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg.
His two monographs Echo im Sprachwald (Berlin: Neofelis Verlag, 2019) and Kritische Theorie des Hörens (Heidelberg: J. B. Metzler, 2020) examine the acoustic dimensions of philosophical thinking. For the latter work he received the Science Prize of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Saxony. Martin Mettin also makes an appearance as a feature writer, penning art reviews for TAZ and contributing to philomag.de. Besides pursuing an academic career, he conducts philosophical conversations with children and commits himself to the advancement of artistic research in educational contexts.

Foto: Apollonia Theresa Bitzan

Toni Schmale

Toni Schmale is a sculptor born in Hamburg. Until 2002 she was a player in Germany’s Federal Football League and in the Women’s National Football Team. She studied media art at the Leipzig Academy of Fine Arts and subsequently performative art with Carola Dertnig and performative sculpture with Monica Bonvicini at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
Schmale presented her works in numerous solo exhibitions, such as at Kunstraum Dornbirn (AT, 2024), basis e. V. Production and Exhibition Platform (DE, 2024), Mayday (CH, 2022), the Vienna Secession (AT, 2017), and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art (UK, 2017). Moreover, she took part in a number of group exhibitions, for example at Albertina Modern (AT, 2024), Kunsthaus Graz (AT, 2023), and the Zagreb Museum of Contemporary Art (HR, 2022). She participated in several biennial events, including the Kyiv Biennale (Vienna/AT, 2023), RIBOCA3 (Riga/LV, 2022), and the 3rd Industrial Art Biennale (Labin/HR, 2020).
Schmale received several awards for her work as an artist, such as the Birgit Jürgenssen Prize (2011) and the Vienna Archdiocese’s distinguished Msgr. Otto Mauer Prize der Erzdiözese Wien (2017).

Foto: Gerhard Maurer

section.a, Co-Kurator*innen, Projektorganisation

Since 2001, we have been conceptualizing and realizing exhibitions and projects at the intersection of art, society, and science. With a curious and reflective approach, we create spaces for dialogue and new perspectives. Our focus lies on curation and production, from the initial idea to the spatial realization. We collaborate with private, public, institutional, and independent partners both nationally and internationally. But no matter what or with whom – joy runs through all our projects. Over the past 24 years, we have realized more than 145 projects with over 300 artists.
section.a is: Julia Bildstein, Katharina Boesch, Christine Haupt-Stummer, Andreas Krištof, and Ina Sattlegger.

Foto: Mahler Foundation

Morten Solvik

Morten Solvik is a Norwegian-American musicologist and international educator based in Vienna, Austria. He received a Bachelor of Arts in music and intellectual history at Cornell University and a Ph.D. in musicology at the University of Pennsylvania with a dissertation on Gustav Mahler. His areas of research also include Anton Bruckner and Franz Schubert, among others. He has taught at the University of Music and Performing Arts and played an instrumental role in developing the Department of Music at the Institute for European Studies in Vienna starting in 1999, where he served as Center Director between 2009 and 2022; since then, he holds the positions of Dean and Liaison to the Provost for IES Abroad. He is active as an author, book editor, speaker, host and producer of webcasts, and contributor to productions for radio and television. Solvik serves on the board of the International Gustav Mahler Society and as Vice President of the Mahler Foundation. He is co-initiator and artistic director of the Gustav Mahler Festival in Steinbach am Attersee and, together with Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein, of the Mahler Forum for Music and Society, Klagenfurt.

Foto: Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein

Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein

Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein is a curator, art historian, and professor at the Institute for Art and Cultural Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. She heads several research projects, such as the Cathrin Pichler Archive for Art and Sciences (CPA) and The Dissident Goddesses’ Network. Her expansive teaching, research, lecturing, and exhibition activities focus on contemporary art, modern art, arts-based research, and feminist theory and art practice. In 2019 she was curator of the Austrian Pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia. She is a member of the curatorial board of the mumok – Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien and a board member of Cukrarna Gallery, Ljubljana. Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein is the author and editor of numerous texts and publications. She is the initiator and together with section.a artistic director of the Mahler Forum for Music and Society, Klagenfurt.

Foto: Paola Lesslhumer

Tony Wagner

Tony Wagner (he/they) is a musician and artist working at the intersection of avant-garde composition, experimental sound and trans-disciplinary performance. Their practice encompasses solo compositions under the monikers Tony Renaissance and Bogland, collaborative projects with the duo Snake Boots and the collective Transformative Narratives, as well as original scores for film, theater, and performance. Wagner’s compositions have been presented across various performance, theater, and experimental music contexts. Beyond their artistic practice, they contribute to Vienna's music scene as co-manager of the music platform Tender Matter.

Foto: Melanie Lorencic – Melanie Photography

Tinkara Zupan

Tinkara Zupan is a Slovenian accordionist and composer. Having graduated from the local music school as a student of Dejan Mesec, she continued her education with Mateja Prem Kolar at the Ljubljana Conservatory for Music and Ballet. She currently studies accordion with Roman Pechmann and composition with Hakan Ulus at the Gustav Mahler Private University for Music (GMPU) in Klagenfurt, where she is the recipient of a scholarship from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia.
While dealing with alternative and conventional ways of notation and contemporary improvisation, Zupan is interested in interdisciplinary artistic approaches. In August 2024 her composition IV Miniatures for clarinet, accordion, and double bass premiered at the GMPU Summer Music Academy for Composition in Ossiach, where it was performed by the Schallfeld Ensemble. In 2025 she was chosen as a finalist at the Young Composers Meeting, where her composition for the Orkest De Ereprijs was performed.
She won first prize and a golden plaque at the TEMSIG Slovenian Music Competition in 2017; a gold award at the International Svirel Music Competition in 2018; second place and first prize at the PannoniAccordion in 2022; first prize and a distinction award at the Accordion Days in Stainz in 2023, etc.