Ute Völker Accordion

Karola Pasquay Flute

Ortrud Kegel Flute

Thomas Beimel Viola

Gunda Gottschalk Violin 

In early 1989 Partita Radicale was founded by musicians from Wuppertal and Cologne.. Since 1992, the quintet has remained unchanged and consists of Gunda Gottschalk (violin), Thomas Beimel (viola), Ortrud Kegel (flute), Karola Pasquay (flute) und Ute Völker (accordion) – five individualists who have, since joining, developed everything together and work explicitly without a musical leader.

From the beginning, the musicians have deliberately sat on the fence, so that they could have the freedom to play with musical conventions and genres: in the spaces left between improvisation & concept, theatre & music and sound & space. Sometimes even with written music – why not, after all? What they have in common is a classical music education. The result is contemporary chamber music that practises the art of animated conversation with a virtuosity that comes from an often surprising change from classical playing conventions to an experimental widening of the sound spectrum. The music remains an analogue, acoustic experience that is continually renewed in the highly charged area between earnestness and humour.

Partita Radicale plays wherever it seems right: festivals in Madrid, Bucharest or Dresden, the Wuppertal Inland Revenue offices, a Beijing jazz club, a swimming pool, or next door’s front room.