Andreas Paolo Perger

"Gravure/Gravure", improvised compositions for concert guitar are performed regularly weekly at the "Zionskirche" Berlin since July 2014. The outstanding sound of the room from August Orth supports the interactive aspect of the music. During the concerts of several hours in length always new situationally inspired composition variants develop on the base of the over the time slowly changing source material. The compositions originating from the concert improvisations reflect the instrument in a pluralistic multilayered way and enfold a wide dynamic and tonal pulse in the acoustics of the church. On 2017.08.10 the berlin daily newspaper B.Z. wrote in the category Classical: „The austrian concert guitarist Andreas Paolo Perger proves his great talent for improvisation.“ A concert-excerpt is to be heard in the movie "Beyond Words" by Urszula Antoniak. The compositions are published by the classical music publishing house Edition Margaux.

"Work for Orchestra 3 – An interactive work genesis" was premiered on the 2017.05.26 at St. Elisabeth-Church in Berlin on the occasion of "36. Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchentag". An expert jury awarded twenty-two works of known artists and musicians to be presented as regional cultural program. The cultur newspaper "Zeig Dich" of the Kirchentag writes a.o. "The guitarist, improviser, and composer Andreas Paolo Perger mirrors the baroque union of interpretation, improvisation, and composition on contemporary forms. At the same time the recourse on duct and verve of the romantic brings contemporary sound-microscopy and sound-spontaneity in moving narrative correlations."

"Work for Orchestra 1 – An interactive work genesis" was premiered at St. Johannes-Evangelist-Church in Berlin in June 2013. The lineup consisted of Klaus Janek (db, e), Antonis Anissegos (e-p), Biliana Voutchkova (vl), Hilary Jeffery (trb), Alessandra Eramo (voc, e), Andreas Paolo Perger (e-gtr, c), Hannes Lingens (dr), Audrey Chen (vc, voc, e), Sabine Vogel (fl), Tobias Delius (ts), Roy Carroll (e), and Elena Kakaliagou (frh). The concert video was directed by Carlos Bustamante and premiered at the Arsenal Cinema Berlin in December 2013. It is the first work of a series of nine, that will be completed during the next years.

"Work for Orchestra 2 – An interactive work genesis" was premiered at St. Johannes-Evangelist-Church in Berlin in June 2015. The lineup consisted of Biliana Voutchkova (vl), Klaus Janek (db, e), Antonis Anissegos (e-p), Hilary Jeffery (trb), Michael Thieke (clar), Alessandra Eramo (voc, e), Andreas Paolo Perger (e-gtr, c), Yorgos Dimitriadis (dr), Audrey Chen (vc, voc, e), Sabine Vogel (fl), Gunnar Geisse (laptop-gtr), Elena Kakaliagou (frh), Almut Kühne (voc), Chris Dahlgren (viola da gamba), Katrin Mickiewicz (vla). The playing figures were made by Edouard Steinhauer. Alexander di Vasos drew the music during the concert. The concert video was directed by Carlos Bustamante.

The solo guitar album Relief, recorded 2011 at "Studio am Fernsehturm" in Berlin, represents ten improvised compositions on the instrument in CD quality. The title refers to the acoustic relief arising while listening to the music with stereo headphones.

It enables sending each of its six strings to one separate channel of an amplifier, and further to six separate loudspeakers in a room. It is played with finger technique on medium steel strings and sounds like an electric guitar. The instrument was built in 1998. It was presented at the Frankfurt Music Fair in 1999. The first radio live transmission (surround > stereo), and the first surround live concert took place in Munich in 2002. After several more years of technical and musical development, the Huber preamplification was added in 2007. Surround guitar concerts in Vienna 2007, Prague 2008, Munich, Hamburg, Münster, Lüneburg, Meaford, Ontario (Canada), and Berlin 2009, followed.

In 1997 he was awarded "Newcomer of the Year" of the German newspaper "Süddeutsche Zeitung". He also works as studio guitarist for cinema and television and did soundtracks for art-videos.

From age twenty, he studied jazz guitar at the Berklee College, Boston. After that, he studied five years classical guitar with Prof. Barbara Probst-Polášek, master student of Andrés Segovia, at the Munich Conservatory. In these years he additionally studied jazz guitar on his own and went to master classes and lessons with John Scofield, John McLaughlin, Joe Pass, and Mike Stern. Probst-Polášek helped him adapt his jazz-related compositions to the instrument, encouraging him to write a concert for guitar and string quartet, which later was recorded as a studio project with the musicians of the Modern String Quartet. He also studied with Leo Brouwer during an improvisation master class at the Music Academy Marktoberdorf. The music for the CD Big City, a solo album with original compositions for the electric guitar, was written during a work in residence in New York in 1996. After its publishing in 1999 it was reviewed as "highly recommendable". Studies with Evan Parker, Frederic Rzewski and the late Wolfgang Stryi during an Ensemble Modern academy master class helped him to combine and balance improvisation and composition. Additionally he did free studies of video art and electronic music.

From 1993 to 1999 Perger played and recorded modern jazz orientated guitar music with his own groups, the Andreas Perger trio and quartet. CDs like Heart Pop and Ethnomorphocology arose. The late saxophonist Monty Waters was featured on the CD Happiness is a Warm Gun and joined the band a few times for live concerts. With the saxophonist Johannes Enders he played some duo concerts.

Andreas Paolo Perger (born 1970 in Munich, Germany) is a contemporary Austrian guitarist, improviser, and composer of German-Polish and Austrian-Italian descent. His music, autobiographical in nature, draws from variety of traditional and contemporary influences, such as contemporary jazz, new music, improvised music, and electronic music. Perger uses a variable and open concept of guitar playing, improvising, and composing. He plays the 5.1 Surround Guitar and the classical concert guitar.