Franziska Baumann

Franziska Baumann (born April 9, 1965) is a Swiss musician and composer, specializing in improvisation and composed music (vocals, flute, live electronics). Baumann studied at the Winterthur Conservatory, majoring in flute with a minor in singing. Following her conservatory studies, she completed improvisation classes with Fred Frith, Barre Phillips, and George Lewis. She also studied with vocal artists such as Phil Campanella, Lauren Newton, and Joan La Barbara. As a vocalist she makes use of extended and microtonal, with clicking and percussive sounds, tone changes and language-related techniques. Baumann performs solo and with musicians including Pierre Favre, Joëlle Léandre, Lê Quan Ninh, Jacques Demierre, Peter Schaerli, and Matthias Ziegler. She is also part of the improvisation trio, Potage du Jour, alongside Jürg Solothurnmann and Christoph Baumann. Her repertoire as a composer ranges from improvised works and electro-acoustic compositions to sound installations and large scale surround sound projects. As Artist in Residence at the Amsterdam Centre For Electro Instrumental Music (STEIM) Baumann programmed a data glove so that she could trigger voice and sound articulations in real time via gesture. Since 2006 Baumann has served as a lecturer in vocal performance and improvisation at the Hochschule der Künste in Bern, where she is also involved in research projects on topics such as sound without body and Gesture performance. Franziska Baumann lives and works in Bern, Switzerland.