Brooklyn Ballet

PERFORMER BIOS: 

Abbie Conant received her musical education at the Juilliard School, and the Cologne Hochschule für Musik. The International Trombone Journal puts Abbie Conant "in the first row of the world's leading trombone players". In 1980, in a blind audition, she gained first trombone chair at the Munich Philharmonic. However, then conductor-in-chief, Sergiu Celibidache, let her know shortly afterwards that "we need a man for solo trombone". Conant was downgraded on dubious grounds, but did not accept the designation, went to court and won, after years of legal dispute. Since 1992 she is Professor for trombone at the at the renowned music academy in Trossingen, Germany. She recorded an internationally well-received CD with music for Trombone and organ, and is a founding member of the performance group 'The Wasteland Company'. Conant was featured in Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. Read more here. 

Augusta Laar is the Founding director of the Schamrock-Festival of Women Poets. She studied music in Munich at the Richard-Strauss-Conservatory. As an artist she focuses on poetry, electro-acoustic, mixed-media. Since 2009 she’s directed and curated the poetry series Reihe Schamrock-Salon. In 2016, she was ambassador of the Vienna poetry school at the Festival Internacional de Poesía de Medellín, Colombia. She’s created and performed in many exhibitions, concerts and reading events. Latest publications:  Planet 9, Poetry, Fragments, Instructions, 2017, summt dem fall, 2016.

Kalle Laar is a sound artist, composer, dj, author of radioplays, vinyl researcher and festival manager. He has presented work at exhibitions and performances such as art biennials in Venice and Havana, Ars Electronica Linz, Transmediale Berlin. Interdisciplinary project development for artcircolo.de (currently in Morocco, Czech Republik and Eritrea). Founder of The Temporary Soundmuseum, an archive of vinyl record documents on contemporary history. Lectures on Perception, Sound and Art, with assignments at the UdK Berlin and Nanjang University Singapore. Latest: Radio-Essay Castle Bravo, Heidegger, Godzilla and all of the rest, SWR 2018.

Lynn Parkerson, dance, began her career as a choreographer while living in Munich, Germany. Her works have been presented at many prominent international events and venues, including the Munich Theater Festival, Florence International Festival of Dance, Moers New Jazz Festival, Jazz Festival Baden-Baden. In New York City, she presented annual dance programs as Director of Dance at Holy Trinity from 1991-2001. In 2002 Lynn Parkerson founded Brooklyn Ballet and currently serves as its Artistic Director. In recognition of her exceptional leadership contributions to Brooklyn’s cultural community, Ms. Parkerson received the Betty Smith Arts Award in 2007. Brooklyn Ballet is a multidisciplinary, multicultural dance Company that is rooted in the ballet form, while collaborating across disciplines, mixing movement genres and decoding cultural stereotypes. Ms. Parkerson was a 2018 Artist in Residence at the Villa Waldberta, international artists house of the City of Munich.