The ULYSSES Platform supports emerging ensemble SMASH.duo in two concerts at Gaudeamus 2025, , once with Yaz Lancaster and once with their own stereotype-breaking programme.

With influences from pop, electronic music and jazz and theatrical elements, SMASH.duo tackles ingrained prejudices about classical and contemporary music. Trumpeter Chloë Abbott and percussionist Moritz Koch, have set themselves the mission of breaking open and renewing the classical concert experience.

Yaz Lancaster is one of this year’s nominees for the Gaudeamus Award, our annual incentive prize for young composers. This New York based experimental artist, whose work is rooted in queer communities, sampling and post-genre collaborations and improvisations, is a good example of the versatility of what can be encompassed by the word “composer” in 2025. Lancaster feels equally at home at underground noise parties as in concert halls, and in this concert they will showcase all facets of their artistry.

Lancaster will premiere LUSTER, in which ambient, semi-improvised gestures and field recordings create a sense of shared intimacy. With their death ambient duo medium., Lancaster will present BRUXISM, a performance for electronically processed violin, digital, traditional and handmade modular instruments, scent, noise and movement.

And with her mix of psychedelic animations and sultry music, Golnaz Shariatzadeh, nominated for the Gaudeamus Award 2025, creates a world to escape into.

PROGRAMME

1) September 10, 2025

Yaz Lancaster – LUSTER

2 )September 11, 2025

Sara Zamboni – False Assumptions

Jessie Marino – Rot Blau

Vicente Atria – Ghosts

Golnaz Shariatzadeh – nieuw werk

SMASH Duo / Photo: Alex Schröder