Peyee Chen
An omnivore when it comes to performing, soprano Peyee Chen enjoys singing Monteverdi with lute and bass viol as much as singing Bernhard Lang with electronics and electric bass. She is also interested in vocal and contact improvisation, DIY electronic instruments, and installation and performance art.

She has appeared as a soloist at the Philharmonie de Paris, Munich Biennale, Pierre Boulez Saal, Konzerthaus Berlin, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Lucerne Festival, Adelaide Festival, Spitalfields Festival, Big Ears Festival, Cadogan Hall, Hayward Gallery, GEMdays, Club Transmediale Festival, Louth Contemporary Music Festival, Rewire Festival, and Tête à Tête Opera Festival, premiering pieces written for her by composers such as Jürg Frey, Aureliano Cattaneo, and Ann Cleare, with ensembles such as Ensemble intercontemporain, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Klangforum Wien, Quatuor Bozzini, Ensemble Proton Bern, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, Gavin Bryars Ensemble, Goeyvaerts Trio, Crash Ensemble, and Nico and the Navigators.

Ensemble Proton Bern
A proton is a positively charged particle and an essential component of all atoms. Ensemble Proton Bern is a positively charged collective of musicians and an essential component of the contemporary classical music scene.

The number of protons in an atom determine its chemical element. The eight musicians of Ensemble Proton Bern come together to create new elements in every work that they play and explore their musical properties. The city of Bern plays host to this laboratory and on the banks of the Aare River, the ensemble performs as Ensemble in Residence at the Dampfzentrale Bern four to six times per season.

Ensemble Proton Bern performs by invitation at international festivals or at the request of international presenters. Highlights of recent years include a three-week tour of the USA West Coast, festivals in Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, France, Germany, Ukraine as well as performances at St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Concert Hall or live at Radio Belgrade’s Studio 6 in Serbia.

In Switzerland, performances at Gare du Nord Basel, Fonderie Kugler Geneva, Walcheturm Zurich, in Lucerne, Lausanne and collaborations with Ensemble Contrechamps, Ensemble Vortex and Basel Vokalsolisten are testimony to the importance of the collective. Ensemble Proton Bern has recorded music for CD release on labels such as Musiques Suisses and Kairos.

Ensemble Proton Bern’s eager spirit of research is at the heart of every single programme: world premieres have been the ensemble’s main drive from the very beginning. The extraordinary—and exceptionally appealing—line-up of four string and four woodwind instruments has inspired composers such as Samuel Andreyev, Antoine Chessex, Thomas Kessler, Dominique Schafer, Annette Schmucki and Gérard Zinsstag in creating new, innovative musical works. Further collaborations have taken place with Beat Furrer, Heinz Holliger and Hanspeter Kyburz.

One of the most important platforms maintained by the ensemble and supported by Pro Helvetia is the annual composition competition, Protonwerk, in which young composers are selected to develop new works with and for the ensemble. This unique way of promoting young talent embodies collaboration from the very first sketch to the first performances and results in tailor-made works for this one-of-a-kind group. Certain compositions progress to become part of the ensemble’s core repertoire, such as Andreas Eduardo Frank’s «samouraï progressive» (2016) and Tobias Krebs’ «primum mobile» (2015).

These eight musicians bring together wide-ranging technical and artistic expertise. Their instruments range from the complete array of flutes and clarinets to lupophone and contraforte, from the rare Stroh violin and Stroh cello to Moog synthesiser and electroacoustic harp.

An openness towards and aptitude for everything ‘new’ range from musical to electronic means. Since its founding in 2010, Ensemble Proton Bern has nourished its very own YouTube channel, releasing videos now with a total of over 100 000 views, an exceptional achievement for a new music ensemble. This comprehensive archive positions the ensemble as a digital centre of excellence for contemporary ensemble music and is accessible via the Ensemble Proton website.

Ensemble Proton Bern can be heard and seen at www.ensembleproton.ch, on Swiss Radio and Television (SRF/RTS), on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, neo.mx3, Instagram and, ideally, experienced live in concert.

Luigi Gaggero
It is by feeling the deep need for a constant dialogue between classical, contemporary and ancient music that Luigi Gaggero directs the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra, the Ukho Ensemble (specialized in contemporary music) and the Baroque vocal ensemble La Dolce Maniera. With a great passion for medieval painting; Dante and Cavalcanti; the cinema of Bergman and Tarr; Bach, Mozart and Kurtág; Heidegger and Nietzsche, Luigi is sensitive to artists who express the transcendent in art. 


Under Luigi’s leadership, the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra has quickly become one of the most respected musical ensembles in Ukraine and has been the first Eastern European Orchestra to collaborate with the prestigious German agency KD Schmid. Luigi has conducted his Orchestra in some of the most important European concert halls, like Berliner Philharmonie, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Dresden Kulturpalast, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Cité de la Musique in Paris and Warsaw Philharmonic. These sold-out concerts have met with great critical acclaim by the worldwide press. In 2022 Luigi and KSO have received the honour of being invited to play at the NATO summit in Madrid and of being awarded the “Tremplin Musical” Prize of the Fondation Prince Pierre of Monaco.


Before launching his conducting career, Luigi performed for 25 years as a cimbalom player and percussionist, collaborating with the finest European orchestras and ensembles (Berliner Philharmoniker, Münchner Philharmoniker, Filarmonica della Scala, Radio Filharmonisch Orkest Holland, Philharmonia Orchestra London, Camerata Salzburg, Finnish Radio Orchestra, Orchestre du Théâtre de La Monnaie, Orchestre de Radio France), under the direction of Abbado, Barenboim, Boulez, Gatti, Harnoncourt, Muti, Nagano, Nott, Ono, Pappano, Poppen and Rattle.

Luigi Gaggero studied percussion and conducting with Andrea Pestalozza, who led him to the enthusiastic discovery of 20th century music; cimbalom with Márta Fábián, and, studying with Edgar Guggeis and Rainer Seegers, was the first percussionist to receive the Soloist Diploma with honors at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin.


Luigi Gaggero is professor of cimbalom at the Conservatoire and at the Académie Supérieure de Musique in Strasbourg, where he also founded and conducted the Academy’s Contemporary Music Ensemble.