DeciBells
The percussion ensemble DeciBells is closely associated with New Music, and regularly works on his projects, both with contemporary composers performing new works as well as with other musical formations. The ensemble’s roots are in Basel. However, concert tours have taken it to Asia and throughout Europe in particular. The Borealis Festival in Bergen, the London Ear Festival, concert tours in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Hungary, Korea, China, India and Taiwan have led to an exciting, international, musical exchange with programming developed and performed in Basel. In the project Pléïades, which involves several concerts and this recording, DeciBells has interpreted these gems of the percussion literature in its own way through, among other things, the use of the newly developed sixxen, and has opened up a new perspective on the work.

Domenico Melchiorre
Born in Basel in 1982, Domenico Melchiorre has been the solo timpanist of the Basel Symphony Orchestra since the 2007/2008 concert season. He works closely with contemporary composers and champions the performance of New Music both as a soloist and conductor. Domenico Melchiorre studied percussion with Bernhard Wulff and Taijiro Miyazaki at the University of Music in Freiburg (Breisgau). From 2007 to 2010 he was a lecturer for students majoring in percussion at the University of Music in Lugano, Switzerland. Domenico Melchiorre is a three-time winner of First Prize at the Swiss Percussionists Competition, First Prize winner at the 2003 Austrian Percussionists Competition, and as the EARDRUM duo with his partner Johannes Fischer, won the 2006 Carl Seemann Prize and the Award of the German Industry Federation Cultural Board (Bund Deutscher Industrie). He is a founding member of the international 12-member percussion ensemble ENSEMBLE XII, which was formed at the 2005 Lucerne Festival. Pierre Boulez has conducted ENSEMBLE XII many times, and supported the composition of many New Music works premiered by the ensemble. Together with the DeciBells ensemble, Domenico Melchiorre has led many different premiere performances of works by contemporary composers both in Europe and Asia. He was co-director of the international percussion festival “UP BEAT” in Lugano, the percussion happening “Those who were once the fathers of the avant-garde are now its grandfathers,” the project “SCHRAFFUR” by Fritz Hauser at the Theater Basel and artistic director of “Percussion&Bytes.”