Mariska Nijhof
Accordion, Singing, Composition
Naturalness and spontaneity are two attributes that distinguish the accordionist, composer and singer. At first, the Dutch musician completed her classic music studies and afterwards she dedicated herself to the folk music of other cultures like klezmer, tango, French musette and jazz. She gained further experience in the Dutch ska band “Further East” and in “Jazmines”, a salsa band for women located in Dortmund. She already gave concerts several times at the accordion festival of Vienna. Currently, she is active in various bands: Glissando, Gushma, Duo Taksim, Mellow Melange and the Schne Ensemble. Thanks to her improvisation passion, each concert becomes a refreshing and stimulating experience for both musician and audience.
Christoph Linke
Tenor Saxophone, Arrangement
At the early age of five, Christoph Linke discovered the music of Mozart and began to learn how to play the violin. While he did his A-levels, he carried on with saxophone, which fit perfectly in the family tradition since his grandfather and father were especially successful playing the clarinet and sax. In spite of his passion for music, he decided to study physics in Hamburg.
Between 1987 and 1996 he took lessons from Michael Sievert in Bremen and later additionally classical saxophone in Hamburg from Achim Franz.
In autumn 2002, he founded the duo BlueTango along with the Argentinian pianist and composer Gustavo Lanzon. Shortly after, the two had countless performances throughout Germany and the Netherlands and they published their first CD which is also available on Quadropol. In many cases, other tango musicians joined the duo so that BlueTango transformed into a trio or quartet. In so doing, Linke could learn and live the tango directly.
The work culminated in the project “Tango at the river – home without a location”. Together with the designer Cord Böttger and Christiane Gartner, he was responsible for the conception, planning and realization of this project which was carried out within the framework of the candidacy of Bremen as European Capital of Culture 2010.
Christoph Linke lives in Bremen, works as an independent musician and runs Quadropol, an artist label that apart from music also offers cultural and text concepts.
Michael Berger
Piano, Composition, Arrangement
From an early age, Michael Berger received piano and organ lessons from his father, the church musician Günter Berger. Later on he learned to play the drums autodidactically and took piano and composition lessons from Luciano Ortis in Bremen.
Michael Berger collaborated in different musical events together with Vinko Globokar, Eberhard Weber, John Taylor, John Abercrombie, Serge Weber, Paul McCandless, Mathias Nadolny, Gunnar Plümer, Jo Thönes, Uli Beckerhoff and many more. His current ensembles apart from Musica de Barrio are: Mellow Melange, Schne Ensemble, Eckhard Petri’s Dozenthology, Les Rabiates with the writer Arthur Becker and recently a trio with the drummer Stefan Ulrich and the trumpeter Uli Beckerhoff. Berger went on tour through Finland, Sweden, Norway, France, England, Ireland, Switzerland, Turkey and the Netherlands. In collaboration with the avant-garde composer Joelle Leandre, he already performed at classical music festivals in Metz, Marseille, Paris and New York.