Yalda Zamani

Yalda Zamani is a conductor/performer based in Germany, and the founder and artistic director of the Contemporary Chamber Orchestra Elbe, and the experimental ensemble opus glitch_. She is interested in transdisciplinary approaches in contemporary music performance, computational creativity, live-coding, blockchain technology, DeFi, quantum arts, and the application of machine learning models in combination with motion-sensing technologies. From understanding the nature of the interaction between humans and AI systems in creating music to re-defining the relationship of a conductor with the orchestra/ensemble in performing music, Yalda Zamani’s research includes the investigation of the role of a meaningful collaboration in designing intelligent artistic ecosystems that reflect contemporary values.

As a passionate advocate for contemporary music and conductor, she collaborates regularly with composers around the world, and to date, she has given world premiere performances of over 50 works at numerous international venues and festivals including Darmstadt New Music Festival, Klangspuren Schwaz, Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik, Time of Music Festival in Finland, Wien Modern Festival, Ultraschall Festival, Music Biennale Zagreb, Gaudeamus Muziekweek in Utrecht, IMPULS Graz Festival, ZKM | Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, St George's Hall in Liverpool, Royaumont Abbey in France, The Krzysztof Penderecki European Centre for Music in Krakow and Vienna Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Austria among others.

Yalda’s fascination for both science and music has been an inseparable part of her development since childhood, and she has always seen these two fields as looking at our complex world from different perspectives. She often engages in the realization of innovative projects at the intersection of music and science and is currently doing a Ph.D. on computational creativity, interdisciplinary collaborations in music and technology, and the application of new technologies in music performances at the HfMT in Hamburg which she is appointed as a lecturer for the performance practice of contemporary music.

Yalda Zamani is a former recipient of the “Start-Stipendium”, awarded by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture to young successful artists in Austria in 2015, was identified as a promising young conductor by the Ulysses Network - IRCAM artistic committee in France in 2017-2019, and is winner/finalist of the “Das Kritische Orchestra” by the Dirigentenforum and Deutsche Musikrat and a featured artist at the European network of opera academies and the Academy of Festival d’Aix-en Provence in France in 2019, and is currently the recipient of a doctoral research fellowship Pro-Exzellenzia from the city of Hamburg and the European Social Fund, which is aimed at effectively and sustainably increasing the proportion of women in leadership positions. As a co-founder of the WE:Shape community, She actively attempts to engage in discussions and raise awareness on the issue of the lack of diversity in the European classical music scene, and the absence of BIPOC artists in the leadership and decision-making positions.