The “CHAMBER SCENES” are a project of the MARTIN STREULE ORCHESTRA and the singer EFRAT ALONY. It is a collection of songs about everyday highs and lows, about wishes and dreams, sadness and hope.

Despite the large orchestra, the music is very chamber music-like and leaves plenty of room to breathe and create your own inner images. The colors of the quiet, instrumental sounds and noises on the edge of nothingness also contribute to this.

Thus, despite the large instrumentation, subtle and fragile sound sculptures are created in which even the percussion primarily has a sound-painting effect and forms the finest sound collages around the ensemble.

The “CHAMBER SCENES” are the most personal music Martin Streule has ever written for his orchestra, and they put one of the most fascinating and colorful voices of modern European jazz at the center.

Reeds:
Reto Suhner (as,picc,fl,afl,cacl)
Adi Pflugshaupt (as,picc,fl,afl)
Jürg Bucher (ts,cl,bcl)
Jochen Baldes (ts,bcl)
Thomi Geiger (ts,cl,bcl)

Trumpets Fluegelhorns:
Sandro Häsler (picc.tp)
Lukas Thöni (picc.tp)
Daniel Schenker
Daniel Woodtli (picc.tp)

Trombones:
René Mosele
Bernhard Bamert
Lukas Wyss
Beat Felder

Rhythm:
Franz Hellmüller (git)
Philip Henzi (p)
André Pousaz (b)
Lukas Rutzen (d,perc)

Vocals: Efrat Alony , Composer Conductor: Martin Streule

  • CHAMBER SONGS mix finished

    The current production of the MARTIN STREULE JAZZ ORCHESTRA and the Israeli singer Efrat Alony, CHAMBER SONGS, has been…

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EFRAT ALONY

The singer and composer Efrat Alony, a Berliner by choice and a native of Haifa, has “long been one of the most important voices in European jazz” ( /Ulf Drechsel, RBB ).

With her artistic profile, Alony stands for unconventional, independent and high-quality music. Her latest album “Hollywood Isn’t Calling” was named best vocal album of the year by the German Jazz Award 2022 and the track “My Shorthand Modes of Perception” was nominated for best composition.

Her new album “Händel-Fast Forward ‘, released on the renowned New York label Dot Time Records, has been awarded the ’Opus Klassik Award” 2024 in the category “Classical Music Without Borders”. According to the jury, this album is “a testament to Alony’s unique vision and creativity”

In “Händel- Fast Forward”, Alony makes the bridge between baroque and jazz visible. She embarks on a thrilling journey through time, with one foot firmly in the here and now. A great pirouette between questions and answers, between jazz and baroque.

Alony studied singing and composition at renowned international music academies (Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, Israel; Berklee College of Music, Boston and the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music, Berlin). With “Alony”, Efrat was celebrated with her extraordinary voice and received numerous awards (including the Karl Hofer Prize, the International Jazz Prize of the Nürnberger Nachrichten, prizes from the Berlin Senate, the Gema Author’s Prize in the field of jazz composition and a nomination for the BMW International Jazz Award).

In summer 2019, Alony received the “Winner of Best Foreign Artist” award in Los Angeles as part of the “Artemis Film Festival 2019” in the composition category.

As a soloist and composer, she works with the star pianist Igor Levit, the “Hessischer Rundfunk Bigband” (Frankfurt), the “Zürich Jazz Orchestra”, the “Jazz Orchestra Concertgebouw” (Amsterdam), the “Ed Partyka Jazz Orchestra”, the “Helsinki UMO Jazz Orchestra” (Finland), the “Christoph Cech Jazz Orchestra” (Vienna) as well as the “Swiss Jazz Orchestra” and “Martin Streule Jazz Orchestra ”(Bern), among others.

From 2009 to 2023 Alony was a lecturer for jazz singing at the HKB, Bern, Switzerland. Since Oct. 2023 Alony is professor for jazz singing at the Bruckner University, Linz.

MARTIN STREULE

Martin Streule studied electric bass with Stefan Rademacher, composition with Frank Sikora and Urs Peter Schneider, and conducting with Hanspeter Blaser at the Bern University of the Arts. In 1997, he founded the MARTIN STREULE JAZZ ORCHESTRA, with which he exclusively performs his own compositions and released his fifth album CHAMBER SCENES feat. Efrat Alony in 2025. The ensemble has performed in numerous jazz clubs and festivals in Switzerland and is a winner of the ZKB Jazz Prize. Martin Streule has been teaching composition and arranging at the Bern (HKB) and Zurich (ZHDK) music academies since 2008.

orchestra

“A stroke of luck”, ” fresh wind blows through the European Big Band scene”, “an ingenious sound painter”, quotes from various major Swiss newspapers that impressively show how the MARTIN STREULE JAZZ ORCHESTRA enriches the jazz scene of this country.

Since its foundation in 1997, the musical material of the MSJO has been composed exclusively of compositions and arrangements by its leader. Through several years of concert activity, the orchestra has developed its own distinctive sound. Among the band members are some well-known names of the Swiss jazz scene. Many of them have been successfully running their own projects for years.

A major project is the concert cycle “THE FOUR ELEMENTS”, in which each of the four elements will be set to music in a full-length composition and recorded on CD. Three elements have already appeared (Water, Earth, Fire).

Line Up 2025:

Reeds:
Reto Suhner
Isabel Lerchmüller
Jürg Bucher
Jochen Baldes
Thomi Geiger

Trumpets & Fluegelhorns:
Dave Blaser
Daniel Schenker
Daniel Woodtli

Trombones:
Bernhard Bamert
Lukas Wyss
Beat Felder

Rhythm:
Franz Hellmüller (git)
Philip Henzi (p)
Seba Noya (b)
Flo Hufschmid (d,perc)

Impressions