A String is a String is a String – Jon Rose 75 (Tag 4)

In English

Jon Rose(AU): Lecture and discussion on experimental string instruments and improvisation, featuring video and audio excerpts
Moderator:Mathias Maschat

“A String is a String is a String”is a four-day festival dedicated to the family of stringed instruments in the context of contemporary improvisation. To mark the 75th birthday of Australian violinist, composer, instrument designer, author, and sound artist Jon Rose, the festival focuses on an artistic practice that has profoundly transformed the way string instruments are approached. For more than five decades, Jon Rose has been exploring the possibilities of stringed instruments through improvisation, composition, instrument making, performance, and artistic research. Rather than merely looking back on his extraordinary life’s work, the festival views his ideas as a living artistic practice—one that can be experienced through concerts, encounters, films, and discussions.

The festival concludes with an audiovisual lecture byJon Rose, offering insights into more than five decades of artistic research and exploration. Using films, photographs, sound recordings, and documentaries, he reflects on a body of work that has fundamentally expanded the possibilities of string instruments and experimental music.

From his instrument designs and large-scale environmental projects such as*The Great Fences of Australia*to more recent collaborations like*The Singing Telegraph*with the Kaytetye community in Central Australia, the lecture offers a glimpse into an artistic practice characterized by curiosity, inventiveness, and the constant question of what music can be and become.

About Jon Rose
After completing his formal musical education at the age of fifteen,Jon Rosedeveloped an independent artistic practice ranging from free improvisation and contemporary composition to sound installations and radio art, as well as environmental projects and experimental instrument making. As a central figure in Australian free improvisation, he developed his long-term project*The Relative Violin* before moving to Berlin in 1986. In the process, he created more than thirty new instruments, experimented with expanded performance formats and interactive electronics, and devised alternative perspectives on the history and possibilities of the violin. Rose’s work continually challenges traditional notions of the instrument and opens up new ways of thinking about what stringed instruments can be and achieve. Since 2001, he has been working increasingly in the Australian Outback on large-scale environmental projects such as*The Great Fences of Australia*, as well as on collaborations with Indigenous communities, including*The Wild Violins of Warmun* and the ongoing project*Singing Telegraph*. He is the author of four books, the founder of theRosenberg Museum—a unique collection of more than 1,000 violin-related artifacts—and received the AustralianDon Banks Music Award for his lifetime achievement. In 2025, he and his wife, violinist and composer Hollis Taylor, were honored with theRichard Gill Award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music.
https://www.jonroseweb.com/

Jon Rose is supported by: Australian Government / Creative Australia

Admission:

5 €

Access:

Main entrance(through theMokja restaurant)

Live stream:

The event will belivestreamedon our YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/exploratoriumberlin