Filippa Gojo / Stephan Mattner // Nucleus

ISLAND
Filippa Gojo / Stephan Mattner // Nucleus
INSEL Jazz
Friday, November 27, 2026, 7:30 p.m. (Doors open at 7:00 p.m.)
Admission: 14/8 (advance tickets, fees included) and 16/9 (B.O.)

Free admission is available for visitors under 21. If you’re interested, please send us a quick message at post@insel.news.

Nucleus
Filippa Gojo // vocals / Kaoss Pad / keys
Stephan Mattner // soprano sax / computer / keys
minimal chaos music 

The search for the essence, the core of things: this was the challenge that both singer Filippa Gojo and saxophonist Stephan Mattner set for themselves early on in their respective musical journeys. So it was only a matter of time before the two Cologne-based musicians continued this exploration together.
On the one hand, reduced to voice and soprano saxophone; on the other, expanded through strategically placed effects and computer sounds, the duo Nucleus embodies precisely this: a reduction to the essentials combined with the abstract, the not-quite-tangible. The relationships between these layers are also in constant flux: at times, the elements stand out clearly from one another, unmistakably separating into accompaniment and melody, electronics and acoustics; at other times, they merge without any audible distinction.

Filippa Gojo
When her studies in jazz vocals took her to the Cologne University of Music and Dance, she was soon right in the thick of things, performing with German jazz greats and renowned ensembles such as the WDR Big Band, as well as her own quartet. She gained further inspiration and experience during a semester abroad at the “Conservatorium van Amsterdam.” After earning her diploma in jazz vocals from the Cologne University of Music and Dance, Filippa went on to complete her master’s degree in her adopted home. In 2014, she became the first singer to be awarded the City of Cologne’s grant for jazz and improvised music, the Horst and Gretl Will Scholarship; In 2015, she and her “Filippa Gojo Quartet” received both the Band Award and the Soloist Award at the NEW GERMAN JAZZ AWARDS. Since 2016, Filippa Gojo has been a professor of jazz and pop vocals at the Nuremberg University of Music.
“This music touched my soul” (Kenny Garrett)
“And very few singers can do this: entrust the unspeakable to sound and an extremely nuanced sense of rhythm” (Hans-Jürgen Linke, FAZ)
“Filippa Gojo’s strength lies in having preserved her intuitive, primal quality while still guiding her voice along trained, stylistically confident paths.” (Anja Buchmann, DLF)

Stephan Mattner
studied classical saxophone and instrumental pedagogy at the Detmold University of Music (Dortmund campus) as well as jazz saxophone at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen under Prof. Hugo Read and Matthias Nadolny. During his studies, he attended courses such as the “Darmstadt Days for New Music,” was a member of the North Rhine-Westphalia State Youth Jazz Orchestra, and taught as an assistant lecturer at the Dortmund University of Music. Concerts have taken him, with a wide variety of ensembles and musicians, to virtually every club and festival in Germany, as well as to various countries in Europe and Australia. At the Montreux International Jazz Festival, he was a semifinalist in the affiliated International Saxophone Competition.
He has appeared in radio and television recordings and broadcasts by WDR, MDR, BR, and Deutschlandfunk. In addition to serving on various juries—such as at the “Bundesbegegnung Jugend Jazzt” and the North Rhine-Westphalia State Orchestra Competition—he holds a teaching position for saxophone at the University of Siegen.
He has been a guest performer with the WDR Big Band and the Cologne Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, among others, alongside Nils Wogram, Gwilym Simcock, Mark Wingfield, Joachim Ulrich, Darcy James Argue, Jürgen Friedrich, Florian Ross, Frank Rheinshagen, Marko Lackner, Christoph Eidens, Niels Klein, Nicolas Simion, Sherisse Rogers, Martin Sasse, Sabine Kühlich, Frank Wunsch, Claudius Valk, Christina Fuchs Big Band, Christian Thomé, Caroline Thons’ Thoneline Orchestra, Big Band Convention Cologne, and others.
Stepan Mattner “is one of the outstanding soloists on the German jazz scene” (Roland Spiegel, BR-Klassik)

An event presented by INSEL. With the kind support of the Friedrich and Hildegard Nettelbeck Foundation.