Aruán Ortiz is a cuban pianist, violist and composer. He has been an active figure in the progressive jazz and avant-garde NY scene in the US for more than 20 years. His music spans a range of musical styles and has been interpreted by contemporary classical and jazz ensembles, dance companies, and in feature films and multimedia works. As a conceptualist and music researcher, Aruán’s music consolidates his Afro-Cuban and Haitian heritage, with avant-garde and progressive jazz, and contemporary classical language.
Since his arrival in the United States, Aruán has played, toured, or recorded with jazz luminaries such as Wadada Leo Smith, Don Byron, Greg Osby, Wallace Roney, Nicole Mitchell, William Parker, Adam Rudolph, Andrew Cyrille, Henry Grimes, Marshall Allen, Hamiet Bluiett, Oliver Lake, Rufus Reid and Terri Lyne Carrington. His recent albums as a leader released by Swiss label Intakt Records, have been featured with rave reviews in major publications in the US and worldwide.
His pianism has been lauded as
-a solid and unique new sound in today’s jazz world,- by Matthew Fiander in PopMatters;
-a genius exercise in the exploration of depth and perception that reveals a bright new wrinkle in the relationship between music and mathematics, reimagining Afro-Haitian Gaga rhythms, Afro-Cuban rumba and Yambú into heavily improvised meditations on modernism that recall John Cage and Paul Bley,- Ron Hart, The Observer;
-one of the most creative and original composers in the world-, Lynn René Bailey, The Art Music Lounge; and
-Ortiz is an experimentalist and a tonal provocateur, influenced by European modernism and contemporary jazz as much as by Afro-Cuban tradition-, Giovanni Russonello, New York Times.

The Austrian violinist Maria Salamon studied concert violin, jazz composition and arrangement as well as jazzviolin and sounddesign at universities in Vienna and Amsterdam. She is winner of various competitions and scholarships. Maria has composed numerous works in various styles such as contemporary music, jazz, world music and pop for different ensembles. 
live references (selection): Wiener Konzerthaus (debut 2023), Euro Pride Vienna, Jazz Festival Astana (Kazakhstan), Jazz Spring Bishkek (Kirgistan), European Lesbian Conference, Dunav Art Festival (Croatia), Baked Potato Jazzclub (Los Angeles), Harbin Summer Music Festival (China), World Expo Aichi (Japan), Guatemala City Jazz Festival (Guatemala), Summerwinds Festival Münster (Germany)
composition references (selection): Warner Chapell Music Germany (on- demand film music), Reeltracks (Austria, on-demand film music, arrangements), EarMotion Music (Germany, TV-productions), German Dance Charts (Cécile Nordegg No-Ce Band remixes), Timna Brauer & Morphing Orchestra (Arrangements), Bregenz festivals (composition commission, Austria)

Magdalena Trobos has been studying concert studies with Firmian Lermer at the Tyrolean State Conservatory in cooperation with the mdw since 2020. She received several first prizes at state and national Prima La Musica competitions and was able to perform as a soloist with regional orchestras at an early age. Magdalena was able to gain orchestral experience as solo viola with the Tyrolean State Youth Orchestra, Vienna Jeunesse Orchestra, Balthasar Neumann Ensemble (Cuban-European Youth Academy), Sonarkraft and others. In addition to her classical training, Magdalena is also interested in other genres such as jazz, pop and baroque music. Important experiences include productions with the jazz trio Drehwerk, de Ensemble repercussion, Anna Buchegger, Howard Arman and Thomas Hengelbrock. She is a member of the inn.wien ensemble, which will make its debut at the Vienna Konzerthaus next year.

Cornelia Burghardt grew up in an Austrian-Swiss musical family in Vienna.
Since her first cello lessons at the age of seven, chamber music and making music together have played a central role in her artistic career.
After successfully completing her studies in concert and instrumental pedagogy with Rudolf Leopold (Graz University of Art) and with Heidi Litschauer (Mozarteum Salzburg), she increasingly devotes herself to early music, including as a baroque cellist in the Trio Ensemble Parnasse and the Ensemble Fioretto, but also new and improvised music, for example in a duo with cellist Maiken Beer, from 2010 to 2013 as an academic in the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, in ensembles such as Studio Dan or Ensemble Reconsil and in performances with musicians such as Peter Herbert and Georg Graewe.
Cornelia Burghardt is the solo cellist of the Divertimento Viennese orchestra, which, in addition to classical dance music, focuses on the works of formerly ostracized composers of the early 20th century who were forced to emigrate. She also leads a cello class at the “Center for Music Education” music school in Vienna.