About us
Trio Tastenwind is comprised of two members of the Bielefeld Philharmonic orchestra Katja Schulte-Buhnert (Flute), Fabian Hauser (Clarinet) as well as the pianist Elena Kassmann. Their Trio was formed in 2016 during preparations for a philharmonic chamber music concert.
It quickly became clear that the musical understanding these musicians shared enabled them to harmonize very easily, which sparked their desire to work together on a more intense, long-term basis early on.
No later than they premiered the special composition “Three Scenes for Three” by their own clarinetist Fabian Hauser at the Rudolf-Oetker-Hall in early 2017 it became clear that the Trio Tastenwind is a constant in the philharmonic chamber music scene in Bielefeld and it’s surroundings.
Katja Schulte - Bunert
Flute
Katja Schulte - Bunert received her first flute lessons at the age of 7 in her hometown of Krefeld.
As a student, she was deeply interested in the fine arts and was originally going to pursue this career. However, she could not give up playing the flute, which eventually led her to study at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne (with Hans-Martin Müller) and in Dresden (with Eckart Haupt), where she received degrees in orchestral music, instrumental education and a performance exam.
After spending a year in the “studio” of Trevor Wye to further augment her studies, she first completed an internship in the Duisburg symphony and subsequently was appointed as piccolo flutist of the Bielefeld Philharmonic in 1998.
During a one-year sabbatical Katja Schulte - Bunert spent time as assistant teacher to Walfried Kujala (formerly piccolo flutist of the Chicago symphony) at the Northwestern University of Chicago. Here, she also won a prize in the “Piccolo Artist Competition”.
Currently Katja Schulte-Bunert teaches flute at the Musik- und Kunstschule Bielefeld.
Fabian Hauser
Clarinet
Fabian Hauser (born 1969) first began his music studies when he started receiving piano lessons at the age of 6, before receiving clarinet lessons at the age of 8 from his own father Prof. Fritz Hauser. In 1989, he enrolled at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold in the classes of Prof. Hans-Dietrich Klaus (clarinet) and Mathias Peters (piano). After winning first prize at the inter-conservatory competition for chamber music between Detmold and Weimar he was awarded a scholarship from the “Villa Musica” foundation.
He finished his studies after a final artistic exam, which he passed with distinction.
Since 1994, Fabian Hauser was a member of the Philharmonia – Hungarica (hungerian philharmonic in exile) in the position of assistant Principal Clarinet. With this orchestra he had toured internationally to China, Japan, Russia and the USA before he took the same position in the Bielefeld philharmonic in 2001, where he is involved in many symphonic and operatic productions.
His other focus is the field of chamber music. In the series chamber music concerts of the Bielefeld Philharmonic he has performed many important works, for example by Brahms and Reger among many others. Especially Reger has long since been an exceptional inspiration to his work as a chamber musician. With his duo partner Elena Kassmann, Fabian Hauser performed a cycle of all three of Reger’s sonatas for clarinet and piano.
As a member of the wind octet ArtCollage he also enjoys the tradition of large woodwind ensembles.
Additionally, in recent years, Fabian Hauser has been increasingly active as a composer himself – his pieces “Two Nocturnes for flute and piano”, “Little Suite for clarinet and piano”, “Mein Klavieralbum” as well as the two works for trio consisting of clarinet, flute and piano “Three Scenes for Three” and “Stilbrueche” are notable among this work.
Elena Kassmann
Piano
Elena Kassmann was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria in 1976. She started taking her first piano lessons at age of four years with Krastina Boeva.
She competed at the national competition "Svetoslav Obretenov" (Provadia) as five years old and was awarded a Special prize there.
At the age of eleven, she was accompanied by an orchestra for the first time.
Further concerts followed in her hometown, as well as in other cities in Bulgaria.
After graduating from the Music school "Dobrin Petkov" with Roxana Bogdanova, she studied at the State Music Academy in Sofia under Anton Dikov (1995-2000).
Amongst others, Elena Kassmann subsequently played for the Bulgarian National Radio, the Hungarian Cultural Institute and at the Summer Festival Varna. She won prizes at the national level in Bulgaria and at the international competition "The Music and the Earth".
From 2001 to 2004, Elena Kassmann completed a "Master of Music" degree in the United States under the direction of Neil Larrabee and Vladimir Vinitsky.
From 2001 to 2004, Elena Kassmann was the recipient of the E. B. Scholarship. In the year 2002 she won the concert competition of the University of Connecticut and received a Special prize at the "Young Artist Piano Competition" (Hartford).
In the spring of 2005, a CD recording of contemporary chamber music was released by her along with Jim Ackley (trumpet), with whom she toured the USA.
Elena Kassmann took part in master classes with Boris Bloh, Milena Mollova, Boris Berman, Barry Shnider, Frederik Chiu, Detlef Kraus, Andy Russo, Antonio Pompa-Baldi. She gave concerts in Bulgaria, Macedonia, Italy, the USA, Switzerland and Germany, where she has been living since 2004. In Eastern Westphalia, Elena Kassmann has made a name for herself through numerous concerts in the chamber music scene.