Barbara Morgenstern (born March 19, 1971) is a German electronic music artist, keyboardist and singer.
Biography
Born in Hagen, Germany, Morgenstern describes herself as self-taught, although she had piano lessons as a child and jazz lessons at the school of music in Hagen. In addition to having played in a band, she decided on a career in music in 1991 after completing her schooling at the Ernst Meister Gymnasium in Hagen-Haspe.
From 1992 to 1994 she lived in Hamburg and was active there as a musician, with her own music and as a singer in an a cappella group. At the Hamburg University of Music she took part in a six-week popular music course.
In 1994 she moved to Berlin, where she first played as a keyboardist in a band and from 1996 concentrated on her own music, especially electronic music.
Bill Wells' 2004 mini-album Pick Up Sticks featured contributions from Morgenstern on two tracks. She also joined Paul Wirkus and To Rococo Rot's Stefan Schneider in September Collective, a project which had its origins in encores that they joined to play at their own individual concerts while on tour in Poland. September Collective's eponymous debut album was released on the Geographic label, an offshoot of Domino Records run by the Pastels' Stephen Pastel. Morgenstern's next solo album was The Grass Is Always Greener (2006).
In 2008 Morgenstern's fifth album bm was released, this time less electronic but more orchestral. The track Come To Berlin paints a pessimistic picture of Berlin's current urban development. In 2011 Morgenstern released a cover version of the Prince song Sign o' the Times from his album of the same name.
"Unschuld & Verwüstung"[4] (2018) is her first release on the berlin based label Staatsakt. The main components of the album are harmonium, piano, vocals, electronics and saxophone.
Choir works
From 2007 to 2021 she directed the "Choir of World Cultures"[5] at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt[6]/ Berlin together with Philipp Neumann. She composed and arranged for the choir and curated the musical programme in collaboration with the HKW.
Collaborations in the context of choral conducting took place with:
Since 2012, she has worked regularly[16] with the theatre group Rimini Protokoll. In past productions, Barbara Morgenstern has appeared both as a live performer and as a composer (compositions for children's choir/ "Do's & Dont's" and compositions for chamber orchestra/ "All right. Good night") and sound designer.
The productions „Chinchilla Arschloch, waswas.“[17] and „All right. Good night.“[18] were both invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen.
She also works frequently with the performance collective Showcase Beat le Mot.[19]
Discography
Morgenstern performing in 2006
1997: Enter the Partyzone (Tape, Hausfrau im Schacht)
1997: Plastikreport (Mini-CD, Klub der guten Hoffnung)
