Artistic excellence, instrumental and vocal diversity, captivating expression. Iris Lichtinger is an outstanding flutist, singer, vocal artist, and pianist. She represents the model of a universal artist who recognizes music as a perfect language, and has the ability to make all that is essential perceptible and understandable for anyone and everyone - this is her artistic credo. As a highly expressive performer not only does she concertise internationally, but also brings her artistic expertise to numerous projects as a dedicated curator and artistic director.
Following her professional training at conservatories in Amsterdam, Milan, Munich, and Trossingen, as well as in numerous masterclasses, she embarks upon an unusual career path which carries her through widely differing musical epochs, tonal and atonal climates, and their compositional territories.
As a multi-talented artist with a richly facetted diversity she leaps with ease across the boundaries between different genres - Early Music and New Music, classical music and popular music, composed music and improvised music. Her programming concepts reflect this by making surprising connections between apparently different musical elements, and so expanding the framework of familiar program formats. In all areas of this she works together with highly qualified representatives of the different fields.
Her career is characterised by collaboration with prominent soloists and ensembles from around the world: Shunske Sato, Pavel Serbin, Julian Podger, Franz Halász, Joel Frederiksen, Antonio Politano, Robert Mealy, Baptiste Romain, Christoph Hammer, Georg Kallweit, Evangelina Mascardi, Nicholas Isherwood, Stefan Blum, Antonis Anissegos, Wolfgang Lackerschmid as a soloist with Juilliard 415 New York, FontanaMix Bologna, European Music Project Berlin, Fantasmi Texas, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Augsburger Philharmoniker, Barockorchester La Banda, and many more.
Iris Lichtinger is artistically affiliated with prestigious composers. She has been involved in world premieres of works by Francesco La Licata, Sandeep Baghvati, Nicola Evangelisti, Péter Köszeghy, Johannes X. Schachtner, Enjott Schneider, Moritz Eggert, Gordon Kampe, and Volker Nickel, among others. Further works are in a developmental stage. She has been a guest artist at international festivals such as: aDevantgarde Festival München, ICI Paris, Internationale Eckelshausener Musiktage, Brechtfestival Augsburg, Festival Neue Musik im Ulmer Stadthaus, Deutsches Mozartfest Augsburg, Festival für Improvisierte Musik Augsburg FFIMA, MICO Bologna.
As artistic director of the MEHR MUSIK! Ensemble, a partner project of MEHR MUSIK! Augsburg and the Leopold-Mozart-Zentrum of Universität Augsburg, Iris Lichtinger has brought together ambitious up-and-coming young musicians and professionals in the fields of New Music, jazz, and classical music since 2009. With this ensemble she has realised numerous concert formats of modern music, for example the 2017 performance of Steve Reich’s cult work „music for 18 musicians“, as well as multiple multimedia cinematic improvisation projects in cooperation with the Cologne-based ensemble shortfilmlivemusic.
As a singer, with her ensemble PROGETTO '600, she has developed innovative fusion programs based on music of the early Baroque period, in which the historical is combined with jazz, pop, and postmodern soundscapes. Their own arrangements, which make bold and playful use of the tonal possibilities of an unusual combination, create an undreamt-of synthesis. The ensemble made its debut at the Münchner Philharmonie am Gasteig in 2014.
As a flutist, in a duo formation with the lutenist and Echoklassik award-winner Axel Wolf, she has for many years been devoted to the repertoire of the Renaissance and Baroque. As a pianist she passionately celebrates Argentinian Tango, and has appeared on international platforms with its authentic masters. With her ensemble MÁS QUE TANGO, she has created crossover programs which place Tango in a new context - for example the concert readings with the announcer Katja Schild, well-known from the Bayerische Rundfunk and the television broadcaster arte. Iris Lichtinger was a lecturer for chamber music projects in early and new music as part of the Interdisciplinary Forum for Artistic Interpretation at the Leopold Mozart Center of the University of Augsburg from 2009 to 2021. From October 2022, she is an adjunct lecturer for New Music Ensemble at the Department of Music Education and Musicology at the Catholic University of Eichstätt. With FAMA, the Forum Early Music Augsburg, she curates the FUGGER CONCERTS as well as the Festival for Early Music Augsburg. In addition, Iris Lichtinger has been 1st chair of the Augsburg Society for New Music jetzt:musik! since 2018. For the Bavarian METAX MODERN MUSIKFESTIVAL, she is curating two concert formats for the first time for the 2023 season.