Ernst Reijseger & Mario Forte

The French-Italian violinist Mario Forte, who was born in Algeria and now lives in New York, and the Dutch cellist Ernst Reijseger form an exceptionally exciting duo. Forte studied with the French jazz violinist Didier Lockwood, among others, and teaches as a professor at the University of Lausanne, where he founded his orchestral project “String Lab Ensembl”. In 2015, Forte co-founded the Artempo Festival as artistic director, composer and performer. Reijseger has released more than 50 albums to date, including with major Dutch and international jazz avant-gardists such as Misha Mengelberg, Han Bennink and Steve Lacy, as well as with classical performers such as Yo Yo Ma, Giovanni Sollima and the Dutch Wind Ensemble. As a composer, he has written film music for Werner Herzog and Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, directed by Sam Gold. On their joint album “Fata Morgana”, they experiment with acoustic-traditional sounds and electronic alienation, jazz, baroque music, minimal music, improvisation and conception.