Joolaee Trio
Having its origins in the long-term collaboration of the Kamancheh virtuoso Misagh Joolaee with his duo partners Schaghajegh Nosrati (piano) and Sebastian Flaig (percussion) the Joolaee Trio was founded in 2021 and made its acclaimed stage debut at the Rudolstadt festival in the following year. Their celebrated performance led to further engagements at prestigious venues and festivals such as Kleiner Sendesaal Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein-Musikfestival, Jazz Meets World Festival Prague, Radeberger-Konzerte Köln and Heidelberger Frühling.
The musical language of the trio is characterised by rhythmical originality and lyrical narratives, virtuosic runs and whispered silence. Displaying influences of Persian, (classical) European and contemporary music, the Joolaee Trio gives rise to a unique language and sonority in the context of the musical dialogue. The repertoire of the Trio is mostly original/self-composed, but it also contains arrangements of Turkish and Azeri folk songs and works by classical European composers such as Bartók, Ravel and Ligeti.
Individual Biographies
Schaghajegh Nosrati
Highly regarded for the sincerity, depth and virtuosity of her interpretations, German pianist Schaghajegh Nosrati’s international career is marked not only by several prizes at renowned international piano competitions, but also by highly praised performances worldwide. Since her great success at the 2014 International Bach Competition in Leipzig the pianist regularly performs at renowned venues and festivals throughout Europe, in Asia and North America, among them the Berlin Philharmonie, Berlin Konzerthaus, Vancouver Playhouse, Palau de la Musica Barcelona, Gilmore International Piano Festival, Lincoln Center Washington, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Pierre Boulez Hall Berlin, Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, Tonhalle Zurich, 92nd Street Y in New York and Beethovenhaus Bonn.
One highlight of the pianist’s career was in 2018, when she was on tour with Sir András Schiff and the Cappella Andrea Barca to play J.S. Bach’s Concertos for two pianos and orchestra at Vienna Musikverein, Mozarteum Salzburg, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and Lucerne Festival.
Nosrati studied at Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover with Prof. Christopher Oakden and Prof. Ewa Kupiec. She continued her studies with Sir András Schiff at the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin where she meanwhile became the assistent of her former teacher.
Having published six albums between 2014 and 2023, she received the German Record Critics Award for her latest recording with the Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1 by J.S.Bach.
Misagh Joolaee
Born in 1983 in Mashhad and having grown up in the northern Iranian province of Mazandaran, Misagh Joolaee began to play the violin at the age of eight. Within 5 years he accomplished learning of the persian-classical repertoire Radif. In 1996 Misagh won the first prize in violin solo competition at Fajr Music Festival, the most prestigious music festival in Iran, at the age of 13 in the young performer’s category on violin. Furthermore, he studied setar, tar and especially intensively kamancheh with various iranian masters. Then followed by an eductation on piano and violin in European Classical Music.
His musical career is characterized by a great versatility in working with musicians of different countries. In 2009 he founded the ensemble Aavaan, with which he performed his own compositions and won the competition Creole – Global Music in 2010 in Germany.
Misagh was also a lecturer at the World Music Faculty of the University in Hildesheim from 2011 to 2014.
In 2014, he appeared as a kamancheh soloist in the performance of the 5th Symphony of Awet Terterjan with the State Orchestra of Braun-schweig and in 2021 as kamancheh soloist on tour in the Netherlands with Cappella Amsterdam, playing amongst others in Muziekgebouw Amsterdam. In 2022 he has also played as part of the theater-music project Negar in the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
All of Misagh´s Kamancheh CDs, Ferne (2020), Unknown Nearness (2021) and Qanat (2022), received the most respected German Record Critics Award “Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik”.
Sebastian Flaig
Freiburg born Sebastian Flaig studied ethnical percussion and jazz drumset and composition at the University for Music in Leipzig.
In order to deepen his knowledge about oriental percussion he lived in Istanbul for one year and studied with different masters such as the Darabuka virtuoso Misirli Ahmet.
His stylistic spectrum covers a wide range from oriental music to Jazz up to early music and is expressed in different ensembles and in collaboration with different artists such as the Taner Akyol Trio, Maya Youssef, Ensemble Resonanz, Mysteries of Bulgarian voices and others.
In 2017 the CD “Syrian dreams” by Maya Youssef was awarded the German Record Critics’ Award as well as his Duo-CDs "From Afar" (2019) and "Qanat" (2022) with Misagh Joolaee.
Sebastian Flaig is engaged in composing music for theatre, broadcast and documentaries.