Birgit Ulher

Birgit Ulher (born in Nuremberg in 1961) is a German composer-performer and sound artist based in Hamburg since 1982. Having studied painting and fine arts, she developed an approach to experimental music in which the physical materials of sound and the relationship between sound and silence are central. Her principal instrument is the trumpet, whose familiar character she transforms through extended techniques and unconventional preparations.

Ulher uses metal foil, everyday objects and radio sound, often producing textures that resemble electronic music through acoustic means. Since 2006 she has worked with radio-fed loudspeakers used as trumpet mutes, turning the instrument into both a source and a receiver of sound. Microtonality, fragmentation, resonance and spatial perception inform her solo works, improvisations and installations.

Her practice encompasses concerts, sound installations, collaborations with musicians and artists from other disciplines, and workshops internationally. From 1993 to 2001 she organised the Real Time Music Meeting in Hamburg and was a co-founder of the city's Verband für Aktuelle Musik. Creative Sources has documented her work across numerous collaborations, from tidszon (CS014) and kunststoff (CS017) to blinzeln (CS155) and Radio Tweet (CS335).