divisio spiralis
Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop plays Catherine Lamb
Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop transforms Catherine Lamb’s string quartet cycle divisio spiralis into a spatial sound installation. Three quartets are distributed throughout the space, allowing the audience to move freely between them. Lamb’s precise microtonality unfolds spirally over the course of an hour, weaving through crystalline and pulsating soundscapes and turning the space itself into an instrument.
divisio spiralis explores the relationship between sound, perception, and space—the subtle transitions between tone and silence, light and shadow, presence and transformation. Lamb’s compositions emerge from an intense engagement with microtonal systems and just intonation, where harmonic structures shift slowly, layer upon layer, creating new acoustic phenomena such as difference and combination tones.
Drawing on mathematical and natural-acoustic principles, she develops decelerated sound worlds that unfold continuously and profoundly transform the act of listening. Her music demands patience, presence, and openness, while simultaneously creating an atmosphere of rare poetic density. Lamb’s compositional thinking is rooted in an integral understanding of space, time, and interaction.
For its 20th anniversary in 2026, Kaleidoskop presents new projects that consistently continue its collaborative working approach and reflect the ensemble’s artistic development. They highlight the central lines of practice since the beginning: engagement with music theater, chamber music research, and transdisciplinary collaborations. Together, they form a triptych connecting the ensemble’s roots with its current direction and openness to the future.
Wednesday, May 27
Betonhalle
Doors: 7:30 pm / Start: 8 pm
Tickets available soon
Catherine Lamb divisio spiralis (2019) – for String Quartet
Cast
Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop
Violins
Mia Bodet
Anna Faber
Malin Grass
Mari Sawada
Grégoire Simon
Paul Valikoski
Violas
Ildiko Ludwig
Yodfat Miron
Thomas Nicholson
Cellos
Kornelia Jamborowicz
Isabelle Klemt
Sophie Notte
Composition & Musical Direction
Catherine Lamb
Light
Madison Pomarico
Team Kaleidoskop
Artistic Director: Boram Lie
Artistic Producer: Mari Sawada
Production: Michael Hohendorf
Catherine Lamb
Catherine Lamb, born in 1982 in Olympia (Washington, USA), explores the interaction of tones, the superimposition of their contours, and the perception of transitions and thresholds. In 2003 she left the conservatory to study Hindustani music in Pune. In 2006 she received her BFA from the California Institute of the Arts (Los Angeles), focusing on experimental composition, Extended Just Intonation, and psychoacoustics.
In 2012 she completed her studies at the Milton Avery School of the Arts at Bard College (New York). Since 2013 she has been based in Berlin and has collaborated with ensembles such as Konzert Minimal, Dedalus, Ensemble neoN, London Contemporary Orchestra, and JACK Quartet, as well as with artists including Marc Sabat, Johnny Chang, Brian Eubanks, and Rebecca Lane.
Her awards and fellowships include the Henry Cowell Research Fellowship, the Staubach Fellowship (Darmstadt), the Grants to Artists Award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts (New York), and fellowships at Akademie Schloss Solitude. Her works are released on labels and featured in publications such as NEOS, New World Records, Another Timbre, and Sacred Realism.
Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop
Founded in Berlin in 2006, Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop has been dedicated from the outset to developing new forms of experimental music theatre. With great openness, the ensemble creates new formats in collaboration with international artists from other disciplines, placing music in contemporary contexts.
In recent years, the engagement with the body has increasingly become a focus of the ensemble’s work. The members have evolved from purely instrumentalists into musical performers and co-authors of the ensemble’s collaborative productions. Kaleidoskop understands music theatre as a place of encounter and community, and as a space with the power to imagine other futures.
A production by Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop.
Funded by the LOTTO-Stiftung Berlin.
Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop receives funding for independent groups without their own venue from the Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt Berlin.