Andrea Neumann was born in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1968 and studied classical piano at the Hochschule der Künste, Berlin. She lives and works in Berlin as a musician and composer in the fields of new music and experimental music. Since 2020, Neumann is a professor at the FHNW Academy of Music in Basel.
Both as a soloist and in various ensembles (Les Femmes Savantes, Phosphor, Splitter Orchester), she has been significantly involved in the formation and development of the “Echtzeitmusik” scene in Berlin, which borders on fields as varied as noise, electronica, contemporary composed music, performance and sound art. In 1996 Neumann began developing and playing her own instrumentarium, the so-called “Innenklavier” – a string-covered aluminium frame played by preparations and amplified with the use of a sound mixer and various pick-ups. She is part of the collective LABOR SONOR, which has curated a concert series since 2000 and festivals in Berlin since 2015.
Neumann has held teaching positions in experimental music at the Berlin University of the Arts (2013) and at the University of Potsdam (2014). She was co-editor of “echtzeitmusik berlin. self-defining a scene” (wolke verlag, 2011). Concert and festival performances led her throughout Europe and to the USA, Canada, Argentina, Mexico, Russia, Australia, Taiwan, and Japan. Neumann has received numerous composition commissions, from Deutschlandfunk, Bayerischer Rundfunk, MDR, Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, EMS Stockholm, and Nyy Musikk Oslo, among others. In 2008 she was a fellow at Villa Aurora in Los Angeles and received the Prix Ars Electronica for the video performance “Videobrücke Berlin - Stockholm (5 Punkt 1)” in collaboration with Sabine Ercklentz.
As of January 2023