Katharina Ernst is an austrian-malaysian artist, drummer, composer and performer based in Berlin.
Her work is transgressing the fields of music, fine arts and performance, and she often uses rhythmic complexity to model the conditions and developments of the individual and the collective.
A particular focus on polyrhythmics forms the core of her artistic language.
Katharina started playing the drums at age nine, with an early interest in polyrhythmic, odd and chaotic structures, and studied abstract painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.
She received the START scholarship for Music and the State scholarship for Composition of the Austrian Federal Chancellary, and was supported several times by Deutscher Musikfonds and Österreichischer Musikfonds.
Katharina has been commissioned by the likes of Florentina Holzinger, Christina Kubisch, Michael von zur Mühlen and Kate McIntosh. Her ensemble pieces have been performed by Klangforum Wien and the Black Page Orchestra.
Her performances, compositions and visual art have been presented in the context of Kunsten Festival des Arts/ Brussel, iMAL Festival/ Brussels, A l’Arme Festival/ Berlin, Wiener Festwochen, musikprotokoll, Mattatoio/ Rome, Jazz em Agosto/ Lissabon, HAU Berlin, Deutsches Theater/ Berlin, Maxim Gorki Theater/ Berlin, WUK, Cafe OTO/ London, Wiener Musikverein, Burgtheater/ Vienna, Wiener Konzerthaus, PACT Zollverein/ Essen, ars electronica, Theatre de la Ville/ Paris, Arsenale/ Venice, Museum of Modern Art/ Zagreb, cave12/ Genf, Ruhrtriennale, Wien Modern, TQW, ZKM.
