The BREMEN IMMIGRANT ORCHESTER (Bremer StadtImmigranten Orchester - BSIO)
bases its name on the world-famous fairytale by the Brothers Grimm: die Bremer Stadmusikanten. Though the musicians in both cases do mot come from Bremen but actually arrived there. Willy Schwarz, the brains and musical director behind the ensemble has gained some experience with similar projects in Chicago: the All - American Immigrant Orchestra and the Chicago Immigrant
Orchestra.
A project featuring eleven musicians from nine different nations,
raises a lot of musical questions, especially this one: what can any person from one culture
contribute to the repertoire of any other? The concept of the BREMEN IMMIGRANT ORCHESTRA is to maintain traditions on the one hand while simultaneously developing a new musical repertoire on the other. In this respect, the musicians, each
trained in a particular traditional music style, still do not regard
themselves as a ‘folk’ ensemble, nor are they eager to present a fashionable mix of
"global" music (indeed, they dispense with electric instruments for that very
reason). Instead, ambivalence and complexity becomes the guiding principle of their
compositions. Curiosity about music originating from different cultures and the musicians´ ability to make themselves familiar with all kinds of musical styles makes the BREMEN IMMIGRANT ORCHESTRA a very unique ensemble. If music is indeed the international language, then what we have here is a lively roundtable discussion.
Most of the music is composed by the BSIO itself. New stylistic elements have been combined with traditional themes, and new lyrics were written: this technique lets us audience listen to new songs which on the other hand seem quite familiar. So what is so special about the Bremer Stadtimmigranten? The always new combination of the different musical styles: a Chinese musician, for instance, plays a Chilean piece, a Kurd plays an American piece that has its roots in the traditional music of Kashmir, and a Turkish-sounding piece is actually a new composition – combined with German lyrics that would certainly have not been written in the same way in Turkey itself.
In fact, the BREMER STADTIMMIGRANTEN ORCHESTER is a futuristic model of a
multicultural society - the musicians treat each other with unconditional respect, which makes the understanding between the different cultures possible.
"Home Away From Home” was conceived and put together by Willy Schwarz. He was born in Michigan, USA as the son of italian and german refugees. At a time when the concept of global music was yet unacquainted, Schwarz travelled the world from Brooklyn to Bombay and Katmandu to Kabul, researching, studying and playing music in all the musical languages of the world. In doing so, Willy Schwarz gained inestimable knowledge and also became a highly impressive musical all-rounder. He has played with path - breaking personalities like Tom Waits, Ravi Shankar and Steve Martin. The excellent music he wrote for theater won him the Drama Desk Award in New York. His last two CDs - "Home, Songs of Immigrants, Refugees and Exiles" and "Jewish Music around the World" received great acclaim from the international press and are now available from JARO Medien.
The basic idea of the concept was founded by WILLY SCHWARZ, a US musician living in Bremen, Germany, today. The project brings musicians from eight different countries and continents together.
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Abiud Chinello - vocals,guitar, Quatro (Mexico)
Vasile Darnea - violin (Romanien)
Zeki Kara - vocals, Ud, Saz (Turkei)
Lartey Larko- vocals, Ga drums (Ghana)
Sema Mutlu- vocals (Deutsch/Türkisch)
Mohsen Nejadi - Zarb, Doira, Perkussion(Kurd/Iran)
Daniel Bodwell - Bass 
Behzad Rooshanpour - Santur, Setar, Nei(Iran)
Willy Schwarz - vocals, Akkordeon, other instruments.(USA)
Ulli Simon - vocals, Quena, Charango, Samponja, Siku (Chile)
Yun Fei Zheng- Chinese + european flute (China)
