ulrike helmholz:
Ulrike Helmholz, born in 1954, decided pretty early in her life to become an artist. During high school various regional newspapers published articles about her work. After having finished school she went to study free painting and art design at the school B.H. Pulley-Boyes, in Hamburg. Further on she underwent eight years of art education with Prof. Martin Schmid in Tübingen. At the same time, she took classes in Japanese, art history and philosophy. Eight years from then on, she received her education in classical tone and breathing techniques from Japanese singer Yukako Kinoya in Stuttgart. Every possibility to extend her knowledge was taken by her to go overseas for a few months. From 1975 on, various educational journeys led her to Japan, but also to India and Tunesia. She also travelled all over Europe in order to broaden her knowledge of the arts and cultures. Exhibitions brought her art to Japan. From the very beginning on, performances with bands covered music styles such as punk, rock, synthie pop, jazz and finally brought her to improvized noise music. At this point it is important to mention that she was one of the founding members of the avantgarde project "Just Music" in 1983, which was discussed in the art-forum by Prof. Dr. Meinhardt.
Ulrike Helmholz had developed performances, parallely to her exhibitions and musical work in bands, just as she had already done in the formation "Just music", in which influences of music and art were accentuated differently. Various invitations followed by the academy of arts in Stuttgart and Munich. Several video-projects followed.
A major influence of all these years has been her work, as musician and singer, with and for Japanese Butoh dancer Mitsutaka Ishii, a close companion of the founder of that form of dancing, Hijikata. In 2004 several performances were given due to exhibitions about Hijikata, which was initiated by the ifa gallery in the Kulturverein, Stuttgart in cooperation with the ifa gallery of Bonn. Right before the millenium however, she was invited guest singer on Faust’s record-release "Ravivando“, for which a release concert was given in Queen Elisabeth Hall, in London.
Other artists she worked with were Otomo Yoshihide, David Moss, Elliot Sharp, Lauren Newton, Franz Hautzinger, Hilary Jeffery, Pit Schmidt and Ralf Meinz . During the past years she went on to new grounds as theatre musician and composer for theatre music. Having co-founded the socio-cultural centre "Sudhaus", many years ago, she established "Something noise", improvised noise music concerts and events, which went on for 10years. As a consequence that was also the name of her radio feature in the "Freien Radio Wüste Welle", which is planned and commented by her.
For many years now, she’s been giving vocal education in her studio, and Workshops for various institutes.