Band members

Geboren Anfang der 90er in Schönbühel an der Donau wuchs Christian Amstätter in wohlbehüteten Verhältnissen auf. Sozialisiert durch die örtliche Trachtenmusikkapelle sowie acht Jahre Stiftsgymnasium Melk wagte er sich dann irgendwann in die Bundeshauptstadt um an der MUK Wien Posaune zu studieren. Zuerst Jazz, dann Klassik, doch beides bis dato leider noch ohne Abschluss - sehr zum Leidwesen seiner Angehörigen! Aber irgendwie war auch immer so viel anderes zu tun: als Posaunist beim Orchester der Vereinigten Bühnen Wien, als Freelancer in den unterschiedlichsten Ensembles, Bigbands und Orchestern, als Pädagoge in Wien und St. Pölten, als Organisator des European Brass Ensembles oder als Kapellmeister zuhause. Und dann war da noch der Job als Orchestermanager beim Symphonieorchester Vorarlberg. Da hat man doch vollstes Verständnis für seinen langen Leidensweg zu den akademischen Titeln. Nur gut, dass er in den nächsten Jahren mit seiner neuen Liebe Federspiel unterwegs sein wird. Dann hat er wieder eine schöne Ausrede.

Thomas Winalek was almost predestined to become a musician, considering that his parents and actually his entire extended family are full-blooded musicians. This is the reason why basically half of the Zellerndorf marching band consists of the “Winalek-Schneider clan”. At the age of 6, he started playing the soprano recorder and later alto recorder. This constituted the foun-dation of his enthusiasm for wind instruments. While at first, he followed the path of a trumpeter’s career, he quickly fell in love with the lower brass instru-ments and eventually learned to play the alto horn followed by the trombone. The latter he studied at the Vienna music university, he graduated in March 2015. Any kind of music can cause him to turn up the volume of his car stereo on full blast, much to his passengers’ discomfort. Thomas also likes to pick up the tennis racket. But if he is losing a game, the otherwise so positive and pleasant fellow can get quite angry and stubborn. This, however, does not happen with his colleagues from Federspiel where he remains undefeated.

Im zarten Alter von 8 Jahren entlockte Christoph Moschberger einer alten Trompete der heimischen Dorfkapelle die ersten Töne. Schon bald entwickelte er eine rege Neugier für vielerlei Arten von Musik, die er sich bis heute bewahren konnte. Frei von jeglichen Berührungsängsten erlebte Christoph seine Jugend als große musikalische Spielwiese. Kaderschmieden wie das Bundesjazzorchester brachten erste Begegnungen mit späteren Idolen und Mentoren wie Ack van Rooyen oder Andy Haderer. Bei Letzterem begann er schließlich auch sein Jazzstudium in der Musikmetropole Köln. Dort angekommen folgten sogleich die ersten professionellen Engagements: bei der WDR Big Band durfte er viele internationale Größen des Jazz begleiten, bei den heavytones erste TV-Erfahrung sammeln. Musicals, Studioarbeit und erste Tourneen füllten den Kalender und machten Christoph bald zu einem der gefragtesten Trompeter der Kölner Szene. Mit eigenen Projekten wie der Blassportgruppe pflegte er zudem die Gratwanderung zwischen Kunst und Kommerz und bei „Ernst Hutter & den Egerländer Musikanten“ durfte er seine Blasmusikwurzeln voll ausleben. Als Trompeter der TV-Show „Sing meinen Song - das Tauschkonzert“ arbeitete er mit nahezu allen namhaften Künstlern der deutschsprachigen Popszene zusammen. Zudem spielt er in der Band von Gregor Meyle und bei Niedecken’s BAP. Christoph Moschberger ist ein Paradebeispiel angewandter Vielseitigkeit. Er steckt in keiner Schublade und schafft es – ganz selbstverständlich – aus diesem musikalischen Spagat seine eigene künstlerische Identität zu formen ohne dabei jemals beliebig zu wirken. Auf seinem ersten Solo-Album "Home" oder bei seinen regelmäßigen Konzerten als Solist stellt er dies immer wieder eindrucksvoll unter Beweis. Und seit 2022 nun auch bei Federspiel.

In 1987, Philipp bestowed a Christmas present upon his mother that turned out to be non-returnable for life. After a first good look at this strapper, how-ever, the desire to exchange him would have certainly been obsolete anyway – and since then, he has been living ultimately situative. Philip avoids the subjunctive and feeling depressive, is always positive and cuddling-intensive. His classes are not only demonstrative, but above all innovative and sensitive, and he is rarely using the imperative which would mostly be deconstructive instead of stimulative. As an alternative, at concerts – when feeling impulsive – he likes to grab the microphone and get communicative – in ways that are creative and qualitative, not in the slightest naive. If something’s skew-whiff, he does not get aggressive but rather cooperative and contemplative. For some time now, Philip has also been quite active and sportive, driving the daily grind out of its mind. All in all, a true superlative – not only decorative, but in many ways attractive and most definitely not at all fictive.

Roland was born on a cold winter's night in Salzburg. This is probably why he is especially fond of Christmas and winter time. The early riser usually spends his mornings with his tuba playing his solemn, lyrical, cantabile warm-up exercises. Even though his sense of direction could be described as less than perfect, he managed to find his way to the metropolis Munich to obtain his degree for tuba at the University of Music and Performing Arts. He completed his master’s degree at the Anton Bruckner University in Linz.

Simon Zöchbauer not only is a formidable musician, he also is a very playful spirit. And since those two things go together particularly well, the trumpeter who graduated from the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna gets to live out his ludic drive not only on various ping-pong tables, skateboards and frisbees but also in several music projects where he roams quite diverse worlds of sound: With Federspiel, he progressively expands the limits of traditional sound landscapes while with the Ramsch & Rosen quartet together with Julia Lacherstorfer (violin), David Six (piano) and Lukas Kranzelbinder (contrabass), he is working on the experimental commingling of traditional music with improvisation and jazz. And then there is also his solo project – debut album out in 2019! – which shows a whole new facet of his work: With compositions for string quartet that are as subtle as they are profound, he unperturbedly follows his urge to seek self-awareness – which means that next to electronical sounds also sacral music plays an important role. But that’s not all – also aside from making music himself, Simon engages in music-related activities: At the wellenklænge festival in Lunz am See, he – together with Julia Lacherstorfer – is responsible for the artistic program and furthermore created a new workshop for composition, improvisation and sound art; this means he is also dedicated to the training and further education of the performing youth.

Frédéric Alvarado-Dupuy, born in Vienna, is a clarinetist with passion. Despite following master programs for classic clarinet in Vienna and Utrecht/NL, he does not draw a line between Early and New Music, folk music and avantgarde, because anything that is good, anything that he likes – he will simply play. With Federspiel, he does so on the great stages in Austria and abroad, and with his friends often in the next best tavern. And if nothing quite fits the occasion, he also likes to write his own music or teach young ensembles at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna.