Julia Biłat
Cellist, Improviser, Composer
Her sense of improvisation is powered by lightening quick thinking, humour and musical wisdom.
Greg Cohen
3 minutes Artistic portrait. Sound on
Julia Biłat is a Berlin-based, classically trained cellist, improviser, and composer. She is dedicated to her exploratory, genre-bending practice at the intersection of improvisation, composition, and performance art.
As a cellist, she participates in various classical, jazz, improvisation and performance projects such as Stegreif.Orchestra, Camila Nebbia's The Hanged One or Fabiana Striffler's Archiotic Quintet.
Commissioned by Stegreif.Orchestra, she has composed and co-directed several productions (most recently, #bechange Hildegard von Bingen, 2022/2023).
In recent years, Julia Biłat has focused on a solo format, in which she combines performance art with large-scale solo cello improvisations, creating coherent structures where the body and voice - along with spatial awareness - play an important role.
With her solo project she has performed in Germany, Poland and Italy; at the Butohpolis Festival in Warsaw, at the Free Solo Impro Festival in Acker Stadt Palast, Berlin and at the Into The Open Festival in Kuehlhaus, Berlin among others.
Discography
- Julia Biłat, Drzewo, 2021
Collaborations
- Leon Parker, The Leo, 2021
- Fabiana Striffler, Archiotic, 2021
- One Earth Orchestra, Journey 2021
- Daniel Schwarzwald, Began Muksam, 2020
- Daniel Schwarzwald, Microcosmos, 2019
- Cello & Piano Duo with Daniel Schwarzwald,
Biwald, First Meeting, 2017
Video
Concerts
28.01.2025
Transfigured, Solo Cello Performance,
Into the Open Festival, Kuehlhaus, Berlin 19h
22.2.2025
Solo Tour Italy:
INTERMITTENZE 45² III edizione,
Tinni Tinni Arts Club, Catania, Sicily,
23.2.2025
Solo Tour Italy:
Curva Minore, Contemporary sounds
Cantieri Culturali Alla Zisa, Sala Perriera, Palermo, Sicily,
29/30.3.2025
Past Concerts
(selection)
01.12.2024
W/Fabiana Striffler, Archiotic @ Franz Melhose, Erfurt, 20:15h
30.11.2024
W/Fabiana Striffler, Archiotic @Sowieso Berlin, 20:30h
22.11.2024
W/Almudena Vernhes, Performance "Polymorphic Body" Unfinished Fridays#112 @LAKE STUDIOS Dance Residency, Berlin, 19:30h
14.11.2024
w/Almudena Vernhes, Performance 'Intimacies and Monstrosities of Care', 90Mil Berlin, 20h
19/26.10.2024
w/Naked String Quartet
Classical String Quartet Residency
@Kit Kat Club, 20h Berlin
24.10.2024
w/Camila Nebbia's The Hanged One
Leipziger Jazz Tage, 20h Leipzig
1.10.2024
w/Stegreif.Orchester and Noam Sivan #Freesolo @Kronberg Festival
28/29.09.2024
w/Stegreif.Orchester and Noam Sivan
#Freesolo Premiere @ Into the Open Festival, Dephi Theater Berlin
12/14.09.2024
w/Naama Tsabar "Estuaries", Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin
4.09.2024
Cello Solo Performance
Berlin Solo Impro Festival
@Acker Stadt Palast, Berlin
12.06.2024
08.06.2024
w/Bertram Burkert, Florian Kästner
@ Ev.-Luth. Kirchgemeinde Apolda, 20h
18.05.2024
w/Nick Dunston, Julius Windisch, Jeremy Viner @ Sowieso, Berlin 20:30h
13.5.2024
/w Stegreif.Orchester @ClassicalNEXT Festival, Pierre Boulez Saal, Berlin 19h
https://classicalnext.com/event/stegreif-the-improvising-symphony-orchestra/
28.04.2024
Solo Performance,
Butohpolis Festival, 18h
Warsaw, Poland
https://www.facebook.com/events/311414405278440/?ref=newsfeed
20.04.2024
12 & 13.04.2024
w/ Naama Tsabar, Exhibition Opening, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin 19 & 20h
8.03.2024
w/ Stegreif String Quartet
@Nobel Prize Museum, Stockholm, Sweden
https://nobelprizemuseum.se/en/opening-night-of-the-new-exhibition-these-things-changed-the-world/
27.01.2024
Stegreif.Chamber & Ion Ludwig
Into the Open Festival
Kuehlhaus, Berlin
20.12.2023
Fabiana Striffler Quartet
@Zig Zag Jazz Club
https://www.zigzag-jazzclub.berlin/program-mai/fabianastrifflerdec
02.11.2023
26.09.2023
Cello Solo Performance &
Gabriele Glang (spoken word)
20h @Raetsche Geislingen an der Steige
https://raetsche.com/programm/gabriele-glang-und-julia-bilat/
18.09.2023
STEGREIF.Orchester
SOC, 20h @ Berlin Philharmonie, Kammermusiksaal
https://www.berlinerfestspiele.de/musikfest-berlin/programm/2023/kalender/stegreif-the-improvising-symphony-orchestra
08.09.2023
Stegreif.Orchester
Premiere: Symphony of Change
19.30h @ Beethovenfest Bonn
https://www.beethovenfest.de/de/programm-tickets/changesymphony/150
12.08.2023
Stegreif.Orchester @Detect Classic Festival
Improphonie
https://detectclassicfestival.de/en/lineup-2023/stegreif-orchester/
10.08.2023
24.06.2023
Fabiana Striffler Quintett
@Erfurt Jazz Club https://www.jazzclub-erfurt.de/?b=1000077&c=ED1000173
23.06.2023
Improphonie Stegreif.Orchester
Saelchen, Holzmarkt 25 Berlin
05.06.2023
02.06.2023
Goat Sessions with David Fernandez @PAF Berlin
https://www.performingarts-festival.de/en/program/goat-sessions-5
29.04.2023
Mascha Juno Album Release Concert @ Podium Festival Esslingen https://www.podium-esslingen.de/artists/julia-bilat/
17.03.2023
Stegreif Chamber with Ana Prvacki @ Radialsystem, Berlin https://www.digitalinberlin.de/forecast-festival-7-radialsystem/
01.03.2023
16.11.2022
Fabiana Striffler Quintett Rejazz Festival
A-trane Jazz Club, Berlin
11.11.2022
Duo & Maria Reich
@ L'ecritoire Salon Berlin
16.10.2022
@ Gabriele Glang Vernissage@ Kulturmühle Rechberghausen
24.09.2022
Stegreif Orchester, Improphonie Frankfurt, Palmengarten
23.09.2022
Stegreif.Orchester
Recomposition of Hildegard von Bingen by Julia Biłat, Alte Oper Frankfurt
28.08.2022
Goat sessions #3
Theater Performance w/ David Fernandez &Almudena Vernhes @ Hosek Contemporary Berlin
15.07.2022
Premiere of Hildegard von Bingen Recomposed by Julia Bilat
#bechange by Stegreif Orchester, Kissinger Sommer, Bad Kissingen
© Julia Biłat - Photography: Daniel Wetzel, Odelia Toder, Dieter Duevelmeyer, Beethovenfest Bonn(for Stegreif.Orchester)