Karlheinz Essl & Nava Hemyari

KARANAVA

instant compositions for voice and modular electronics

Nava Hemyari: voice
Karlheinz Essl: electronics

Karanava at Studio kHz

Foto © Karlheinz Essl

Two composers, differing in terms of gender, age, cultural background and instrument, leave their writing desks and venture into the unknown. Despite — or perhaps because of — these differences, they create something genuinely new together: songs composed instantly, without any prior planning, in the moment.

Videos

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Bonus Track

Instant compositions by Nava Hemyari (voice) and Karlheinz Essl (modular electronics). Performed live at Studio kHz, Klosterneuburg on December 18th, 2025. Filmed with an iPhone. No edits, no processing, no overdubs.

Cast

Nava Hemyari (b. 1993 in Tehran) studied composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with Wolfgang Suppan and Karlheinz Essl. Her works have been performed in venues such as Musikverein, Viennese Konzerthaus, ORF RadioKulturhaus, Hofburgkapelle, Minoritenkirche Krems and by ensembles such as PHACE, Company of Music, Black Page Orchestra and Ensemble Platypus. Her works have been played in Musikprotokoll festival and featured in Wien Modern numerous times. She was also the composer in residence of Festival Imago Dei in 2023. In 2022 she received the yearly scholarship of the city of Vienna for her chamber opera ,Taxidermic’. In 2023 the yearly State Grant from the Federal Chancellery of Austria.
As the singer of her own ensembles, Punctum Collective, for contemporary music and LUX BRUMALIS Ensemble for renaissance and early baroque repertoire, she has composed numerous works for voice and choir. Her experience spans both professional and amateur ensembles, and she employs a variety of approaches, including the use of graphic notation for vocal scores.

Karlheinz Essl (b. 1960 in Vienna). Composer, electronic performer and media artist. He studied composition with Friedrich Cerha and musicology in Vienna and received his doctorate on Anton Webern in 1989. Composer in Residence at the Darmstadt Summer Courses, IRCAM in Paris and the Salzburg Festival. Between 2007 and 2025 Professor for Electroacoustic Composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.
In addition to instrumental works and compositions with live electronics, he develops generative composition software, improvisation concepts, sound installations and performances. He has collaborated with artists such as Harald Naegeli ("Sprayer of Zurich") and Jonathan Meese, writers Andreas Okopenko and Erwin Uhrmann, and choreographer Andrea Nagl. As an improviser, he performs with self-developed software instruments and with analog modular electronics.

Updated: 22 Dec 2025