Matthias Kranebitter was born 1980 in Vienna, Austria. He studied electro-acoustic composition with Dieter Kaufmann and German Toro-Perez, film and media composition with Klaus-Peter Sattler and piano with Christiane Karajeva at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. He continued his studies with a postgraduate course at the Conservatory van Amsterdam as well as at the University of Graz with Alexander Stankovski and Beat Furrer.
His music is characterized by aspects of our media society, a dense accumulation and mash-up from everyday life’s sounds to a flittering-colourful and hyper-heterogenic sound flood, a comic-like, grotesque distortion of clichéd musical gestures with an ironic ambivalence, aiming for a culture-liberated Art brut in music.
His works received awards such as 1st Prize Gustav Mahler Composition Competition 2006, the 1st Prize Project Young Composers Gaudeamus Music Week Amsterdam 2009 or the Impuls Composition Competition Graz 2013, Publicity Prize of the SKE Austro Mechana 2013 and the Förderungspreis of the City of Vienna 2014. Collaborations with Ensemble such as Nadar Ensemble Belgium, Decoder Ensemble Hamburg, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Phace, RSO Vienna, Ensemble Mosaik Berlin or Talea Ensemble New York.
For 2015 he was awarded a scholarship from the Junge Akademie and invited to Berlin by the Akademie der Künste.
He is founder of the ensemble Black Page Orchestra as well as one of the initiators of UNSAFE+SOUNDS FESTIVAL – antidisciplinary Festival / Media Arts Music in Vienna.

Ulla Pilz studied singing and composition at the MUK ‒ Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna.
She works as a freelance presenter, singer, actress, author, director, music mediator, and host of music programs for Austrian radio Oe1. She played roles at Theater an der Wien, Burgtheater, Wiener Festwochen and many others. As a music mediator and presenter she collaborated with Musikverein Wien and Wiener Konzerthaus, Jeunesse, Brucknerhaus and Bruckner Orchester Linz, Styriarte, Vienna Philharmonic and Wiener Symphoniker, ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tonkünstler Orchester Niederösterreich, Ensemble Kontrapunkte and others.
Ulla Pilz is a Senior Artist at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz.

“The Simply Quartet doesn’t play in front of, but explicitly for their audience, which makes everyone feel spoken to.” …words used by the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” in June 2022, aptly describing one of the Simply Quartet’s many facets which makes them an outstanding quartet. “From Chinese philosophy comes the idea of a great entirety in which opposites depend on and complement each other. Based on this idea, we combine complexity and simplicity. As four different individuals, together we shape the unity of the string quartet, the royal genre of chamber music.”
The Simply Quartet is continuously searching for a deep understanding of the inherent language of music: from the early classical works to modern string quartet literature. They place great emphasis on combining the three contrasting cultures (China, Austria, Norway) upon which they draw their inspiration to develop a musical language of their own; by exploring works from each of their cultures, they deepen their knowledge of different sound worlds.
Originally founded in Shanghai under the auspices of Jensen Horn-Sin Lam, the quartet moved to Vienna to intensively explore the essence and origins of quartet playing – at the Joseph Haydn Institute of the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, the ensemble studies with Johannes Meissl. In addition, the quartet owes valuable experiences and impulses to its years at the European Chamber Music Academy. The quartet captures further influences in Günter Pichler’s class at the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid, where it was a member in 2020 and 2021.
The Simply Quartet has already been awarded four first prizes at renowned chamber music competitions: At the International Carl Nielsen Competition in Copenhagen & the “Quatuor á Bordeaux” in 2019, the “Franz Schubert and the Music of Modernity” in Graz in 2018 and in 2017 at the International Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition in Vienna.
At the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Simply Quartet was part of the Great Talent programme (2020-2022), and in the 2021/2022 season, they were one of the selected ensembles of the ECHO Rising Stars series with debuts at concert halls including BOZAR Brussels, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Palau de la Música Catalana, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg or the Luxembourg & Paris Philharmonies.
Primarius Danfeng Shen plays a violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini from 1753, which is at his disposal thanks to a generous loan from MERITO String Instruments Trust GmbH. Antonia Rankersberger plays a violin by Camillo Camilli from 1736 (Mantua), made available to her by the Austrian National Bank.