Sennheiser 2012 Annual Report Download - page 25

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AUTHORS & ARTISTS
OLIVIER HESS His parents
weren’t particularly pleased
with the Bowie poster hanging
in his childhood room. When
an older neighbor first brought
Olivier’s attention to the an-
drogynous superstar, the son
of German-French parents was
immediately hooked. For our
photographer, it was a particu-
larly festive occasion to make a
solitary pilgrimage through
the sacred halls of the Victoria
and Albert Museum five min-
utes before the opening of the
exhibition “David Bowie is.”
Not that it’s a first for Olivier,
who has lived in London for
more than 20 years. Olivier has
worked as a photographer in
more than 50 countries – from
Japan to Cuba, and from Ice-
land to South Africa. For our
last issue, he boarded a whale
researcher’s ship. That said,
getting so unexpectedly close
to his childhood idol was a very
special experience for Olivier –
despite the fact that his old
posters have long since been
taken down.
ELIZABETH SVOBODA Having
visited ruins in Peru as a teen-
ager, author Elizabeth Svoboda
was curious to learn how
acoustic analysis could illumi-
nate the lives of ancient
Peruvian peoples who left
behind no written records.
Researcher Miriam Kolar – who
has spent years at the Chavín
de Huántar site studying its
former sound landscape –
gave Svoboda a fascinating
firsthand glimpse into a world
where musicians played haunt-
ing melodies on shell trumpets
and priests broadcast mes-
sages to visiting pilgrims
via an elaborate network of
sound-amplifying ducts. In ad-
dition to writing for magazines
like Psychology Today, Salon
and Popular Science, Svoboda
recently completed her first
book, titled “What Makes a
Hero?: The Surprising Science
of Selflessness.”
MARILEE WILLIAMS As a cel-
list, French hornist and lyric
dramatic soprano, Marilee has
been on both sides of the tone
inflation debate. With a bach-
elor’s from the Manhattan
School of Music and two mas-
ter’s degrees from the Univer-
sity of Vienna (Austria),
Marilee has performed such
roles as the Countess in The
Marriage of Figaro at the Bre-
genz Festival House, Hanna
Glawari in The Merry Widow at
the Royal Opera Houses of An-
twerp and Ghent, and the title
role of Ariadne in Italy and
Hamburg. Today a journalist,
she continues to give voice re-
citals. Apart from her own
writing, Marilee also adapts
the German texts written for
this publication into English,
including the 2010 English edi-
tion, which won Grand Prize
for “Best Writing” at the 2012
Mercury Awards.
DONATA WENDERS The artist
of our essay drew photograph-
ic inspiration from people
“whose inner radiance, hopes
and dreams I can see just in a
gesture or attitude.” Thus it
was that she met the violin-
maker Martin Schleske, and
accompanied him as he worked
in the studio, laboratory and
forest. From this emerged the
sensitive and feeling-charged
pictures that were used for the
calendar diary “Klangbilder”
[Sound Images] (Kösel, 2011)
and for Schleske’s “Der Klang.
Vom unerhörten Sinn des
Lebens” [Sound: The Unheard
Meaning of Life] (Kösel, 2010).
Other photos by Donata
Wenders have appeared in
The New York Times, Vogue,
Rolling Stone and many other
periodicals. She has also pub-
lished books together with her
husband, Wim Wenders.
LEILA COBO A Fulbright scholar
and native of Cali, Colombia,
Leila trained as a classical
pianist at the Manhattan
School of Music, but always
dreamt of a career as a pop or
Broadway star. Sadly, she met
Ron Anderson too late to
make a difference to her vocal
chops. Instead, she published
two novels, and is now the ex-
ecutive director of Latin con-
tent and programming for
Billboard Magazine. Although
Leila’s own focus has shifted
away from singing, she covers
just about every Latin pop
singer on the scene, featuring
in-depth interviews with art-
ists like Juanes, Maná, Juan
Luis Guerra and Gloria Estefan.
JAMES DAWE James Dawe, our
illustrator for the story on
pitch inflation, takes in and
transforms elements from the
everyday into something
surreal and fantastical. He is an
artist and commercial illustrator
born and based in London,
working predominantly in
photo-collage and digital
manipulation. The bright open
studio space he shares with
other like-minded creatives
sometimes sees extra-curricular
activities as far-fetched as the
home-brewing of beer. Apart
from that, James strives for a
balance between his editorial
and advertising commissions,
which include the likes of
Nike, Network Rail, Bloomberg
and Der Spiegel, and developing
his own personal works. A
reoccurring theme in this side of
James’ work is the distortion of
portraits, which are re-appro-
priated to form a new and
abstract beauty.
THOUGHTS AND EXPERIENCES OF SOME OF OUR AUTHORS AND ARTISTS
PARTICIPATING IN THIS ANNUAL REPORT