Nora Thiele is a multi-instrumentalist, artistic director, composer and converter between genres, epochs and cultures. She works in transdisciplinary projects and creates intercultural concert programs. Nora Thiele is one of the most versatile musicians of her generation and gazes with unusual foresight on the musical horizon. Their entire work lives from the awareness of music history and holistic contexts. Rhythm and improvisation are the focus.
Raised in a family of music and theater professionals, she completed her music studies in Leipzig, majoring in ethnic percussion and piano. She is a freelance musician since 2004.
Nora Thiele is considered a pioneer in the frame drum scene and, with her sensitive virtuosity, stands in a tradition lined with Glen Velez and Layne Redmond. Since 1998 she has been involved with historical percussion in European music from the middle ages, renaissance and early baroque. For her projects in the field of global music and jazz, she developed a custom frame drum set which combines tunable natural skin frame drums and cymbals and is a further development of the original drum set. The melodious frame drums are played with hands and brushes.
Nora Thiele is committed to creating a new repertoire for frame drums. She works with Torsten Pfeffer on the Frame Drum Library and publishes playing pieces for frame drums. Contemporary composers such as Klaus Huber and Bernd Franke wrote works with symphony orchestra for her. Nora Thiele composes chamber music and incorporates instruments from different cultures.
With more than 1000 concerts in europe, the middle east and China, Nora Thiele has worked with artists such as Cecilia Bartoli, Ensemble Avantgarde, La Folia Baroque Orchestra, Falk Zenker, Lena Chamamyan, Staatstheater Cottbus, Rubén Dubrovsky, Kat Frankie, Montalbane Festival, Nederlands Kamerorkest, Theater Münster, Theater Odeon Vienna, Anna Prohaska, SWR Symphony Orchestra, Hugo Ticciati (O/Modernt), Glen Velez and yiddish summer weimar.
She draws her vast knowledge of rhythm from decades of studying the music of cultures around the world. She has studied traditions from europe, the middle east, south india, west africa and afro american cultures. Nora Thiele has developed her own rhythm theory. This teaches the highest level of rhythm awareness, improvisational skills, body awareness and stylistic confidence. She passes on her holistic teaching to interdisciplinary music students at the Weimar University of Music, as well as in workshops worldwide and master classes.
In her new solo programme, Nora Thiele combines percussion instruments and piano with loops and electronics and creates music between Keith Jarrett, ethnic grooves, minimal, ambient beats and neo classic.
The transdisciplinary art duo AUREA with the painter Larissa Böhler combines live painting on large-format canvases with improvised real-time music.
In 2021, Nora Thiele founded the Co Co Collective, and performed the minimalistic piece Canto Ostinato by Simeon ten Holt for four pianos. The ensemble is focused on rhythm-based minimalist music between classical, pop and improvisation.
Nora Thiele supports equal rights for women and is member of Music Women Thuringia.
In addition to her work as a musician, Nora Thiele is an artistic director, curator, composer, networker and festival creator and is open to new forward-looking projects.
Download vita eng