DeutschIncense of Music 76
A multisensory concert – Friday, 16. October 2026, 8 pm
AJ Nilles: viola
Grégoire Simon: viola
Yodfat Miron: viola
Incense: Frankincense from Yemen, White Sage
PANDA Platforma in der Kulturbrauerei, Knaackstr. 97, 10435 Berlin
The “Incense of Music” series combines acoustic experience with olfactory perception. For this concert, two essences will be burned, each opening its own geographical and spiritual spaceThis event is not recommended to people sensitive to smoke.
Under the Voice is a composed improvisation for three violas, in which the instruments are partially muted with a metal damper. This subtle intervention alters each viola’s resonance, enhancing its internal vibrations and selectively filtering the sound spectrum. The result is a palette of timbres that evoke electronic textures. yet remain entirely acoustic. Through this transformation, Under the Voice unveils poetic soundscapes and the fragile presence of unheard voices. Originally conceived as a solo work by Grégoire Simon, the trio version, developed together with Yodfat Miron and Allan Niles through a shared creative process, opens new possibilities in which the strict formal shape allows for spontaneous interactions and unexpected sonic encounters.
AJ Nilles is a violist and producer born in Chicago and based in Berlin. He started playing viola at a very young age and attended the Juilliard School in New York, receiving a Bachelor of Music in 2011. Shortly after he moved to California to join the San Diego Symphony. In 2015 AJ moved to Berlin to join the Berlin Philharmonic as a tutti violist. Since his move to Germany, he started releasing music of his own which he describes as “electro-acoustic Artpop” under the moniker “Ayjay Nils”.
The violist and performance artist Yodfat Miron was born into an Israeli-Yemeni family of musicians. She was a multiple scholarship holder of the America Israel Foundation and played as solo viola in the West Eastern Divan Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim. After completing her instrumental studies in Tel Aviv and Berlin, she founded the Miron-Quartett in 2003. Since 2013 she has been a permanent member of the Berlin settled Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, in the framework of which she was able to develop as a crossover artist between acting and instrumental performance. In 2016 she embodied Joseph Beuys in Tom Patchett’s and Georg Nussbaumer’s play “Jeder Hase ein Künstler. Eine Beuys Fabel”. In 2017 and 2018 she appeared as Theodor W. Adorno in Clara Gervais’s melodrama „Über den Fetischcharakter in der Musik und die Regression des Hörens”. She recently acted and performed in the premiere of Ulrike Ruf’s innovative concert production “Viola Solo”.
Grégoire Simon works between Berlin and Paris as a performer (viola and violin), producer, and composer. After studying violin and viola, he was chosen in 2012 by Pierre Boulez to take the solo viola position in the prestigious Ensemble Intercontemporain (Paris), where he played for four seasons, notably performing as a soloist in Gérard Grisey’s Prologue and Hugues Dufourt’s viola concerto at the Paris Philharmonie / Cité de la Musique. At the same time, he developed an activity as a composer and electronic music producer. As one half of the duos Yes Sœur! and Valmon, respectively with Alexandre Bouvier and Paul Valikoski, Grégoire Simon has produced original music for contemporary dance performances, collaborating with choreographers such as Milla Koistinen, Eric Minh-Cuong Castain (Cie Shonen), and Alessandro Sciarroni. Their works have been performed at venues and festivals including the Biennale de Lyon, Tanz im August Festival, Festival d’Automne, and Radialsystem Berlin. With his hybrid Berlin-based project SUGAR, Grégoire Simon builds bridges between chamber music and pop music, with original creations presented at the Wien Modern Festival and at the Rotersalon of the Volksbühne in Berlin ( part of the Incense of Music series). Since 2020, Grégoire Simon has received various composition commissions, with works performed by Ensemble Flashback (Perpignan), Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, Zafraan Ensemble, and the Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra (Berlin). Grégoire Simon is a member of the Trickster Orchestra and a regular guest of the Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop Berlin.
The frankincense tree, *Boswellia sacra*, grows under extreme conditions in the dry, rocky regions of the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa. Its resin is obtained by making a deliberate incision in the bark. The milky sap that seeps out hardens in the air into glassy, yellowish tears. Yemeni frankincense is considered one of the purest and most aromatic in the world. Its scent is resinous, citrusy-warm, and slightly balsamic. Since antiquity, frankincense has been used as an offering, a medicine, and an incense – it opens the breath, calms the mind, and is seen as a bridge between the earthly and the divine.
White sage is an evergreen perennial shrub in the mint family, native to the dry coastal mountains and desert regions of Southern California and Baja California. Its silvery-white, hairy leaves store water and reflect sunlight – a perfect adaptation to aridity. The plant can grow up to 1.5 meters tall and produces long, white to pale lavender flower spikes that attract bees and hummingbirds. For Indigenous tribes such as the Chumash, Cahuilla, and Tongva, white sage is a sacred plant. When burned, it ritually cleanses spaces, objects, and people. Its scent is herbaceous, camphor-like, and slightly sweet – clarifying, focusing, and grounding.