Fostering intercultural collaboration has been an important focus of her work. She currently works with refugees from several areas in the Middle East. Her project SonicExchange during documenta13 in Kassel (2012) featured over 50 artists from nine countries and is documented on the DVD SonicExchange. SonicExchange has continued as a concert series ever since.
CDs featuring her as leader or co-leader are on Nemu, Cadence, CIMP, Hybrid, Konnex, Muse-Eek and Leo Records and Nemu Records. She is part of Hans Tammen’s Third Eye Orchestra, Sarah Weaver’s SLM Orchestra, and various smaller groups with Anna Jonsdottir, Ute Völker, Andrew Drury, Stephanie Griffin, Catherine Sikora, Lou Grassi, Ken Filiano, Andrea Wolper, Christian Ramond, Klaus Kugel, Detlef Landeck, Georg Wolf, et al.
Performances include: Festival Cervantino (Mexico), Juneau Jazz & Classics (Alaska), Guelph Jazz Festival (Canada), Festival for Creative Music in Seattle (US), International Music Meeting in Monterrey (Mexico), Melbourne Women’s International Jazz Festival (Australia), Merkin Hall Interpretations Series (New York), Roulette (New York), et al.
Ursel Schlicht holds a doctorate in musicology from the University of Hamburg, Germany, and has published a book about the working conditions of women jazz musicians, including Marian McPartland, Carline Ray, Joanne Brackeen, Connie Crothers, Geri Allen, Jane Ira Bloom, and Myra Melford (Coda Verlag, Germany).
She lived in Brooklyn for many years as a freelance musician and educator; she designed and taught seminars on Music & Gender and on Improvisation at Ramapo College of New Jersey, has taught Music Appeciation at Rutgers University and Masterpieces of Western Music at Columbia University in New York until 2013. She currently lives in Germany and teaches Improvisation at the University of Kassel.
Her compositions interweave notated and improvised material. Also, she interprets silent film classics Nosferatu, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Faust, and The Adventures of Prince Achmed with an avant-improv approach. As an artist-in-residence at Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center in New York, she created a score for F.W. Murnau’s silent classic film Faust. She is currently working on a solo CD.
