Mentor
Catharina Boutari
“I’m a creator of worlds”, says Catharina Boutari about her diverse and hectic existence; She is a musician, producer and opera director. She runs her own record label, Pussy Empire Recordings, which only releases music made by women and adds music to theatre productions. She is a critical free spirit with a sparkling creativity; she is a committed creator of art. Born in Austria, Boutari combines these identities with a self-possessed verve, a skill she learned from her Egyptian father and German mother. She found her first band more or less by accident at 14, and realised all she wanted to do was make loud music. Then she focussed on pop music with loud guitars before moving towards producing current international pop that defies the norms of traditional music recording processes and eschews conventions. She became part of the music business in 1998 with her band, Uh Baby Uh before launching a solo career under the Puder moniker where she mainly played material with German lyrics. Her 2014 theatre road movie PuderZucker caused a stir when it was performed at the St Pauli Theatre. The organizers of the Reeperbahn Festival promptly invited her to perform it there. Since 2016 she’s doing collaborations for her albums with musicians at home and abroad to write songs in 10-day sessions, rehearse them with other musicians and record them live in the studio at the end, with guests in the recording room. She calls the whole thing the “Puder Session Tapes”. Full risk, a great experience, lots of energy. 2021 she’s hosting a european special called “Europe’s lost. An artistic takeover” with artists as Jules Maxwell | London (Dead Can Dance), Tiana Kruškić | Braunschweig (Kleopatrol), Ina West | Warsaw, Riad Abdel-Nabi | Amsterdam.
Mentee
Schulamith Pieper
Schulamith is interested in many different aspects of the music industry. It all started off after high school with working at a local music school. It continued with a bachelor degree in cultural studies, focused on event management and music at Leuphana University Lüneburg.
Since living in Hamburg, Schulamith worked for a bunch of different events, including ‘Groove the City’, as an event assistant or for ‘Habitat Festival’ as a project assistant.
In addition to that Schulamith voluntarily organized concerts, parties and festivals, like the ‘Coraci Festival’. Primarily due to that work experience Schulamith realized she wanted to create more music herself and support other artists. The choice was to study Audio Design & Engineering at Deutsche Pop Hamburg, which he pursues since April 2021. Schulamith wants to lay focus on mixing and mastering in the future.
Apart from that, Schulamith is playing the e-guitar in a FLINTA (Post-)Punk Band, started to produce electronical music and deejaying. As part of the local electronic music scene, he works as a member of ‘Awareness Teams’ for more safe and less discriminating events.
Schulamith has a strong feminist vision behind her work and is driven by the wish to be part of a change to a more diverse, sustainable, and less discriminating music industry.