NICO AND THE NAVIGATORS were founded in 1998 by Nicola Hümpel & Oliver Proske at the Bauhaus Dessau. From 1999 - 2006 they developed their projects at the Sophiensæle in Berlin. The ensemble's powerful visual language caused an international stir.
With projects revolving around Schubert, Händel, Bach, Rossini, Mahler and contemporary music, they are one of the most important music theatre ensembles in Europe. The productions have toured the world with over 350 guest performances to date, appearing at renowned stage and opera houses as well as at festivals, including the Wiener Festwochen, the Münchener Biennale, the Paris Opéra Comique, the Philharmonie Berlin, the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Bregenzer Festspiele, the Niedersächsische Musiktage, the Händel-Festspiele Halle, the Korean UIMT Festival, the Kunstfest Weimar, the Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele, the Stuttgart Opera, the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, the Opéra de Rouen, Kampnagel Hamburg, the Münchener Biennale, the Residenztheater München and the Grand Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg.
In 2011, NICO AND THE NAVIGATORS were awarded the "George Tabori Prize" as an outstanding free ensemble, and in 2016 Nicola Hümpel received the "Konrad Wolf Prize" from the Akademie der Künste. In 2021, their ARTE music film "Force & Freedom - Beethoven zwischen Zwang und Freiheit" is nominated for the "Opus Klassik". NICO AND THE NAVIGATORS have been working systematically with digital technologies for years, adapting them to the concrete needs of the respective production and repeatedly pushing them beyond found boundaries. Then in 2019, 26 augmented reality (AR) glasses were used in an artistic context for the first time as part of the digital lighthouse project „Verrat der Bilder“ ("Betrayal of Images“).
Yui Kawaguchi, who has significantly shaped the profile of NICO AND THE NAVIGATORS as a dancer for 15 years, is also active as a dancer and choreographer outside the company. In addition to collaborations with various choreographers/directors, she also develops her own pieces such as multimedia dance performances "MatchAtria" or "andropolaroid1.1" and has presented at numerous international dance festivals in Asia, Europe and the USA. During the Corona crisis she produced two VR performance videos "Bist Du Noch Bei Mir?" and "SHIROKAGE", which are published on the VR platform ENGAGE. Current projects include "MUGEN", "SUITE CUBIC" and "Somewhere, Everywhere, Nowhere".
Photo: Oliver Proske