Vanessa Porter is one of the most versatile percussionists internationally and is in demand for various projects, concert formats and programmes. As a soloist she combines current works with improvisation, electronics and the performing arts and collaborates with renowned composers such as Georges Aperghis, Zeynep Gedizlioglu, Jennifer Walshe or Ben-Amots Ofer. Using voice, body percussion, bells or vibraphone: In her latest programme folie à deux she creates hypnotic soundscapes between soft beauty and eruptive power.
Vanessa Porter is 1st prize winner of the August-Everding Music Competition Munich, the International Percussion Competition Luxembourg, the Music Creative Award Lindau and the PercussiveArt Contest Italy, received the German scholarship and was a scholarship holder of the Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg and the German Music Competition.
In the season 2022/23 Vanessa Porter will present her solo programme folie à deux in the context of the ECHO-Rising Stars series in the most renowned European concert halls: Concertgebouw Amsterdam, NOSPR Katowice, Musikverein Wien, Müpa - Palace of Arts Budapest, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, The Sage Gateshead, LSO St. Luke’s London, Birmingham Symphony Hall, Konzerthaus Dortmund, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, L’Auditori Barcelona, Megaron Athen, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Philharmonie de Paris, Casa da Música Porto and BOZAR Brussels. She will also premiere her new programme DIS:JUNCTION with her sister Jessica and two dancers at the Bodenseefestival 2023.
She is invited to festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik, the IPEW Croatia, Schlossmediale Werdenberg and the Kalima Festival Switzerland. Through her close collaboration with the Goethe-Institut, she regularly travels to the USA and gives workshops and concerts on location. Most recently she was invited to Peru, Colombia, Brazil and Costa Rica on a 4- week South American tour with the Percussion Duo Porter.
Due to her many years of experience in the field of education, she collaborates with various universities and academies, such as the International Summer Academy of Music and held workshops at the Sibelius Academy Helsinki or the University of Birmingham within the framework of the WorldPercussionGroup. From 2017-2018 she taught percussion at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart.
In 2022, she released her solo recordings cycle.sound.colour and folie à deux (Bhakti Records) with Daniel Mudrack on percussion/sound installation.
After studying at the Royal College of Music in London (with David Hockings) and the Musikhochschule in Lübeck (with Johannes Fischer), Vanessa Porter completed her master’s degree at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart (with Marta Klimasara, Klaus Dreher and Jürgen Spitschka) with top marks in summer 2018.
