| 2026

Masha Qrella

CompositionComposition

Masha Qrella © CRorarius

Masha Qrella, born in East Berlin in 1975, is co-founder of the Berlin instrumental bands Mina and Contriva. In 2002, she released her first solo album, Luck. This was followed by six more solo albums, including Speak Low (2009) with reinterpretations of Broadway classics by Löwe and Weill, and Woanders (2021), a cross-genre production exploring texts by Thomas Brasch. In a mixture of indie, electronica, and experimental sounds, guided by her voice, she addresses the questions of our time—with nonchalant understatement and her head thoughtfully tilted slightly to one side—which has always been the trademark of Masha Qrella's pop art. She writes music for film, theater, and radio plays and lives in Berlin with her two children.

During her stay in Los Angeles, Masha Qrella will seek distance from the stories of her own childhood in the GDR, from the myths of growing up in the twilight world of 1990s Berlin, and she will question her own responsibility for the collapse of democratic social systems. What role did music play as an escapist youth culture that ignored its own responsibility for solidarity in favor of freedom and self-realization?

Masha Qrella is Villa Aurora Fellow of Musicboard Berlin.

Selected Works / Performances
2022 | Composition for the Singspiel Etwas Besseres als den Tod finden wir überall at the Staatstheater Kassel (premiere in September)
2019 | Woanders – multimedia production (premiere at HAU-Hebbel am Ufer, radio play in 2021 on Deutschlandfunk Kultur, album in 2021 on Staatsakt)
2007 | Speak Low - Loewe And Weill In Exile - reinterpretations of Broadway classics by Frederik Loewe and Kurt Weill commissioned by the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (premiere at the HdKW, released as an album on Morrmusic in 2009)

Selected Prizes and Awards
2025 | VIA Critics' Award from the independent music industry in the category “Best Act,” Verband unabhängiger Musikunternehmer:innen
2021 | German Record Critics' Award for the album Woanders
2021 | Woanders - Radio Play of the Month from Akademie der Künste, Berlin