The Authors

The Authors

Janin Janke

Janin was born in Berlin in 1996 and grew up there for the first two decades of her life. When she started primary school, she got to know and love the accordion and quickly became part of the MUSIKA AKKORDIA accordion orchestra under the direction of Susanne Gräming, in which she is still active today. In addition, she has been taking piano lessons in jazz and pop since 2007. It quickly became apparent that Janin is extremely creative, imaginative and artistically gifted.

Janin has been passionate about musical theatre since an early age, and so she is already writing her first musical theatre piece in her teens. With each piece she pens, a story is told, effectively set for different ensembles.

After school, she then began studying musicology at the Humboldt University in Berlin, where she was particularly enthusiastic about the social aspect of music and has been trying to bring people together with music ever since. After graduating, she spends several years at the Berlin University of the Arts, where she takes courses in instrumentation, compositional technique and composition. Her focus is on contemporary music. In 2022 her composition "Traumfetzen" for accordion orchestra was awarded in the Wolfgang-Jacobi-Competition.

Since 2019 she lives together with Björn in Potsdam and writes her own pieces as well as artful arrangements for accordion orchestra.

Björn Kasan

Björn was born in 1997 and grew up in rural Brandenburg. For lack of alternatives, he came into contact with music at an early age. Luckily! Because his interest in the most diverse sounds grew quickly and so he first learned the accordion, later the piano, the guitar and then everything the school band needed at the time.

His main instrument, however, has remained the accordion and so he has been playing continuously in the accordion orchestra MUSIKA AKKORDIA under the direction of Susanne Gräming since around 2007. Here he got to know and love the world of polyphonic accordion music and was also able to make his first steps as an arranger in the context of playing in the orchestra.

Despite his classical training on the accordion, his love for trying out different chord structures and improvising for hours on an instrument of his choice has remained intact to this day. And so in most of his arrangements there is an initially tricky solo passage, which - once mastered - is bursting with joy and energy.

Today, Björn concentrates on his own musical work on the accordion in addition to studying to be a teacher of German and English in Potsdam. Likewise, setting and arranging for accordion orchestras and ensembles has become even more of a focus. He has been giving accordion lessons himself since 2021.

Björn Kasan

Björn was born in 1997 and grew up in rural Brandenburg. For lack of alternatives, he came into contact with music at an early age. Luckily! Because his interest in the most diverse sounds grew quickly and so he first learned the accordion, later the piano, the guitar and then everything the school band needed at the time.

His main instrument, however, has remained the accordion and so he has been playing continuously in the accordion orchestra MUSIKA AKKORDIA under the direction of Susanne Gräming since around 2007. Here he got to know and love the world of polyphonic accordion music and was also able to make his first steps as an arranger in the context of playing in the orchestra.

Trotz der eher klassischen Ausbildung am Akkordeon blieb seine Liebe für das Ausprobieren unterschiedlichster Akkordstrukturen und das stundenlange Improvisieren auf seinem Instrument bis heute erhalten. So findet sich in den meisten seiner Arrangements eine zunächst knifflig erscheinende solistische Passage, die – wenn jedoch erst einmal gemeistert – vor Spielfreude und Energie nur so strotzt.

Today, Björn concentrates on his own musical work on the accordion in addition to studying to be a teacher of German and English in Potsdam. Likewise, setting and arranging for accordion orchestras and ensembles has become even more of a focus. He has been giving accordion lessons himself since 2021.