QMA On Stage 2023

For the fourth edition of QMA On Stage we came up with something completely new - we teamed up with Fiakka Studios and hosted a five day music residency. The winning acts each had their own recording studio at their disposal and worked on an insane amount of new tracks. Stay tuned!

While the artists were in the studio with us, we invited a bunch of producers to work with and mentors from labels and booking agencies to share their knowledge with them.

For the end of the residency we hosted a little award ceremony to give away prizes, sponsored by a big variety of different creatives that want to support these artists and contribute to an Austrian music scene that is no longer male-centred and white-dominated. Let’s create it anew!

The winning acts

GATAFIERA

Gatafiera is a brand new latinx duo. They describe their music as a kind of fusion between different musical genres from their Peruvian and Brazilian roots, such as reggaeton, baile funk and merengue. These genres have gained enormous popularity worldwide in the last ten years, but are still mainly represented by cis-hetero and often white artists. There are hardly any queer Latinx artists in Vienna. This is where Gatafiera come into play!
*Photo by Maria Belova*

Chovo

Chovo is a young artist who releases German-language RnB and rap. The content is about partying, crushes, but also about growing up in Austria as a person with an Indian background. She started making her own music for the first time in November 2021, after which she released her first single "Anders" in October 2022. She has already released six songs and opened for Eli Preiss.
*Photo by Maria Belova*

KVSAL

KVSAL’s music is extremely diverse and varied. He wittily comments on his surroundings on beats that are sometimes boom-bap, sometimes soul trap, sometimes Jersey house. KVSAL also samples old pop songs from his family’s Sri Lankan homeland.
*Photo by Maria Belova*

The jury

# ÆNGL (formerly W1ZE)
Her chameleon-like sound earned her a contract with Sony Music Austria in 2019, where as a newcomer at one of Vienna's most popular summer festivals, Popfest 2022, as a headliner at one of Vienna's most popular summer festivals, Popfest 2022, attracting great interest interest internationally. Her debut EP "Down Low" was nominated for Best Sound at the Austrian Amadeus Awards 2022 nominated for Best Sound and in 2023 she was nominated again, this time for the FM4 Award. ÆNGL attaches great importance to her own identity, but at the same time gives herself enough space to be as diverse as possible.

# Christoph Ertl
Christoh is a genre-fluid artist and producer from Vienna. Besides his solo releases Christoh has worked with artists like Anoki, Yeshi, Skofi, Aunty, etc etc 2020 he founded FIAKKA STUDIOS together with Felís. 2021 they founded their Record Label FIAKKA RECORDS.

# Beyza Demirkalp
Beyza Demirkalp is a 25 year old musician, composer and producer, based in Vienna. Growing up surrounded by hip-hop, r&b and oriental music, she started teaching herself the (electric) guitar back in 2011, without ever having taken any music lessons. Over the years she developed her interest in other instruments and now also plays Bass, Keys, Oud and Saz. Since 2019 Beyza’s musical focus has been on the collaboration with Ezgi Atas - as the Duo „Aze“.

The prizes awarded

# Photoshooting with Christoph Liebentritt (Vodoo Jürgens, Nino aus Wien, Aze)
# Single Masterings by Martin Scheer (OSKA, Bilderbuch, Julian Le Play)
# Singing lessons by 5/8erl in Ehr’n
# Cover design by HFA Studio (Lido Sounds, Yakata)
# CONNECT 6 Interfaces from LEWITT
# Condenser Microphone LCT 440 PURE from LEWITT

Invited producers

# Magnus Thomson
# SSOLVE
# Osive
# Vincenz Eder

Invited music industry professionals

# Dominic Beyer (Music Austria)
# Richi Petz (Barracuda Music)
# Markus Blahus (Universal Music, Ashida Park)
# Marc (BABU 104) (808 Factory / 1000 Augen Agency)