In 2013 Time of Music hosted Curious Chamber Players as a young ensemble in residence that resulted in five first performances from young composers during the festival.

In 2015 young composers will have a chance during the festival to collaborate with the Dutch sextet Looptail and Ensemble Nikel from Israel. Both ensembles will also present highlights from their previous ULYSSES residencies in Darmstadt (DE), Utrecht (NL) and Graz (AT). The detailed calls for the workshops have been published in December 2014.

Ensemble Looptail is a contemporary music sextet based in Amsterdam. Its performances are characterized by musical drive and intensity, born from an intimate connection between the 6 musicians without a conductor.

photo © Claudia Hansen

Klaasje Nieuwhof, flute

Anna voor de Wind, clarinet

Rachel Xi Zhang, percussion

Pascal Meyer, piano

Jellantsje de Vries, violin

Sebastiaan van den Bergh, cello

Following young composers have been selected to work with Looptail

and will present their works in a concert on Sunday 5th July at Viitasaari Parish Hall, as follows:

Juan de Dios Magdalenos Gomez (MEX) – Bifurcación Temporal III – for bass clarinet and instrumental projection
Matti Heininen (FI) – Amortizations
Sebastian Androne (RU) – The Dryads

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Ensemble Nikel is a quartet consisting of saxophone, electric guitar, percussion and piano. These instruments, mostly evolving in the 20th century were joined together to form a new chamber music output where electric and acoustic sounds are to be melted into a unified organism bridging between, not only different sources of mechanical waves, but also aesthetic prejudice and dichotomies of musical genres.

photo © Markus Spepperer

Patrick Stadler, saxophone

Yaron Deutsch, e-guitar

Brian Archinal, percussion

Reto Staub, piano

Following composers have been selected to work with Nikel

and will present their works in a concert on Sunday 5th July at Viitasaari Theatre as follows:

Sérgio Rodrigo Lacerda (BR) – Pitfall
Neil Tòmas Smith (1987) (UK) – Scaffold for Simon II
Sebastian Dumitrescu (1989) (FI) – Horizon

Time of Music

Tuesday June 30  – Sunday 5 July 2015

Viitasaari (FI)

Through a call for scores amongst young composers being also present at impuls in February, new works are written for the Ensemble. They will be discussed and worked on at reading-sessions on spot and at least partly also intensively rehearsed and then also performed in concert. Besides some members of Ensemble Nikel will also meet up, interlink and work with other young instrumentalists and composers at impuls and prepare also some more concert presentations.

©Markus Sepperer

Patrick Stadler: saxophone
Yaron Deutsch: e-guitar
Brian Archinal: percussion
Rei Nakamura: piano

+ Alfred Reiter: sound

impuls: 13.-25.2.2015
Location: KUG, 8010 Graz
Concert February 20th, 2015, 20h – MUMUTH, Ligeti-Hall

Concert Program

Composers selected through call:

# Jorge Diego Vázquez Salvagno: Reptiles (2014) – World Premiere

# Facundo Llompart: Toba (2014) – World Premiere

# Oliver Thurley: whose veil remains inscrutable (2014) – World Premiere

Additional program:

# Chaya Czernowin: Sahaf (2008)

# Marco Momi: Almost Nowhere for quartet and electronics (2014)

THe same day, reading sessions will be organised with:

Michele Sanna (10:30 – 13:00)

Djordje Markovic(17:30 – 20:00)

Their commissions were based around the theme of PEACE in commemoration of the 100^th anniversary of the First World War.

Read also our report and watch the video here.

The Italian rerun of the two pieces will bring on stage the children that participate in the workshop “Giocare la Musica”. The concert will be included in the 2015 Rondò season.

The compositions encourage children’s spontaneous sense of expressivity. Brought together through song, theater and improvisation the children experiment with different sounds under the watchful accompaniment of seasoned professional instrumentalists.

The works are written in such a way as not to exclude those children who had not acquired sight-reading skills, using simple, legible elements, understood instinctively by all.

The concerts in Milano (IT) will take place on April 19^th 2015, at Auditorium Gruppo 24 ORE.

Hanne Deneire – Poppy

Karl Naegelen  – Les villes endormies

Divertimento Ensemble and children (performers)
More information here.

In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the First World War Flagey, the Theater De Spiegel, the Philharmonie de Chambre Belge, the Philharmonie de Luxembourg and the HERMESensemble have commissioned new pieces to two young Belgian composers : Karl Naegelen and Hanne Deneire for ensemble and children choir.

80 children aged 11 to 14 and the HERMERSensemble elaborated and performed the pieces, based around the theme of PEACE.

While Karl Naegelen chose to first completely write the score before starting the rehearsals with the children, Hanne Deneire decided to elaborate her piece in direct exchange and cooperation with the children.

The results are two amazing works, allowing the children to experience singing and various musical interactions with a professional ensemble, that they were all very proud to present in the final public concerts

A great occasion for the children to discover contemporary music – as active performers -and giving them the opportunity to live this experience from the inside, in playful but still demanding and almost professional conditions at the same time.

This project and the cooperation with the children choirs has been realized thanks to an initiative and under the guidance of MUS- E Belgium, a bilingual artistic organization and member of the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation.

For more information you can watch a short video below

as well as a short television report (in Netherlands) here.

The concert will be presented again on 22nd April 2015 in Milano (IT), in cooperation with the DIVERTIMENTO ENSEMBLE and with Italian children choirs.

World Premieres

Monday, 26.05.14 / 13:30 (school concert)

Tuesday, 27.05.14 / 19:30

flagey, STUDIO 4

Program :

Hanne Deneire (1980-)  –  Innerlight (XI) for flute and bass clarinet  (2011 – 3’)

Karl Naegelen (1979-)  –  Les Villes endormies (2014 – 20’)

Hanne Deneire  –  Innerlight (IV + XI) for flute and bass clarinet  (2011 – 6’)

Hanne Deneire  –  Poppy  (2014 – 20’)

With children from two schools:

De Mozaïek (Schaerbeek, BE) + Les Jardins d’Élise (Ixelles, BE)

Coordination: MUS-E, Tom Goris

HERMESensemble

Steven Verhaert, director

Mireille Capelle, mezzosopraan / mezzo-soprano

Karin De Fleyt, fluit / flûte

Geert Callaert, piano

Gaetan La Mela, percussie / percussions

Peter Merckx, klarinet / clarinette

Stijn Saveniers, cello / violoncelle

Marc Tooten, altviool / alto

Texts:

Hanne Deneire, Poppy

(Tom Lanoye; after : In Flanders Fields, John McCrae)

In Vlaamse velden klappen rozen open

Tussen witte kruisjes, rij op rij,

Die onze plaats hier merken, wijl in’t zwerk

De leeuweriken fluitend werken, onverhoord

Verstomd door het gebuder op de grond;

Nous sommes les morts,

Nous qui songions la veille encore

À nos parents, à nos amis,

C’est nous qui reposons ici,

Au Champ d’Honneur;

Take up our quarrel with the foe,

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch be yours to hold it high,

If you break faith with us who die.

We shall not sleep.

Karl Naegelen, Les Villes endormies

I. Aux portes de la cité déserte

Les anciens ont déserté la porte

Les jeunes ont cessé leur musique

« Est-ce là la ville qu’on appelait toute belle ? La joie de toute terre ? »

La joie a disparu de notre coeur

Notre danse s’est changée en deuil

« Est-ce là la ville qu’on appelait toute belle? La joie de toute terre ? »

Ilion

Aksoum

Smyrne

Ecbatane

Sinope

Sibaris

Sriwijaya

Cnossos

Ilé Ifé

Suessula

Sparte

Agrigente

Hattusha

Carthago

Véiès

Tikàl

Babylone

Copàn

Comme les dunes s’amoncelant les unes sur les autres

recouvrent les précédentes

III. Interlude / Hommage à Thallis

IV. Danse de la cité

Ami, souviens-toi Scipion pleurant ses ennemis

Ami, saurons-nous briser le cycle de victoires et de revers

Ami, entends-tu la voix des villes endormies ?

Ami, saurons-nous goûter au tendre bonheur d’une paix sans victoire ?

” Ensemble Nikel offers in its mINUS oNE project a 5 day experience allowing young performers to explore and experience the challenges rising from playing contemporary chamber music in a quartet formation. In this case the quartet does not only invite the performer to deal with typical aspects related with musical coordination, unified sonority, mutual phrasing and breathing, score analysis among others but also involve the challenge of fusing electric and acoustic sound sources into a unified organism that rise from the unique quartet formation based on saxophone, electric guitar, percussion, piano and often added electronics.

As being active for some years the quartet has worked through vast new repertoire written for the group by numerous composers and from this repertoire we invite participants to choose from and prepare for the concrete medium we offer in the Ensemble Nikel – mINUS oNE platform. Within this, each day will be invited the class of performers related with one of the ensemble’s instruments, for instance electric guitar students, and then on the given day each of the e-guitar students will sit in with the ensemble to play the part of one or two pieces that were prepared for the occasion. During the student’s session with the ensemble he will be guided both by his direct teacher at the course and obviously by the sitting on the side ensemble relevant performer (in the given example the e-guitar player).
Even more important will be the other three ensemble members who will serve as the student’s guide’s for playing through the piece, learning how to follow and prepare a score part within the context of a chamber group, marking Ques, leading tempos, conducting while playing, develop the consciousness to the resulting global sound and basically aim for touching as much as possible diverse challenges rising from the reality of playing.
The same will be followed through the other days with the rest of the relevant instrumentalists while at the last day, we aim to form an alter group made of students that will be performing or playing through pieces or sections of pieces that were worked on during the first four session days.

Among the repertoire available by the ensemble will be pieces by Chaya Czernowin, Clemens Gadenstaetter, Philippe Hurel, Stefan Prins, Marco Momi, Jose Maria Sanchez Verdu and Michael Wertmueller, all offering rich aesthetic possibilities and variants of challenging musical experiences rising from the stylistic differences existing between the above mentioned composers.
Scores and parts will naturally be available in advance along side with an open line of email communication where the ensemble members will propose answers to prior possible performance questions.”

The instrumental classes, this year tutored by :

Nicolas Hodges (piano)

Tom Pauwels (guitar)

Christian Dierstein (percussion)

Marcus Weiss (saxophone)

will all be part of this cooperation project and present some of their results during a concert on 9th August 2014 :

Nikel mINUS oNE project will be at OSTHANG PROJECT (cooperation partner of IMD – http://www.osthang-project.org) from 5 to 9 August (set up on 4 August). 5, 6, 7 and 8 August will be single days to replace each instrument of the ensemble.

9th August will take the final presentation of the “new” Ensemble Nikel with four new musicians. Ensemble

Nikel has selected 10 Summer Course participants (piano, percussion, saxophone, e-guitar). The program will be:

In the following months, the ensemble will be in residency in other ULYSSES Network partner institutions :  impuls Graz (AT) in February 2015 and  Time of Music in Viitasaari (FI) in Summer 2015 .

Flagey – Studio 4 (Brussels, Belgium)

Daniele Ghisi  Itaca

Rich O’Meara  Restless

Luciano Berio Three Folk Songs

Federico Gardella Quaderno di sabbia

Traditional song Bonjour : « Salama Toup’ko »

Arr. Sarah Goldfarb

Further to its Milanese premiere in 2012 of two compositions by Daniele Ghisi and Federico Gardella, GIOCARE la MUSICA was performed again to great acclaim at Flagey in Brussels (BE) on December 2^nd and 3^rd, 2013.

The works were performed by the ensemble Musiques Nouvelles, under the baton of Jean-Paul Dessy, and a children’s choir, prepared by Gwedoline Spies and Sarah Goldfarb of ReMua.  102 students from the Saint-Henri (Woluwé-Saint-Lambert) and Les Etangs (Ixelles) schools joined forces to take part in this unique project, which celebrates contemporary music and its accessibility to audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

At the heart of the program lie the two works by Italian composers Ghisi and Gardella whose compositions encouraged children’s spontaneous sense of expressivity.  Brought together through song, theater, and improvisation the children experimented with different sounds under the watchful accompaniment of seasoned professional instrumentalists.  The works were written in such a way as not to exclude those children who had not acquired sight-reading skills, using simple, legible elements, understood instinctively by all.

In Gardella’s work the children are given the opportunity to discover an aspect of today’s music by requiring that they interpret the work and as such, by giving them a sense of responsibility over the work. But the overall theme was one centered around sharing the stage, the music, and the experience.  In the words of Gardella: « I asked myself what I hoped the children would take away from this experience: The idea that through sharing we learn to become ourselves. »

Itaca is an anthology of works, which reflects, more or less directly, certain musical works of arts from Ockeghem to Grisey, which have marked Ghisi’s path and training as a composer. Manipulating these works and using them as raw materials as he has in Itaca «were the occasion to ask (him)self what is universal or authentic. Belonging, universality, authenticity are often concepts, which, in the hands of composers, collide in the face of the rigidity of authors’ rights.  In the end, all music is meta-music. »

More information can be found online. 

Photo credit : Isabelle Français

Photo credit : Isabelle Français

The commissions are based around the theme of peace in commemoration of the 100^th anniversary of the First World War.

Under the supervision and guidance of MUS- E Belgium, a bilingual artistic organization and member of the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation, 80 children aged 11 to 14 have been working throughout the year to work on putting together the event.

MUS- E provides a Belgium-based platform for professional artists to express their artistic vision in co-creative projects for the educational, non-formal or lifelong learning sector.

HERMESensemble is an Antwerp-based collective for contemporary music and art whose aim is to perform the classical avant-garde repertoire and consciously cross artistic borders.

Concert dates :

26/05/2014 – 13:30

27/05/2014 – 19:30

More information here. You can find some photos below and watch a short television report (in Netherlands) here.

Another short video about the project can be found here.

The concert will be presented again on 19th April 2015 in Milano (IT), in cooperation with the DIVERTIMENTO ENSEMBLE (also partner of the ULYSSES NETWORK).

The works were performed by the ensemble Musiques Nouvelles, under the baton of Jean-Paul Dessy, and a children’s choir, prepared by Gwedoline Spies and Sarah Goldfarb of ReMua.  102 students from the Saint-Henri (Woluwé-Saint-Lambert) and Les Etangs (Ixelles) schools joined forces to take part in this unique project, which celebrates contemporary music and its accessibility to audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

At the heart of the program lie the two works by Italian composers Ghisi and Gardella whose compositions encouraged children’s spontaneous sense of expressivity.  Brought together through song, theater, and improvisation the children experimented with different sounds under the watchful accompaniment of seasoned professional instrumentalists.  The works were written in such a way as not to exclude those children who had not acquired sight-reading skills, using simple, legible elements, understood instinctively by all.

In Gardella’s work the children are given the opportunity to discover an aspect of today’s music by requiring that they interpret the work and as such, by giving them a sense of responsibility over the work. But the overall theme was one centered around sharing the stage, the music, and the experience.  In the words of Gardella: « I asked myself what I hoped the children would take away from this experience: The idea that through sharing we learn to become ourselves. »

Itaca is an anthology of works, which reflects, more or less directly, certain musical works of arts from Ockeghem to Grisey, which have marked Ghisi’s path and training as a composer. Manipulating these works and using them as raw materials as he has in Itaca «were the occasion to ask (him)self what is universal or authentic. Belonging, universality, authenticity are often concepts, which, in the hands of composers, collide in the face of the rigidity of authors’ rights.  In the end, all music is meta-music. »

GIOCARE LA MUSICA (Brussels, BE)

02/12/2013 – 13:30 & 03/12/2013 – 19:30

Flagey – Studio 4 (Brussels, Belgium)

Daniele Ghisi              Itaca

Rich O’Meara              Restless

Luciano Berio              Three Folk Songs

Federico Gardella       Quaderno di sabbia

Traditional song             Bonjour : « Salama Toup’ko »   (Arr. Sarah Goldfarb)

More information can be found online: http://www.flagey.be/en/program/14155/musiques-nouvelles/milan-giocare-la-musica.

photos © : Isabelle Français

After their residency in Graz (AT) for the impuls acadmy and festival, in Viitasaari (FI) for the festival Time of Music and in Utrecht (NL) for Gaudeamus Muziek Week, the Stockholm based ensemble Courious Chamber Players they will also be part of the 47^th International Summer Course for New Music Darmstadt 2014.

Within the impuls Academy in February 2013 the CCP presented itself for the first time in Austria with compositions by Jorge Diego Vázquez, Eric Skytterholm Egan, Yukiko Watanabe and SukJu Na (all composers selected from an international call).

At Darmstadt the CCP will be one of the featured young international ensembles within the project ENSEMBLE 2014.

During the Internationale Musiktage 2014 they will perform the following program on Wednesday 6th August 2014 at 7.30 pm in the Orangerie in Darmstadt:

Ann Cleare: New Work (WP, Staubach Honoraria 2014)
Malin Bång: New Work (2013)
Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri: Alexandri Operator (2010/2013) (WP of the version for Ensemble)
Hikari Kiyama: New Work (WP 2013)
Simon Løffler: b (2012)
Hanna Hartman: Shadowbox (2011)

Direction : Rei Munakata

The Curious Chamber Players will also give a Reading Session for young composers taking part in the Summer Course.

Always full of curiosity, the Curious Chamber Players have explored a wide spectrum of new music since 2003 – from hard-core modernism to graphic scores, from minimalism to noise music, … with and without electronics, installations and improvisation.
Therefore experimenting is one of the main virtues of this ensemble located in Stockholm, which is co-directed by the composer Malin Bång. Since the very beginning it has worked with many mostly young scandinavian composers and is gladly expanding into new realms of sounds by including daily objects (like balloons or kitchen stuff, self built instruments or beckoning cats …).

During their residencies the ensembles are given the possibility for extensive rehearsals and artistic cooperation, taking advantage also of other offers: meet up with tutors, attend lectures, meet and exchange, interlink and work with different instrumentalists, building up new repertoire… and present the results in public concerts.

In 2014 the selected ensemble is the Looptail Ensemble from Amsterdam (NL). 

http://www.looptail.nl/

In 2014,  Looptail’s residency at Gaudeamus Muziekweek goes as follows:

4-10 September – Gaudeamus Academy: residency period together with 5 candidates for Gaudeamus Prize 2014. All were commissioned by Gaudeamus to write a new work and study them with the ensemble during this week:

Hikari Kiyama, Anna Korsun, Marina Poleukhina, Benjamin Scheuer, Francisco Castillo Trigueros.

10-14 September – Gaudeamus Muziekweek: performances each day and unexpected musical manoeuvres during receptions and intermissions (and in the elevators) in the new TivoliVredenburg concert venue etc., and in 3 formal concerts:

works of these 5 composers mentioned above plus new works by Noriko Koide, Giuliano Bracci, Yu Oda.

Please read more information on the Gaudeamus Muziekweek website.

Benjamin Scheuer is a composer selected also by the Composer Exchange program between impuls (Graz, AT) and Opus XXI (Hamburg, DE) and will be in residency in Graz during impuls festival and academy 2015.