and that has been presented also in Milano (IT) in February 2014

and in Paris (FR) in July 2014,

is performed again in Brussels (BE) at Flagey on 10th January 2016

at 20h15.

At 19h30 you can attend for free a pre-performance talk by Waldo Geuns.

You can watch a TRAILER as well as INTERVIEWS with the involved composers and Peter Eötvös online.

Out At S.E.A. (Someone Eats All)
at the ‘Very alive composers – Rethinking opera’ festival

Sławomir Mrożek’s absurd one-act play titled Out at Sea inspired the idea to provide an opportunity for young composers to jointly create an opera that unites and addresses the predominant phenomena of the modern age (like alienation, abuse of power, conformity and boundaries of freedom) in one grotesque situation, where the problem of the part and the whole is reflected in the opportunities offered by form and technique.

Photo © Balint Hrotko

Version I : Out at S.E.A. 123

Composers: Máté Balogh, Diana Soh, Christian Flury

Version II : Out at S.E.A. 456

Composers: Koka Nikoladze, Samu Gryllus, Mariana Ungureanu

+++

The joint work Out at S.E.A., managed by Péter Eötvös, Luca Francesconi, Balázs Horváth and András Almási-Tóth, is a collective work bearing the musical signature of each composer.

“Three people, abandoned, on no-man’s land, on the open sea, in the world of the media. The participants of a reality show, their situation is that of modern man, lonely in community; depending on each other, they would devour each other; they are selfish and without emotions, acting for show, as if someone was always watching them and evaluating their performance. Three protagonists, three different worlds… the topic of… Mrożek’s one-act Out at S.E.A. appears in a totally new context: within the well-known claustrophobic, yet public framework of reality shows, in the form of an opera. In addition, the story can be seen twice, the two identical, yet different variations reflect on one another, leaving the feeling of eternity, repeatability, and substitutability in the audience. The three protagonists think they are exceptional characters, yet they are only mass products on the metaphysical media market: tomorrow others will come and the same will happen to them…”
András Almási-Tóth

Featuring:

Maurice Lenhard, baritone – Thin
Szilvia Vörös, mezzo-soprano – Medium
Tivadar Kiss, tenor – Fat
Peter Bársony, alto
Horia Dumitrache, clarinet
Ditta Rohmann, cello
Lin Liao, conductor

Photos: Dora Papp

Miguel Farías from Chili and Artur Akshelyan from Armenia have written the musics which will be performed along with the mute film, the first taking up the “civil” scenes, the second the military scenes.

The musics written by the two composers interchange during the whole film.

After the performance at Flagey in Brussels (BE), the Italian Premiere of the film-concert is performed at Teatro Litta, Milan on 21st March 2016, with following schedule:

20h30 – Pre-concert talk with Roberto Andreoni

21h00 –  Film screening with live music

© DR

Maudite soit la guerre

by Alfred Machin with musics by Miguel Farías (1983) and Artur Akshelyan (1984)

Divertimento Ensemble

Tito Ceccherini, conductor

The commission is  premiered in Brussels at Flagey

on 23rd February 2016, in Studio 1 at 20h30

by the Belgian ensemble MUSIQUES NOUVELLES, featuring the following line up:

violin, viola, cello, percussion, piano, flute, and clarinet.

Jean-Paul Dessy leads the ensemble.

Film duration: 50 minutes

Photos © Câline Yamakawa

Screened for the first time in June 1914, shortly before the First World War, MAUDITE SOIR LA GUERRE is a Belgian movie directed by Alfred Machin, featuring Suzanne Berni, Baert, Albert Hendrickx, Fernand Crommelynck, Nadia D’Angely, Zizi Festerat, Gilberte Legrand, Willy Maury, Henri Goidsen, Cécile May, Blanche Montel, Albert Dieudonné, and Germaine Lecuyer.

One of the first anti-war films of our time, it has since been restored to 35 mm print and beautifully hand colored with Pathé stencil inks.

The plot of the film, which at no point clearly identifies the countries involved but strongly suggests Belgian/France against Germany, revolves around two protagonists, Adolph and Sigismond. Adolph, a young aviator in the making befriends Sigismond and ultimately becomes romantically involved with the latter’s sister Lidia. War breaks and our two heroes find themselves in battle, on opposing sides of the conflict. Both perish and the film comes to a close with a scene whereby Lidia learns of the death of Adolph.

MAUDITE SOIT LA GUERRE is a social commentary on the hardships of war and its effect of the relationships between men, women, family structures, etc. and on the futility of the loss of youth and humanity.

Another performance of the film-concert is scheduled in Milan (IT), by Divertimento Ensemble on 21st March 2016.

After the world premieres of the “Franco Donatoni” International Meeting for Young Composers ‘Music + Dance’ in Milano (IT) in May 2014, in cooperation with Divertimento Ensemble and the dancers from the AiEP dance company 

and the first rerun of the performance in Viitasaari (FI) at the occasion of the Time of Music Festival 2015, on 5th July 2014,

the three pieces by the selected composers :

Maurizio Azzan (Torino, Italy) – Umano(dis)umano (with electronics)
Huck Hodge (Seattle, USA) – Apophenia
Daniela Terranova (Udine, Italy) – Lying down on the horizon

will also be presented to the audience in Budapest (HU) at the Budapest Music Center

on Tuesday 21st October 2014

at 19.30 in the BMC Concert Hall.

Further information here.

Georg Nussbaumer

photo @ Karin Haas

„Composition beyond Music” was offered for the first time in 2013 at impuls and back then was directed by Peter Ablinger and located at Kulturzentrum bei den Minoriten in the context of the imprinting cloister surroundings. The workshop was accompagnied by video- and soundartist Christine Schörkhuber (check out her videos about previous “Composition beyond Music” here).

You can now watch the video documentation about the project here!
Video  ©  Christine Schörkhuber

After this fist edition in Graz (AT), the workshop has also taken place in several ULYSSES partner institutions, always under direction of Peter Ablinger :

# Time of Music (FI)

# IMD (DE)

# Gaudeamus Muziekweek (NL)

In 2015, due to an accident and a longer period of recuperation coming along with it Peter Ablinger had to cancel his participation at impuls.

We are very happy to announce that Georg Nussbaumer will direct the workshop in its 2015 edition at impuls Academy and Festival, Graz (AT).

Also, a new location, the medien kunst labor esc, will offer a new working and presentation setting including not only a new spacial but also contextual situation, which again will allow different artistic focal points. esc is positioned in the very centre of Graz and at three sides is opening up to the city through its frontlines made out of glass. With this specific architectural feature the esc herefore encourage – after the seclusion and solitude of the cloister back in 2013 – to open up, explore and include the city with its sounds, architecture, population and social, geopolitical … conditionalities in the new works to be developed during the workshop. Actually, the mission statement of the esc could serve as additional source of inspiration and as starting point (esc: “the central endeavor of the esc is the production of art; a central focus hereby lies on the exact observation and seismographic understanding of artistic processes, which capture socio-political developments (information and biotechnology, socioeconomic systems …) and new technologies (hard- und software).

Georg Nussbaumer

Christine Schörkhuber (video documentation)

Winfrid Ritsch (consultation)

impuls: 13.-25.2.2015
Location: esc Bürgergasse 5, 8010 Graz
Presentations: 22.2.2015: First Presentations of works / open until 24.2.2015
Public Lectures by Peter Ablinger (tbc)

Participants:

Benjamin Bacon

Cindy Giron

Vitalija Glovackyte

Carlos Hernández

Feliz Anne Macahis

Kenn Mouritzen

Goni Peles

Daniel Portelli

Benjamin Ryser

Charles Underriner

“Composition beyond Music” was developed by Peter Ablinger and impuls and by no means excludes “music”, but above all it is an opportunity to reflect on presentation forms for acoustic works, for sound compositions that go beyond the classic concert setup.
2015 led by Georg Nussbaumer, the workshop will carry on to focus on the development and investigation of formats such as site-specific compositions and installations, the presentation of sounds, sound production as a social pattern, the essentials of sound and music, music without sounds, technology and research into source material, the body in music, field recordings, sound and other media, perception and reality – these are just some of the potential themes to be explored, elaborated, and presented by the participants in their own works in this workshop  that combines theory and practice. Direction and focus of the workshop will ultimately be determined by the individual concepts and ideas of the participants and also depend on and respond to the venue and its possibilities.
The workshop is meant to encourage the critical analysis of musical preconditions and practices so that the participants will be inspired to discover alternative forms of sounds and listening through the aesthetic examination of such practices  looking through the history of music and music-making down to the archaic ground of human beeing and its artistic transformation, the eyes (and ears) not only on the sound and its effects but also on the means and meanings of their generation.
Consequently, the workshop is not only open to composers, sound artists and musicians but also to participants from other disciplines, provided that they are interested in making reference to or integrating sound into their work.

Biography George Nussbaumer

Georg Nussbaumer
was born in 1964 in Linz, Austria, lives in Vienna.
He frequently works with musical instruments expanded into installations, regularly
employing diverse organic and inorganic materials as well as machines, video or living
animals. The scores to what are usually full-length works define a process that is
manifested in a plastic event, acoustically and visually, and that is sometimes also tactile
or olfactory.
Nussbaumer realised projects including orpheusarchipel (Bielefeld Opera House, 2002);
Märchen vom Lied vom Wald, (Museum Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin 2002); Von der Wiege bis zum Graab (Donaueschinger Musiktage 2003); schlachten:szenen (Wien Modern 2005); Schwerefeld mit Luftabdrücken (Steirischer Herbst, Graz 2006), Tristan —
Schwimmen und Schweigen (Nationaltheater Mannheim 2006), Die schönsten Gipfel der
Alpen (Maerzmusik Berlin 2007), Lawine, Wald und Stubenmusi (Bregenzer Festspiele
2009), Walküren, Wölfe, Waldvöglein (Akademie der Künste Berlin 2010), Zwitscheresche, Trinklied und Verdichtungsflügel (KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen/Hannover 2011).
Recently realised works for public space have been expansive spatially and in temporal
terms, for instance Organopolis (three evenings for seven church organs broadcast in a
park, Vilnius 2009), Barkarola (for six evesdropping grand pianos wandering through Łódź for a week in 2009) and the 4-day passage opera stretched over 32 kilometres Invisible
Siegfrieds Marching Sunset Boulevard (Ring Festival Los Angeles 2010). For the
steirischer herbst 2014 he realised a piece for seven amateur choirs: Ein weststeirischer
Wasserfall.
In collaboration with Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop: the 3-day string quartet installation
Salon Q (Donaueschinger Musiktage 2010), Ringpolytop mit Rabenparabel (Projekt XI,
Berlin 2010), Die Jaffa Orangen des Richard W. — ein israelisches Rheingold (radialsytem
Berlin 2011, Opera Dagen Rotterdam 2012). Milchstrom, Fragebett, Gralsmaschinen —
ein Lohengrin-Gelände (Kunstfest Weimar 2013), Ringlandschaft mit Bierstrom — ein
Wagner Areal (sophiensaele Berlin 2013, Donaueschinger Musiktage 2013, operadhoy
Madrid 2014).

© Karin Haas

© Daniel Rothman

This project by no means excludes “music”, but above all is an opportunity to reflect on presentation forms for acoustic works, for sound compositions that go beyond the classic concert setup. This is a course for young artists representing different disciplines, who work together in creating installations or performances at different locations in public spaces.

Field recordings, site-specific compositions and installations, the presentation of sounds, sound production as a social pattern, the essentials of sound and music, music without sounds, technology and research into source material, the body in music, archaeoacoustics, sound and other media, perception and reality – these are just some of the potential themes to be explored, elaborated, and presented by the participants in their own works in this workshop series that combines theory and practice. The direction and focus of each workshop is ultimately be determined by the individual concepts and ideas of the participants and also depends on the available venues, galleries, and performance possibilities.

In preparation of the final workshop in August 2014 organized during the the 47th International Summer Course for New Music,  Peter Ablinger met selected young artists from 23rd to 25th April in Darmstadt and from 8th to 10th May in Utrecht to train them and guide them in the process of making site specific works.

At this occasion, they had the possibility to visit different places in the cities of Darmstadt and Utrecht to prepare their future site-specific works.

Work session in Darmstadt (April 2014), workshop participants – Credits : Elena Rykova

Work session in Darmstadt (April 2014), a young artist with Peter Ablinger – Credits : Elena Rykova

Work session in Utrecht, at the Botanic Gardens (May 2014) – Credits : Henk Heuvelmans

Work session in Utrecht, at the Botanic Gardens (May 2014) – Credits : Henk Heuvelmans

More photos of these two works sessions are on our Facebook page!

Next and final step for this project is planned in August 2014 during the 47th International Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt (DE) with a workshop on new works using sound, in situ. It will lead to public presentations, installations and performances.

Find more information about the project here.

the three selected composers, together with Divertimento Ensemble and the dancers from the AiEP dance company will perform the pieces again in Viitasaari (FI) at the occasion of the Time of Music Festival 2015, on 5th July 2014, 14h (Viitasaari Areena).

Concert Sýnchronos

Maurizio Azzan (Torino, Italy) – Umano(dis)umano
Huck Hodge (Seattle, USA) – Apophenia
Daniela Terranova (Udine, Italy) – Lying down on the horizon

Sandeep Bhagwati (guest composer Time of Music 2014) – Jaali 

Divertimento Ensemble
Sandro Gorli, conductor

Ariella Vidach, choreography
Chiara Ameglio and Stefano Roveda, dance
Stafano Pirandello, lights

http://www.musiikinaika.org/en/program/

The meeting and the preparation to the workshop will allow the participants not only to attend all the conferences and concerts that are organized during the spring meeting but also to receive an introduction to the upcoming summer workshop by Peter Ablinger.

This meeting will also give the participants the occasion to visit different places in the city of Darmstadt and surroundings, to prepare their future site-specific works.

Following young artists have been selected to take part in the workshop:
Robert Blatt
Victoria Cheah
Aaron Einbond
Neele Hülcker
Jörg Köppl
Ingrid Lee
Sergej Maingardt
Alessandro Perini
Elena Rykova
Juan Sorrentino
Sven Sosnitski
Berglind Maria Tomasdottir
Dan Tramte

Chamber Music with electronic and dance

Composition Competition

Third Edition, 2013- 2014

© Ariella Vidach

Following the call for applications and selection procedure in 2013,

the three selected composers, commissioned to create a chamber composition for ensemble, dance and live electronics (of up to two dancers and seven musicians), are :

Maurizio Azzan (Torino, Italy) – Umano(dis)umano (with electronics)
Huck Hodge (Seattle, USA) – Apophenia
Daniela Terranova (Udine, Italy) – Lying down on the horizon

During their composing activity from February 2013 until now the three composers have been cooperating with AiEP Dance Company, which will be on stage with Divertimento Ensemble for the performance of the new pieces.

The three original works, each ca. 20min long, will be premiered as part of the Rondò 2014 season during the third edition of the “Franco  Donatoni” International Meeting for Young Composers .

Date of Premieres is the 5th May 2014, at Teatro Franco Parenti.

Dancers: Chiara Ameglio and Stefano Roveda

Choreographer: Ariella Vidach

Divertimento Ensemble conducted by Sandro Gorli (flute, clarinet, oboe, violin, viola, cell, percussion, pianoforte)

You can find some photos from the performances below

and a video here.

The three works will be performed later in the year 2014

at Time of Music, Finland in the beginning of July,

and at the Budapest Music Center, Hungary in autumn.

photos ©  T-Sound service

A project in cooperation with:
Regione Lombardia IT
Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali IT
AiEP dance company, Milano IT
Rondò concert season, Milano, IT

The opera is performed in Paris (FR) on 9th July 2014.

You can watch a TRAILER as well as INTERVIEWS with the involved composers and Peter Eötvös online.

Version I : Out at S.E.A. 123

Composers: Máté Balogh, Diana Soh, Christian Flury

Version II : Out at S.E.A. 456
Composers: Koka Nikoladze, Samu Gryllus, Mariana Ungureanu

Performers:
FAT – Zoltán Megyesi
MEDIUM – Szilvia Vörös
THIN – Maurice Lenhard
VIOLA – Péter Bársony
CELLO – Ditta Rohmann
CLARINET – Horia Dumitrache
DIRECTION: Hsiao-Lin Liao

Short description of the project:

Sławomir Mrożek’s absurd one-act play titled ‘Out at Sea’ inspired the idea to provide an opportunity for young composers to jointly create an opera that unites and addresses the predominant phenomena of the modern age (like alienation, abuse of power, conformity and boundaries of freedom) in one grotesque situation. The participants will meet the exceptional and complex challenge of how the part-whole relations, playing a significant role regarding the sujet, can also be expressed in the possibilities of form and technique.

The chamber opera has to be composed for three singers and four instruments. Without any kind of alteration in the libretto, each character will be created by different composers according to the agreements made during the workshop.

After approximately one month of individual work and ongoing consultation with Balázs Horváth assistant professor, the composition parts need to be submitted by May 31st, 2013. After review of these materials the professors select six composers to finish their compositions by 31th August, 2013 the latest.

Subsequently, the professors compile two versions of the opera from the roles/vocals and instrumental parts written by the composers.

As part of the second, production phase, guest conductor Hsiao-Lin Liao, the musicians and singers will rehearse in consultation with the professors during a workshop from the 9th to 19th December in order to create and introduce the opera under the guidance of Peter Eötvös.

The composers will not only be assisted in their professional development by renowned professors during the workshops, but are given the opportunity for the selected compositions to be published by Editio Musica Budapest and the premiere will also be recorded.

More information here.

More performances are to be confirmed for 2015 in Belgium and in Latvia.